On January 6, 2009, I was with my parents and wife at one of the inter-city bus terminals in South Korea when a man began yelling at us, swore at us, threatened us, made obscene gestures at us, pulled down his pants and exposed himself, pulling on his penis for over a minute. He made more obscene gestures and backed away through the bus termianl. The whole time no one did anything. People stared or stared and laughed. The bus drivers, who were in the bus terminal, did nothing and laughed after the man walked away.
I went into the station after this 10min episode and asked to speak to the manager of the bus terminal. A ticket agent walked me over to the manager and he was standing and watching the incident the whole time and did nothing. When I said that I would call the police about the incident and report him to his supervisor for doing nothing he began raising his voice and yelling at me and my wife and glared at us as we walked away. As we were walking out of the terminal, the manager kept walking toward us glaring at me as we left the terminal.
We called the police about 10 minutes later and told us that they could do nothing because the man had left the terminal and that no one else had done anything illegal so there was nothing that they could do.
This man was able to approach us three times and the incident stopped only because he decided to walk away. Please be careful! It is not as safe as it is made out to be and if you do run into problems don%26#39;t expect much help.
Beware of anti-foreigner violence!
sorry; but in what way did violence take place?
I%26#39;ve been to a few places in my time, and I think you get nutters everywhere.
Beware of anti-foreigner violence!
First time forum post and it%26#39;s a complaint. Hmmm.
OK so some guy acted like a nutter. What I%26#39;d like to know is why did JakeJake threaten the station Manager. It may be that the Manager was doing ';nothing'; in order to defuse the situation.
Sorry to hear that. But during my 10 day trip with my family to Korea last December we didn%26#39;t encounter any anti foreigner sentiments.
In fact my overall impression of the Korean people was they were very welcoming, helpful and quite friendly and honest.
When we first arrived at Incheon airport and had trouble buying arex train ticket at the vending machine(in Korean), the uniformed guy went all the way to help us and even accompanied us to the train. He even suggested we take a pic of our family since %26#39;we have 10mins before the train arrives!%26#39; and was very happy to help us.Very pleasant guy!
And when we reached gimpo airport my daughter left her cellphone on the train. The lady quickly ran after us to return it and the same at the ski resort where the guys at the ski rental shop went all the way to our hotel to return our stuff.
And along the way we met with a lot of people who were very helpful and one even without us asking for help. At the metro station, a guy (he himself in a hurry to catch the train) came over to us and ask where we were going and showed us the way.(although it wasnt that necessary)
In PyeongChang(to ski), we arrived late at the pension and no one was at the reception. Some youths at the lobby and one particular girl who was fluent in English went all the way to make calls and help us with the check in (because the pension operator couldn%26#39;t speak English)
We even became acquainted with a group of mountain climbers on the train from Namiseom. Halfway, they even offered us their seats. The tickets with seats were all sold out so we had to stand. We were in a hurry to catch the evening performance so we had no choice.
In Jeju where we drove, we had no trouble getting help with the Korean GPS from the guys at the gas station although after that my son quickly figured out how to set it.
Although we did meet with a slightly drunken man at the subway, it was no issue. He dropped his glasses and my son picked them up. He politely thanked us but when he started blabbering away then we noticed that he%26#39;d had too much to drink. There was also a middle aged woman storekeeper in Insadong who wasn%26#39;t friendly and refused to sell when we bargained but there were many others who were.
Overall we had a great trip and experience. And we are very grateful to all the people who have helped us during our trip in Korea. Even before we left for Korea, a Korean guy in our country helped with our booking at a pension in Jeju.
Sounds overrated but actually almost every Korean (save for that one woman storekeeper at Insadong) we met were very helpful and friendly. Im impressed!
And also thanks for all your tips in this forum that%26#39;s made it possible!
Try living and working in Nigeria, you got off lightly. Why did you not walk away?? you can walk you know you don%26#39;t have to stand there.
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