Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Tiger Beer]

Just browing through the Korea Lonely Planet.. lots of places I've never been.. and some places I'd like to go:

DEOKJEOKDO: Island off of Incheon.. sandy beach.. anyone been there?

CHUNGCHEON region: Including Gangcheon, Soyangho & Inje. Looks like some cool mountains, bungee jumping, river rafting, boat stuff, etc.

GANGNEUNG/DONGHAE: Coast along the East Sea.

JEONJU & surroungings: Just never been there.. what to see?

JINDO/WANDO/YEOSU: Whats best?

TAEAN/DAECHEON BEACH/BEOYEONG: Anyone been there?

CHUNGJU/DANYANG: Gotta be something interesting there as well..

Fill me in on any of this stuff..

[Ya-ta Boy]

I can't speak to any of those, but my favorite place (if you have a car) is the coast road from Pohang down to Ulsan. The mountains come down to the beach. Ships out on the horizon. Great scenery.

I happened on it with a friend a few years back on Turn Loose the Fish Day. My friend and I were left alone in a restaurant (the ajumma got tired of waiting for us to finish, so she gave the key to my friend and told him to lock up.)

We were swilling down the soju and kept hearing weird drumming/clashing sounds that would come and go (it was very windy). Our curiosity finally overcame our desire for another bottle, so we went outside. There were some tents pitched on the beach. Inside were Buddhists drumming and banging on those gong things and doing chants. It was a wonderful evening and not dimmed by the hangover the next morning.

[tzechuk]

[eamo]

I've been to Deokjeok-do and It's a great spot. The small town of Seopi-ri is a 15 min bus ride from the ferry dock and has some nice, homely restaurants. Mim-baks are plentiful and reasonably priced. The beach is good. Biggish and sandy.

There are narrow, paved roads through the low mountains to other touristy spots on the island which would make for a good, 1 day hike.

[Koreabound2004]

Well, I have been to Jindo, Wando and Yeosu.

My preferences in order: Yeosu, Wando, Jindo

Jindo an island, and is the smallest of the three, not much to see or do there other than look at the dogs....there is the Moses Miracle there, which is supposed to be upcoming. The sea parts, and you can walk across the ocean from Jindo to another island. Other than that, not much that you couldn't find elsewhere in Korea.

Wando is a little bigger, and Wando eup is right on the water, which makes for some nice scenery, lots of boats, and a port scene. They also have a cool pebble peach at Dadohaehae Park, full of all these round stones...also a nice sunset spot.

Yeosu is a fairly big city, they have some cool temples on an island, and you can take boat cruises off the coast near Odongdo island. They also have Western restaurants in the city area, if that's what you might be seeking.

PM me if you need more info.

[skookum]

Jeonju is an adequate big city - some good provincial parks and such within easy reach. Maisan with its temple built by an eccentric monk; Moaksan Park is close (but i never got there somehow), an okay national museum in SW part of Jeonju. I particularly liked the parks in the Southern end of Jeonrabuk-do - around NamSan and Sunchang - Jiri-San of course, and the little Gangchunsa. Also near Sunchang is the Kochujang folk village, if you like the spicy stuff.

Northern Kyeongsangbuk-do is good if you want to get away from things. Mungyeong is the only city with all or parts of 2 national parks and one provincial park. Lots of temples, the Naktong river, not a lot of pollution. Lonely Planet doesn't cover this part of the province very extensively at all.

Get a big atlas of the country - one on the 1:100,100 scale - if you can read hangeul. This will give you lots of ideas.

I enjoyued the several days I spent in Kongju - some places just resonate with me and that was one....

If you want something to talk about with your Korean friends, take a cruise around Dok-do! Not that I have.....

[Tiger Beer]

This is helping me quite a bit..



The mountaineous region between Seoul and Seokjo really amazed me from the bus window. Thats one region I particularly want to explore more.

For whatever reason I came to the conclusion that all of Korea is very mountaineous.. but looking at the above map.. it apparently is NOT. That changes things quite a bit.

I might drop Jeonju off the list.. probably not worth a special trip in itself.. probably not all that diffferent from visiting Daejeon or KwangJu or whatever else.

I did overlook DaeBaek which seems like a great place to visit..

[tzechuk]

Jeonju is quite different from Daejeon, TB. Daejeon is a man-made city, built by the Japanese. There is no history in Daejeon. Jeonju does. The whole place feels OLD. You don't need a whole day to visit it, just a morning is enough.

[schwa]

How would you be travelling? A car really opens up the backroads of Gangwondo & there are pleasant surprises up many of them. The brown highway signs (indicating obscure temples, historical & archeological sites, recreational forests & valleys) are generally good explores. Youre likely to meet sansaram, mountain people, closest thing I've met to Korean hippies -- bearded men, outdoor adventurers, & artist types who have escaped Seoul to set up funky minbaks & cafes. A different flavor of Korea.

Minor pet peeve -- Sokcho is always spelled simply Sokcho -- its a perfect & easy transcription. ����. Two long o's, like "Soak-cho."

[Zyzyfer]

Got a friend working in Gangneung who says it's great out there, but I don't know exactly why, aside from what he said about the bar scene. Planning to head out there and have him show me around in a few weeks.

Danyang isn't all that great, at least not in my experience. I rode up there with Ryst Helmut on our bikes one day, and it was purdy and all, but 4 hours on a bike each way to see some man-made waterfall and a bunch of *beep* statues didn't seem worth it. There was a cool bit of cave out there, but very crowded.

A great island to check out that probably won't show up in any guide books is Geomundo. Quiet, peaceful little island, lots of seafood that even my seafood-hating self found delicious, and there's a minbak that I highly recommend out there, very, very friendly owners. Lots of potential hiking and it's big enough to be interesting for a couple of days. Awesome summer vacation spot.

If you want to do a weekend road trip sometime instead of pounding some beers back one weekend TB, let me know and I could talk the Chica into spotting me the car and we could check out some stuff. I've been meaning to do that for a while.

[The Bobster]

It's that time of year, the frost on the ground completely thawed and our hearts and minds very attuned to the stuff we've been missing while being holed up in our little shacks the last few months ... I've been feeling like gettng out of the city and the regular neighborhood, too.

This will be a good thread to keep watch on.

[Tiger Beer]

[peemil]

The Casino in Gyeoungju is good.

[eamo]

[The Bobster]

I think I could be very up for that also. Let's talk and then, hell, let's do it.