First Trip To Seoul
This last Saturday we took a bus up to Seoul (about a three hour ride) to see Matthew,* and do a little electronics shopping (we weren't actually in the market for anything ourselves, but we thought we'd go ahead and tag along). Seoul is massive, teaming, and spreads over everything; about half of South Korea's 49-million inhabitants call Seoul their home, making it the second most populated metropolitan area in the world behind Tokyo (and equal to Tokyo in density--my previous home of Cairo, I'm pleased to say, is the most densely populated of the world's largest city areas).
The area of Seoul we visited, called Yongsan, is very famous for having... well, everything in the world there is to buy. To my understanding it is in fact the largest electronics market on planet earth (and sells everything else as well). About half way through the shopping we decided to ditch the rest of the party (American friends of Matthew's from his province of Chungbuk) and see Quantum of Solace with Matthew at a fancy cinema to celebrate the fact that the movie came to Korea before the US (which still won't see it for a couple more days).We then almost missed our bus back to Gunsan despite having over an hour to make it to the station.
In short we had a fun time, and learned how to navigate the city: on our next trip we plan to see more of the actual sites, and do some shopping for ourselves (we did buy an incredibly cool splattering pig, though, which you can check out in the video).
*Matthew, if you don't know, is my former college roommate of four years, and very good friend, who got us into this whole wonderful mess: he discovered Korea's need for English teachers first, and we proceeded to follow him over here (and are very glad we did). I would direct you to his blog, but he has stubornly taken it down for the moment.
Marisa Says: I am pleased to note that it doesn't get any denser than Hong Kong. Also it is the best James Bond movie I've ever seen (and I'm not just saying that because the story focuses on Bolivia).
Sorry Marisa
Sorry Marisa, but according to Wikipedia Cairo has almost twice the population density of Hong Kong (though Hong Kong is nevertheless more dense than either Tokyo or Seoul).
Hyperspeed!
Your bus seems to have gone an awful lot faster than mine, and I could have sworn that the movie was longer... whatever, great video!
I laughed very hard at watching myself get stuck in the Seoul subway ticket gates (and at the whole final montage), but my pride compells me to mention that I am capable of using a subway pass---I just had a bum card that didn't work most of the time.
Good times! We also had a delicious Mexican lunch (which in Korea you can only get in Seoul).
I Don't Believe It
I do not believe that Cairo is more dense than Hong Kong. Hong Kong has 7 million people living on PART of an island.
Believe what you want Marisa,
Believe what you want Marisa, but God knows the truth.
And yes, thanks for mentioning the broken subway cards and the Mexican lunch (which was amazingly good considering that it seemed to be owned and run by all-Koreans.
The video was a bit longer (and, if you remember, included a magnificent squid scene); but alas, YouTube only accepts 10 minutes or shorter (and I figure most people probably don't want to watch longer than that anyway).
Poor neglected squid
I shall miss them, they were quite fantastic and squidy.
PS:
Apparently Karachi is denser than Cairo...
Quantum of Solace was here first!
Well, one thing I learned from this post was that Quantum of Solace was apparently in Amman before either Seoul or the U.S. We didn't see it right when it opened, but we did (also) see it on Saturday night (3rd day in Amman). We enjoyed it, too, but they seem to have cut some small bits from the film, e.g., the explanation of what Quantum of Solace means (was that in the version you saw?). It's hard to know when they cut something, as you don't see it...
Thanks for these great posts. Your life there sounds so interesting. We must visit (in sha'allah).
Jordan, are you teaching adults, too? Are you having as much fun as Marisa?
And I agree that Cairo is definitely more dense than Hong Kong, though the pictures I've seen of people at the beach in Hong Kong look like you couldn't get much denser.
-Baba
P.S. Mommy read your stuff first and tried to post, but something didn't work, so I got here first. :-)
random questions on Seoul
Watching your video, I had some random questions (I couldn't hear the sound well, so pardon me if these were answered in the video itself):
1. how much does the bus to Seoul cost?
2. how long did it take?
3. what would have happened if you missed the bus back (were there other ones later)?
4. were the metro signs all in Korean only? if so, how did you find your way around?
5. what did you eat during the day (did you go to McDonald's for Marisa)?
6. did you eat squid, or just look at them?
7. were there other non-Koreans in Seoul, i.e., did you guys blend in, or did you still stick out? did people laugh when they saw you?
8. how easy is/was it to get around with English in Seoul?
Keep the culture coming,
Baba
Squid
I think we should post the squid video by itself. It can join the Monster Crabs, maybe the best video ever.
Some random answers
@Doug's questions:
HK's Density
Hong Kong is super-dense, but alas it is not first on the list.
According to Wikipedia (which seems to be the trusted source for the density argument...) I found that Cairo comes after Hong Kong on the population density on every page that I looked at. Here are three different measurements of population...all with HK listed before Cairo...
check it out below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_population
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_density
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_areas_by_population
Let me know where the information is to prove otherwise...
P.S. For you, Marisa. :)
Cairo's Density
Sorry Erica, but you seem to be looking at total population, rather than density. HK is indeed more populace than Cairo (though many people regard the Cairo census to be sadly inacurate due to the number of homeless people who are not counted; I've heard estimates as high as 20 million for Cairo's "actual" population), but as far as density is concerned, Cairo is the undesputed winner, with a density of 9,031 people per square km, where HK has 5,179, and that despite the fact that HK's census almost certainly accounts for more of its actual population than Cairo's does.
Regarding Karachi
@Matthew:
Yes, when I said that Cairo was the densest of the world's largest cities, I conveniently considered that list to be the most populace 19 cities . Although, considering the number of homeless people who are not counted in the Cairo census, it is conceivable that it is actually denser than Karachi (though I'm sure there are uncounted homeless there as well).
Regardless...
Regardless of what anyone says, or references they use, I refuse to believe that Cairo is more dense than Hong Kong for the simple fact that Hong Kong is on an island and has limited space to expand into (hence it has some of the most expensive real estate in the world). Cairo, on the other hand, is in the desert, with infinite space to expand into. Therefore, I must conclude, that Hong Kong is more dense.