Geek Paradise - Yongsan Electronics Mart (Seoul's Best # 94)

This is the place that will make a true geek drool. It's the largest electronics market in Asia with over 7,000 shops housed in 20 buildings. I got lost wandering the 10 floors of one of the buildings, and all the choices were way too much for a guy that has been living for over three years in a small South Pacific Island nation where choices are limited to either the supplier that sells what you need, a friend making a brief trip to Australia, or doing without.

I have made the trip twice to Seoul to window shop there, and once I figure out what they have I will be doing some shopping. The surprising part is that the prices there are way cheap! I say this without knowing if that statement is true because I have been living abroad for over three and a half years, but so far the choices are plentiful and the prices seem reasonable enough compared to both Vanuatu and America. The funny thing was even here I had vendors ask me where I was from and on discovering that I am an American they wanted to know if the prices were cheap. To answer this question I had to give my standard answer of, "Sorry, it's hard to say because I have been living abroad too long and am not sure, but they do appear to be cheaper. They are definitely cheaper than in the South Pacific, where I lived for the last three and a half years."

Wherever I travel in the world there is the perception that prices are cheaper in America. I have been asked if aspirin, milk, electronics, iPods, and Big Macs are cheaper in America vs Korea. The difference between here and Vanuatu is that here they just want to know for the sake of knowing, in Vanuatu it is a reality that everyone including the expatriates know is true and seeks to sneak away to a larger country to go on a shopping spree and indulge themselves on things that cannot be found in the Pacific.