Korean Job Discussion Forums

[periwinkle]

My dad and brother are coming for my wedding. I'm taking them to the folk village in Suwon, and they want to go to Jayu park in Incheon to see where the Americans landed during the Korean War. They are both war buffs and were in the military, so I was thinking of taking them to the war museum. What do you think? I heard the war museum sucks, and there is no English. My brother is interested in going to the DMZ. Can they join a USO tour, or is that only for military people and their families? If they can join, how do I arrange the tour?

Anybody been to the Seoul Museum of history near Seodaemun? I wonder if it's any good.

Anybody have a favorite palace? I've only been to one, in Jongno, and the tour guide drove me nuts, because she ended every sentence with "right?" or "ok?" e.g. "Welcome to the ~ palace. My name is Kim Jung-Ah, ok? Everybody's gonna have a great time today, ok? It's really hot today, right? This palace was built in 1553, ok?" blah, blah, blah...

[Bulsajo]

[uberscheisse]

the war museum is really cool. i liked it a lot, but maybe my opinion is biased since my grampa served in the korean war. i recommend it for war buffs.

hwaseong fortress in suwon is an interesting war-related site too and it's interesting to see how the modern city has sprung up inside the old walls.

i am personally fond of jongmyo shrine in jongno. it's beautiful, and it's really strange to see such a nice wooded park right in the thick urbanity of downtown seoul.

[tzechuk]

No idea about any of those things but just want to say congratulations on your forthcoming nuptial!

[Hollywoodaction]

Looks like you have a nice trip planned for your family. The DMZ is a must. You have to see the War Museum, too. Your father and brother will love it.

It's odd to find this large structure, and its wide open spaces, right dab in the centre of Seoul. It's a very peaceful place, so it's quite touching when you're faced with such contrasting images of war and peace. Last time I went, there were English signs and captions in the exhibition. It's quite an extensive exhibit (I've been to one of the largest military museums in Europe, and it wasn't nearly as complete or interesting as this one). You begin the visit by making your way up one wing, which takes a long time if you look at everything carefully, only to find out that there is just as much to visit when you go down in the other wing. Of course, you could race through the exhibit in 20 minutes, but why would you want to do that? Plan to spend at least a couple of hours there since your family are military history buffs.

My father truly enjoyed his stay in Korea. He's nothing but a farmboy at heart, despite being highly educated. "Blood sausage? Give me more! Pigs feet? Yummy!" He's been here twice and plans on returning later this fall. My mom, on the other hand, has only been here once (for my wedding). I'm not holding my breath for her to be coming back any time soon.

[pegpig]

I take it this is with the same dude as in the other threads. On again. Off again. Joining the army. On again.

Take my dad's advice. See a marriage counselor - BEFORE you get married. We didn't , but maybe we should have. We're okay, but I think it's good advice. I don't know if Koreans generally see marriage counsellors unless there's a problem. There may be some stigma to that - as there seems to be with every other thing in Korea. What?!?! You're seeing a counsellor? You're not even married. What's wrong?! Now, finding a very bilingual one may be a challenge, but I'd give it a whirl.

Good luck.

[morituri]

There is a village called Namsan Hanok Ma-eul, which is a village of traditional houses. It is just next to Chungmuro tube station, line 3, exit 5 or 6 (sorry can't remember exactly, one of the exits is labelled Hanok Ma-eul). A traditional Korean gate leading up to a hill right in front of you as you get out.

It is a collection of about half a dozen upper class Korean houses complete with their courtyards like the ones you see in historic dramas, you can see inside the houses and look at the furniture. In some cases entire houses were transported brick by brick from various parts of Seoul. I took some Iranian acquaintances there and they preferred it to the palaces. There is also a mound with a time capsule at the top of the hill, and admission is free.

Right next to it is Korea House, a restaurant which has banquets and weddings in a traditional setting, a lot of kyopos and foreigners get married there traditional style, they have shinsullo, originally Mongolian but now throroughly Korean which is a dip everything in boiling broth story, and you can watch a ?traditional? fan dance as you eat. The food is so-so, but popular with foreigners because of the dinner show dancing. 30K~80K dinner per head I think.

To see all of Seoul, you can either go to the Hyatt Hotel buffet, or go to the Namsan Tower, which has a revolving restaurant, the speed of revolution is extremely slow, about five miles a fortnight and you cannot ask the staff to speed it up, the food is just Korean style western food or don-gas and hambagu steak, but if you accept it for what it is it is quite good, and the staff are friendly and helpful. You can see a lot of people from the countryside on their first trip to Seoul there, and you can also take the Namsan cable car.

Chongmyo is nice, in front of it is where the harabeojis hang out, and there are some nice places selling makolli along its wall.

The War Museum was rather funny, they had signs in Korean and English for the dioramas, but there was a severe disparity in content: when they dwelled on the infrequent victories the English text was quite long, but it was extremely terse or absent compared to the Korean text when explaining the much more frequent events in which we did not do so well. So you could make up all sorts of nonsense to explain the lack of explanation for what looked like extremely bloody disasters. (...Ah, the text just explains that the Eton Wall Game was actually invented in Korea in a skirmish against the Khitans..., no they are not fighting, they are just having a friendly polo match.) You can actually go inside the deck of a minesweeper, and they have a very impressive set of video game consoles housed in authentic looking c*ckpits.

I hope your father and brother have an enjoyable time and hit it off (like each other) with your fiance and his family, and that everything goes well.

[pollyplummer]

[Bo Peabody]

[pollyplummer]

Yep.

[Bulsajo]

[Bo Peabody]

[SuperHero]

The war museum is good.

You might want to take them over to Seodaemun prison also. It's really interesting and scary at the same time.

[fidel]

I apologise if these suggestions have already been mentioned but I'm too lazy to read the other posts.

Namhansansong (songpa gu/songnam city) - Great restaurants at the top, fantastic views and some interesting walks.

Rent a car and take a day trip to Gangwha do, loads of interesting things to see and do.

Rent a car and randomly drive into Northern Kyeonggi Do, loads of military stuff, museums, traditional villages, great restaurants, views of North Korea and so on.

Insadong I suppose
War museum definitely

I say travel around a bit out of Seoul rather than stay in it.
I took my parents, friends and family members who came over for my wedding on a train trip to Gyeonju, everyone had a fab time.

[cruisemonkey]

The war memorial is definately worth going to see - it has exhibits that will interest anyone. Plan to spend at least half a day there.