We’re all visitors somewhere

If you’ve ever seen Korean tourists looking a bit disoriented in Saipan, rest assured it’s a two way street. I’ve been wandering around Seoul for the past couple of hours, lost, but I finally found my way to a cyber-cafe where the coffee is strong, and the music amplified so loud you can probably here it in Marpi on a quiet evening.

Not that you’d WANT to hear it. Korean pop/rap sounds like a rhythmic washing machine full of nuts and bolts. I’m convinced they’ve been playing the same one song for 72 hours now, straight. It’s omnipresent, totally unescapable. It blares streetside. In bars. In restaurants.In stores. In cyber-cafes.

Seoul, though, for a city is a pretty good place. The contrasts with Saipan are too numerous to list–why even bother–but from a visitors perspective, being from a tourism destination, why not highlight a few things?

Thing number one: The service here is efficient and polite. Even in the cheapest eateries, you’re greeted with a friendly hello, sent away with a friendly good bye, and the leaden, sullen experience we’ve all had in Saipan is conspicuously absent.

I’m certainly a burden of a customer, with a Korean vocabulary of three entire words. Coffee I can order. Anything else requires a ten minute verbal tango and gesture fest. Still, they seem courteous, and the process seems easier than trying to order something in Saipan from a resentful, clay-footed, gum-chewing staffer.

“Cheapest eateries,” by the way, is no idle term. An ok dinner can be had for about four dollars. That’s not “fast food,” either.

On to thing number two: This city is full of STUFF. Food, merchandise, coffee houses, restaurants, etc. It’s overwhelming. I remember a politician in Saipan bemoaning all the “rinky dink” businesses on our fair island. He’d really hate Seoul. This place is fairly built on rinky dink establishments. And why not? The entrepreneurial spirit is what builds economies.

Thing number three (transportation): Taxi cab rides are dirt cheap. You can go a few miles for a dollar. Good thing, too, since I tried to brave the subway and found it to be a confusing maze of turnstyles, gates, ticket dispensing machines, ticket taking machines, and, most of all, unrelenting waves of human bodies. I can’t figure out how to ride the subway, which is a pretty pathetic state of affairs, I’ll admit.

I planted my nose in a local paper to see how Saipan is represented. Discount agents are listing Saipan round trip tickets for $541 for a package tour (four days), but the name of the hotel isn’t specified. Bangkok (five days) is listed for $458. Korea’s semi-tropical island of Cheju lists for $191 for two days.

In terms of raw air fare–not package tours–Guam is quoted at $283, presumably round trip. I don’t see any quotes for Saipan, but that price is a lot better than the $488 or so we’re getting stuck for to hit Korea round trip out of Saipan.

And such are my notes from this place of rinky dink businesses, friendly service, and our second most important market for tourism. Give Saipan’s visitors a smile. After all, when you’re off-island, you’re a visitor, too.