Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Fat Sam]

1. Dirtiest Bathrooms: Whoever said Turkey, I agree with. It didn't help that I got food poisoning on the Asian side of the Bosphorus. Squatting over a rat infested hole with liquid spewing out of every orrifice is not one of my more pleasant travel experiences.

2. Scummiest Hotel: This honour goes to a $2 shack on Lake Izabal, near Livingston on the Caribbean coast of Guatemala. The room was crawling with insects. It was built out of wood and jutted out over the shoreline, allowing chickens to walk around underneath and crow loudly when the sun came up. When you turned on the light, you could see the bed bugs scurrying away. On top of that, the room was the size of a dog cage with two triple bunks.

3. Sleaziest City: Tijuana, Mexico. I woke up in Los Feliz, close to Hollywood, yet within a few hours I was in the armpit of the world, drinking tequila while the ugliest bleached-blonde whores on the planet tried to drag me to their sex-booths for $40 a go. Dead dogs on the street and three year olds playing the accordion for quarters.

4. Most Corrupt Airport: I agree with Tiger Beer that Caracas must be the worst. I ran out of money in Panama but my travelling companion carried on to Venuzuela. Upon arriving, he was taken to a private room by an 'immigration official' who declared himself 'Pro-Chavez' before escorting my friend to a taxi at gunpoint and visiting three ATMs around the city, forcing him to take out over a thousand dollars, before putting him on a bus to the Angel Falls.
For me, Havana airport was the most amusing. The immigration guy tried to sell me weed just before the baggage inspection. He was quite aggressive, insisting that I must smoke it as I'm young and travelling. I declined, of course, before receiving the most thorough luggage inspection ever. On a positive note, I was getting on really well with the young lady who was going through my stuff. I was about to ask her if we could meet later so she could show us around, when she came across my stash of condoms. It was an awkward moment.

5. Worst Food: Korea, without a doubt. I've been here a few years but am only now starting to appreciate a few of the dishes. It never takes me this long to like the local cuisine in other parts of the world.

6. Most Irritating Hawkers: Cebu City in the Philippines. I was part of a Korean package tour that visited Magellan's cross. The Koreans didn't get as much crap as I did, being white and all. At one point I had at least seven people jostling me for "one dollar, one dollar", including ten year olds carrying babies.

7. Worst Architecture: Korea again, unfortunately. Building things out of wood and being involved in wars hasn't helped them preserve any of the older stuff. Of the new architecture, it seems that 'convenience' and 'practicality' are more important than 'aesthetics'.

8. Worst Weather: My hometown of Chorley near Manchester in England. Dreary, wet and windy. Not only that, but it's low-lying so when I'd get sent home from school early because of the snow, by the time I arrived home, it would all be slush.

9. Most Uninteresting Place: Luxembourg. Enough said.

10. Worst International Food: Korea. See above.

11. Most Overrated Country: Ireland. Everyone loves the place for some reason. Just because it looks green and sunny on the adverts doesn't mean it is. It's even wetter than Manchester. And it's full of scallies.

12. Most Dangerous City: San Salvador. No night-life because it's dangerous after dark. I was robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight. I don't think anyone smiled at me for the entire week that I spent in that God-forsaken country. Even McDonalds had a security guard, brandishing a machine gun, stood at the door.

[indytrucks]

1. Dirtiest Bathrooms: That $2 a night guest house on Victory Beach, Sihanoukville, Cambodia. One miserable squatter toilet on rotting plywood. Doubled as a shower. Absolutely minging.

2. Scummiest Hotel: Some cheap dive I stayed in once on Khao San Road. Paper thin plywood walls complete with a peephole in one corner. I think it was a brothel. Slept in my clothes on a bare mattress.

3. Sleaziest City: Don't really know as I like to stay away from those sorts of places, but from what I heard while in Phils, Angeles City had things on offer that would make your hair stand on end. Dongducheon would be a close second.

4. Most Corrupt Airport: Dunno.

5. Worst Food: Thailand. Greasy, too much coconut milk. I don't know what the fascination is with Thai food ... I personally can't stand it. Pilipino food ain't much better, adobo notwithstanding.

6. Most Irritating Hawkers: Angkor Wat, Cambodia. By the end of the fifth day there, the hordes of children and ajummas running beside the car, screaming "Mister Mister you come here!!" as we stopped at each site was enough to make me not want to get out.

7. Worst Architecture: Banaue, Phils. The rice terraces are a sight to behold. Pity about the rest of the place. Corrugated, rusting iron rooves and flimsy shacks as far as the eye could see. One halfway decent restaurant. I've also never seen so much dog shiite on the streets in my entire life. Makes me wonder where all the tourist dollars go.

8. Worst Weather: See above. Stayed there for five days, got to see the rice terraces without cloud or rain for a grand total of three hours. Poured down constantly. Made the dog shiite run in rivers down the streets and turned the roads to a thick mud.

