Walking Seoul at 3:00 in the Morning
Hello there. It is a Friday morning. Early Friday morning here in Seoul. It's almost 20 till 3:00. A.M.
And I have come out for a walk and I'm bringing you along with me. Yesterday, November 21st, a Thursday was the first anniversary of this YouTube channel. I uploaded my first video here on November 21st, 2023. And I wanted to do something a little different as a minor celebration. So a few months ago in my second Q&A video, I answered a question about how safe Korea is and if I ever feel, you know, any danger, if I ever feel threatened or unsafe living here. And one of the things I said in that video was that I feel safe walking around the city of Seoul at 3 o'clock in the morning.
I would never do that back home. And I think I said I'd-- I even feel safe walking around at 3:00 a.m. drunk. Now let's get it straight right off the bat, I'm not drunk right now.
But I did feel like this would be a great way to celebrate my first anniversary on this channel. To bring you out and show you what I mean when I say I feel safe walking the streets of Seoul at 3:00 a.m. by myself. Since I've been out, I've passed several other people who apparently feel safe walking along by themselves.
As I came out of my house and I was walking down the street to the main street, I passed a couple of young men on their way home, presumably. And that is not unusual. I don't come out at, you know, 2:30 or 3"00 a.m. very often. But when I do, I do see people, you know, coming home.
Stragglers. And out here on the sidewalk on the main street, I've passed a few people working. I've passed... older people, younger people walking along. Street cleaner. There are several people in this restaurant bar thing up here. There was even a young girl, young woman, late teens, early 20s, from what I could tell, in her pajamas squatting down outside of a building, talking on a phone.
So, yeah, there are people all over the place at this time of morning. All through the night, actually. I... often walk my dogs late, not this late, but, you know, 11 :00 p.m., midnight. Sometimes 1:00 a.m. Especially in the summertime because it's cooler.
And I like to do it because the chances that we're gonna to see other dogs are much lower. One of my dogs, in particular, just loves to meet other dogs. And any time he sees another dog, he's got to go say hello.
and hang around and play longer than I want him to. So if we pass three, four, five dogs when we're out on a walk, it really extends the time that we're out there. So I like to go out when the odds of running into other dogs are less. And... Wow, this is new.
I've never seen this before. That used to be a Gimbap Heaven place, Gimbap Cheongkuk. I don't know how long it's been there. I've walked by here a few times recently, but I just didn't notice it. Amazing what you'll notice when the streets are empty.
Now some of these restaurants and places out here are still open. There's Saemaeul Sikdang right there. The 'New Village Restaurant'. And there's a Noraebang up here, Singing room. Karaoke room. So these days you can find places that are open all night, all across the city.
And not just in the areas that are known for their nightlife. Like for example, Itaewon. Itaewon goes all night.
Yeah, it's just full of bars and clubs and restaurants that stay open all night. Hongdae. Outside Hongik University. The area there. Shinchon over by Yonsei University. Gangnam Station over across the river. There are plenty of areas in the city where there are numerous businesses that stay open all night.
But outside of those areas, just in random neighborhoods, you'll still find places that stay open. And there will be people who use them. So my brother-in-law, he operates a hot dog shop now--well, as a bar. I've mentioned this before. We opened it as a hot dog shop years ago and now it's completely his. And it's a bar.
And he will stay open basically until the last customer leaves. Some nights he's open till 2:00 a.m. Some nights he's open till 5:00 a.m. So Seoul is definitely a city that never sleeps. And, you know, I've got somebody coming up-- Look at this. This restaurant is open. And I've got somebody walking up the street toward me.
Over here. There are people, three people walking over there. One couple. And somebody by himself over there. Oh, Christmas decorations out at this church. Already. Pretty cool.
The place is extremely well lit. There are lights everywhere. And of course, we've got CCTV all over the place. So I'm never gonna tell anybody...
you know, I'm never--there's another place that's open. A few people sitting in there drinking. I'm never gonna tell anybody or guarantee anybody that you're 100% safe walking around at 3:00 a.m. by yourself.
I'm never gonna say that. But the point I'm trying to get across is that I feel safe enough that I have no problem doing this. And my wife has no problem with me doing this. As I was getting ready to leave, she woke up, and... She was worried about me, but not about my safety. She was worried that I wasn't dressed warmly enough.
Which I am. It's only five degrees out here. Alright, so far, we've been walking along the main street here. Now I'm going to cut down some back streets. And we will find that it's just as bright and pretty much just as safe.
