From Seoul to Bangalore

Disclaimer: All the points mentioned in this article are based on my perception. There may be as many points as I have written here that are wrong according to other people.


It was a great return trip for me from Seoul as I had a three day break in Thailand. I could witness the culture of three Asian countries in less than a week. I was very happy to start back from Seoul after a eight week long wonder full and experience full life at Seoul. Packing everything that I need including lot of memories, I started from Seoul at 06:30 on July 15, 2008 and reached Bangalore at 23:40 on July 18, 2008. Sharing some of my observation here...

In Seoul, I could feel that the people have high trust on other people. They are very kind and helpful to everybody and they are very friendly with everyone. As I move towards Thai and then to India, the people trust decreases. I could hardly see a foreigner in Korea. But in Thai one could meet people from almost every country.

In Seoul even if I have bundles of currency notes in my pocket and walk in the crowded or lonely road at any time of the day or night, I need not worry about the money. Apart from me misplacing them, there is no threat of someone stealing them. But as i move to thai and then to blore, the situation changes and I need to pay more attention to my belongings to safeguard them.

I feel that communication is one of the important things in life. The Korean people use their local Korean language for their all means of communication. That allows them to express better, but only to fellow Korean people. Though most of them can read and write English, they hardly speak or understand the English speech. One has to talk slowly and include body languages to communicate with them. Thailand being a tourism place, everyone is able to talk and understand at least the minimum basics in English. Indians speak many languages :)

Work culture – I feel Koreans are one of the most hard working people around the globe. The software engineers whom I have interacted with works for almost 14 hrs a day, 5 days a week. But they really don’t have any passion towards the work. They hate to work, still manage to work (or act like working) long hours. Hence they might not be productive. Most of the Thailand people’s job depends on the tourism. They do an excellent job in that. Indians are diversified in work culture too.

The electricity supply in all these 3 countries is 220v, but there is a little difference in the typical plug point pin used. In Korea, it is 2 point round pin with no pin for Earth. In thai, it is 2 or 3 point flat pin. And in India, it is 2 or 3 point round pin. Luckily I got the pin converters for my laptop charger in the hotel itself.

Food - Excellant need for people, without which life would be very boring. Korean's eat spicy food contradictory to what I had thought before going there. Also they take well cooked food, except for few dishes at few occasions. As both men and women go to work, there needs to be many restaurants and there are lot. Thai food is good, usually with lot of coconut. I didnot eat a Thai dish in Thailand, but I have tasted home made Thai dish while I was in America. The Indian dishes especially the veggie stuffs are famous all over the world. One of the Korean told me that he has become vegetarian after tasting delicious Indian veggie dishes.

From this article you can understand (or just take my words) that I miss lot of stuffs from Korea, but I really love to be in India.