In January 2012 I got a chance to visit South Korea. It was a business trip of 2 weeks. This was first time that I was visiting east Asian country and I was excited about the visit. I googled about it tried to collect as much information as possible. The first challenge I perceived was language barrier. English is not very popular language in S.Korea. Second challenge was food! I was worried whether I would be able to place order and if yes what will be served in plate :) By the way I am limited non-vegetarian, meaning I eat chicken, sea food and lamb meat.
Leaving aside these two issues I was pretty looking forward to take first hand experience of this visit. During this trip I managed to get a Sunday all for myself and explored the country. I stayed at Daegu, one of the big city of S.Korea. My colleagues there helped me to find a bus tour run by the tourism department. And I would highly recommend these state run tours to anyone who want to check out the popular spots in budgeted time. I must say that people here are very hospitable and cordial. I was genuinely impressed by their nature.
In case you do not speak Korean or you do not have friends who could help you by acting as translator for you, then it is difficult to engage in any meaningful conversation with locals. But I am told that in Seoul most people can converse in English. I got to know that government is making lot of efforts to teach English to people. Considering that it is now the language of global commerce. Teachers are recruited from English speaking nations for Korean schools.
In Daegu some restaurants have pasted the pictures of their dishes on their walls. So it becomes easy to order by pointing at the dish. If you are faced with situation where you have to order from menu-card then your best bet would be Bi-bim-bab. It is a rice dish served with 5-6 side dishes consisting of various vegetables and/or fishes (Bab means rice). It increases the chance of getting the food of your liking. This was one of my favourite dishes.
On Sunday I took the Mt. Palgongsan Tour course [http://english.daegu.go.kr] and decided to visit Donghwasa and Palgongsan. It takes about 45 minutes of bus ride and 10-15 minutes walk to reach Donghwasa temple. The temple is located at a very beautiful place, surrounded by mountains.. very peaceful place indeed! And there stands a huge majestic statue of Buddha.
On the way to this temple I came across a small waterfall which was frozen.
Next stop was Palgongsan barely 5 minutes from Donghwasa temple. There one must try the cable car trip to the top. The view from top is amazing.
There is a very good restaurant on top of this mountain. It is nice to savour your food seating by the window and at the same time enjoying the view!
In case you ever plan to visit this amazing country, let me spell out some facts. This is one of the developed nation and their currency is called Korean Won (KRW). The current exchange rate is about 1100 KRW = 1 USD. (One Metro ticket costs 1200 KRW, A burger at Lotteria which is Korean equivalent of MacDonald would cost about 5000 KRW). Electronics, Shipping, Automobiles are some of the major contributors to S.Korean economy. Samsung, LG, Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors are some of the well known brands from S.Korea. Better time to visit would be April-May and September-October.
I must say that it was overall an amazing experience and I would certainly re-visit South Korea in future. Have you visited S.Korea or any other Asian country? How was your experience? And is there any dream nation you want to visit.. I would like to hear from you!
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