In fact, there's a group of young people walking up the street over here. They were just sitting here in the park. A little cold to be doing that right now, but there they are. I'm not gonna tell you that it's all rainbows and unicorns, right? I will caution you that any time you're out by yourself, you should always be cautious, yeah? I'm not gonna be walking into areas where a lot of people are drinking at this time of the morning because that's... those are the areas where if anything's going to happen, it's probably going to happen.
Because you know, when you mix many different people and alcohol, who knows what's going to happen? The US soldiers used to have a reputation of getting drunk and rowdy and sometimes aggressive and violent when they were drunk. But I've been around the block enough to know that that it's not just US soldiers who do that. If you are a woman, unfortunately, then you are going to carry a higher level of risk than somebody like me. That is one aspect of society that sadly is true around the world. And especially when alcohol is in the picture.
So I do see women sometimes walking by themselves alone on these back alleyways like this. These back streets. In fact, I just passed one earlier. But many women will choose not to come down streets like this.
I know my wife wouldn't be caught out here walking down streets like this if she had a choice about it. So I would say that my biggest concern at this time of night is alcohol, and primarily in two forms. One in the form of drunk people walking down the street. Any late night incidents that I've witnessed or been part of have pretty much all involved drunk people. Now, it's been a very long time since that last happened, but...
you know, it's always a possibility. And the other form would be drunk drivers. because unfortunately, you know, like anywhere else in the world, people get drunk and think they're okay, and their friends don't stop them because their friends are probably drunk too.
And they get out in their cars and they drive. And just in general, this late at night, you will see people driving recklessly because the streets are emptier. They have more room to do it-- Loog at this place. Bag shop.
Bag shop. Looks like. Oh, not just bags, They've got wallets, clothes. "Areryu Leather" "Leather goods workshop. Order made." Why don't we go ahead and head down this alley here? Why not? I just looked at my phone and it is 4:37. I believe it was 2:37 when I first showed you the time earlier. So yeah, been walking two hours and...
and the weather is cool, not too cold. I have my gloves in my backpack 'cause my wife insisted but I haven't needed them. Yeah, so I'm feeling pretty good about this walk. Got a lot of steps in, which means I won't have to do it later today.
And I can spend the day editing this video and getting some work done. I do want to stress again that by taking you out here along the streets of Seoul in the wee hours, I'm not trying to persuade you or convince you that you should be wandering around the city at this time of night. Don't take it that way. If you do come out here at 3:00 a.m. you're doing so at your own risk.
I'm not telling you to do that. My point in showing you all of this was just to give you a better sense of what I mean when I say I feel safe enough to walk around the city at 3:00 a.m. Drunk even. I've taken you along main streets, down back streets, down alleyways, showed you the city center, commercial district, residential areas. In none of those areas did I feel in any way unsafe or in danger.
That's me. And I've been living here for almost 34 years now--well... Well, in Seoul, 31 years. Almost 32 years. I'm comfortable here. I know the streets. I know the people.
I know that I feel safer walking around today than I did 30 years ago at 3:00 a.m. And I felt pretty safe then, right? So... This is something I have no problem doing.
And when people tell you that Seoul is not a dangerous city compared to other cities--remember it's relative, right? When people tell you Seoul is not a dangerous city, they're not telling you that bad things don't happen here. But they're telling you relative to other places they've been, it's safer. And I would never do what I did tonight in my hometown, in Atlanta. I would never do that. I probably wouldn't be around London at 3:00 a.m. either. I'm not so familiar with it.
I don't know the city like a local. You know, actually, I feel like--oh! Oh, I thought that was a statue for a second. Look at this. Can you see him?
I really thought that was a fake bird. He was so still. Hope I didn't startle him. Or her. Yeah, actually, the city is lovely at night, but wow, walking along Cheonggye Stream here is just--it's phenomenal. I've been along here at night many times before, but... it just feels a little different right now.
Anyway, I am going to make my way home and get on with my day. So thanks for coming along with me on this walk through Seoul in the wee hours of a Friday morning. Maybe I will take you around another part of the city in the wee hours on another day.
We'll see. We'll see. Thanks for watching. Thanks for liking. Thanks for subscribing. And I'll see you next time. Bye-bye.
[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I hope you enjoyed coming with me today on this just easy, light, fun little jaunt. [Music]
2024-11-29 10:18
