I still wonder how they do things so cheaply here. People here have to make a living, but somehow, they’re able to do things so much cheaper than in the U.S.

I took my bike into the bike shop a few miles away today. The shop nearest my house, although very close and owned by a childhood friend of my school director, has poor quality bikes and even worse service and repair.  Instead I go to OMK, a shop about 7km that has much better service.  They also advertise on my ulsanonline.com website, so giving them money is a reciprocal thing.  Even if they didn’t buy ad space I’d still go there.But, I digress.

I went in to their shop today to get a back brake adjusted or replaced. I’d lost braking power over the past week or two and not having worked on bicycle disc brakes before figured I’d just get them to fix it. They ended up giving me the full service. They replaced the disc pad, replaced a broken spoke on the rear wheel, realigned the wheel with some precision equipment, adjusted the front and rear  derailers, adjusted the front spokes, and the front brake.  They spent about 45 minutes pawing over the bike, plenty of time for me to browse the many accessories, while still wandering back occasionally to watch their progress.

Total price – 10k won. About $10. Of course, a few accessories caught my eye and I spent 36K total, but that doesn’t count. I didn’t have to buy those.

I wondered if maybe they give me a good deal because of the business we give each other on the website. Nope. I watched other customers come and go with equal care and attention paid to their rides with similar prices.  Korea is just cheap.

No small wonder then, that when I considered coming here years ago I remember thinking about the extreme change in salary from the USA to here. I wondered how I’d make do. I make only a fraction of what I made back home. An even more minute fraction of when I was at SGI making the big bucks. But here, I pay only 5% in taxes, the government subsidized health care is amazingly cheap, food is cheaper and I pay no rent.  Life’s good.