Replacement Drivers in Seoul

Seoul - It is comforting to note that when you travel your partners and friends who drives refrains from drinking. Singapore drivers should follow the Korean example if they intend to have a drinking session with their friends. Lately, 2 popular Singapore artistes were caught drink driving and was jailed.

There are many occassions when I am out with partners on drinking sessions - either one don't drink or the hire "replacement drivers" to bring them home. There are so many services in Seoul that provides people to drink and still be alive or not in jail the next day. One is "replacement drivers" to drive your car back to your home for a fee of KW15,000.

It seems in Seoul there are tens of thousands of replacement drivers operating in this hard-drinking metropolis of 10 million people. Some 100,000 replacement drivers handle 700,000 customers a day, the nuber shooting up by 30% on Fridays. Their work has become such as essential part of life in Seoul and other major cities of South Korea that the national statistical office last year began monitoring the price of replacement driver services as an element in calculating the benchmark consumer price index. The peak is between 11pm and 1am. This lucrative sevice grew out of two competiting forces in Seoul: its vibrant nightlife and a police force determined to crack down on drink driving. The police often put up random roadblocks to ferret out drunk drivers who risk losing their licenses. Some tipsy drivers who spot such as roadblock leave their cars and flee - illegal paking is a lesser crime.

In a country that proudly cites "drinking, singing and dancing" as a national trait, belting a national concoction called "the bomb" - a briming glass of beer with a shot glass of whiskey in it - is considered the best way of building office camaraderie. Through my years in Korea, I have drunk many "Bombs". The Korean emphasis on teamwork means frequent group dinners. At drinking joints there will always be shouts of "one shot" which means "bottoms up" and as proof that the glass is empty - the tilt the empty glass over their head.