David Di Somma: Winter Olympics: 10 quirky observations about Pyeongchang

Apparently there are very few bald men in Korea, writes David Di Somma.
Apparently there are very few bald men in Korea, writes David Di Somma. Photo credit: Getty

Opinion: After spending three weeks in South Korea covering the Winter Olympics, I have 10 quirky observations about the country, its people and those who are visiting it.

1. Very few Korean men are bald, in fact most have luscious heads of hair.

2. Soju is a popular drink here, but it tastes somewhere between aviation fuel and ouzo. It has few redeeming features, apart from the fact it's cheap and readily available.

3. Some people at our accommodation have very different eating habits, including having cereal, rice, nuts, seaweed, bacon, pineapple, kimchi, baked beans, and croissants all on the same plate at the same time.

4. Gomabseubnida is the most frequently used term in Korean, it sounds flash and has lots of syllables, but it means "thanks"

5. The noodles here are extraordinary, lots of flavours and lots of variety, though it appears there is not much difference in nutritional value between the noodles and the packaging they come in.

6. The weather has picked up immeasurably as the Winter Olympics have gone on. At the start, temperatures were as low as minus 20, but in recent times we have had beautiful days, and occasionally it has gone to 0, even 1 degree. Time for shorts and jandals?

7. K-pop is just massive (of course). On seemingly every television there are boy bands and girl bands churning out songs with tightly choreographed dance moves. I bet Indian music is huge in India too!

8. We have struggled to see much live Olympics on the telly, much of the time we have been subjected to re-runs of curling or re-living for the 300th time Korean star Sungbin Yun's triumph in the skeleton.

9. This country has a lot of people called "Kim" and "Lee", and very possibly some called Kim Lee or Lee Kim.

10. If there was a sport you wouldn't expect a positive drugs test surely it would be curling... oh wait a minute.

David Di Somma is a sports reporter for Newshub.