9. Most Uninteresting Place: Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Unless you've got a sick fascination with tourture methods and mass graves, the "sights" in PP are few and far between. There's the Silver Pagoda, but you can't take pictures inside. Stayed in a guest house for three days smoking weed and eating "happy" pizza, which I thought was overrated. Too many despicable sex tourists.

10. Worst International Food: Thailand. See above.

11. Most Overrated Country: Thailand. Yeah it's got beaches. Yeah it's got mountains. It's also got too many tourists, too many jaded Thai proprietors and too many gap year "adventure of a lifetime" braided hair pajama pant wearing two quid a day to get from BKK to Phuket gippo knobheads. And the food sucks.

12. Most Dangerous City: Johannesburg. In one part of the city there's a club where the bouncers are equipped with AK-47s. 'Nuff said.

[jajdude]

Korea deserves a vote for boring food choices and ugly buildings.
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Pattaya is sleazy, but that avenue is up the visitor. There are other things to do there. Or one can easily go elsewhere.
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Korea lacks food for some reason. I'm excited when I see a nice can of soup. I'm not a great cook. Korea does not help with its lack of many ingredients. Spices are hard to find.

The buildings and neighborhoods look pretty much the same all over the country. I've been in 7 or 8 cities.
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Vietnam was annoying and you need to be careful there. Food and prices were Ok though.
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Worst int'l food Thailand? Wow. I thought the place offered great food. ============

[JZer]

[Greekfreak]

I agree with you about Bali; my fiancee and I just returned from there.

The hawkers were a lot milder in Sanur and Ubud than in Kuta, where they just see you as walking $$$ signs. It almost forces you to be an @sshole when you have no desire to be one. I got around the worst hawkers by screaming Greek, French, Russian, and Chinese obscenities at them. They seemed to get the point, then.

[travel zen]

1. Dirtiest bathrooms:

Maceys in New York City.

Shayat on the floor and in the urinals, stench to kill you and nobody cared or cleaned that day.

2. Scummiest Hotel:

A $15 top floor 'attic' in Delhi. No heat, smelly blankets and sheets, holes in the walls, right next to a loud generator that went on all night.

3. Sleaziest City:

Mumbai City, India

There are a couple blocks full of women (and men dressed as women) and children, and old men and women, for sale for about $5 US at night. You can see the chlidren playing in the street. The mothers and young girls will whisper their specialty and price as you walk by. By day, its just a market in the city....you'd never know that it sold humans.

4. Most Corrupt Airport

Toyko.

My experience, just travelling through and a young girl shakes her head while looking at my photo. "Canada!" as if I couldn't be from there. She pulls me aside and asks me stupid questons like 'What city are you from' and 'What is your name'?!?! I'm guessing she was flirting with me...what else could it be?

5. Worst food

China. Greasy and I question the 'meat'.

6. Most irritating Hawkers

Dehli, India

They actually put stuff in your hands. If you put it down, they bawl at you and they won't take it back. If you ask for the price and don't buy it....they act offended as if you led them on. Funny.

7. Worst Architecture

China. Workers Communist Proletarians Paradise. I felt like I came to heaven when I landed in Inchon, please believe how beautiful the place looked after 2 months of drab grey concrete and no plants or animals.

8 Worst weather:

Shenzhen, China

It's either rainy and humid, or hot and humid and always filled with mosquitoes.

9. Most uninteresting place

Sorry, much of China was about as interesting as Toronto's Chinatown after being there for 2 months. It all seemed the same. Crowds and restaurants.

10. Worst International Food.

Maybe Korea. India had good chinese food, and China had good Big Macs.

11. Most Overated Country

You know China is all hype.

12. Most dangerous City

Jaipur, India

If the traffic and crazy touts don't get you, the madmen who will gut you because you are a foreigner with money will. Or maybe the restaurants that serve poison, then when you are sick, take you to a 'doctor' that charges you a mint for a 'remedy' that makes you more sick....

[desultude]

Worst weather?

Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Nothing like a good stiff wind with a -80 (F) something temperature. In the summer it may get up to 30-40 (F), but there are still patches of ice in the shadows, and still a stiff wind blowing off the (ever decreasing) arctic ice pack. Mud covers everything when there is no snow. Rock moss is the tallest plant.

[anyway]

Caracas rockas. And then some! My stupid story was my own fault. Totally ignoring the two Venezuelan businessmen whose only words to me on the plane (shortly before arrival) were "Don't trust anyone!", I befriended a couple of folks in the airport, drinking coffee as I camped there overnight to catch a bus out of that free-for-all capitol the next day.

Finally, I met another local guy, seemed like an airport baggage handler/doorman?, who invited me to his house for breakfast. After about 8 hours of smoking that coca rock, I decided I might be in with the wrong crowd and hit the street on foot to catch a bus back to the nearby airport. As I was walking down the street of the very poor barrio, some 6 or 8 guys playing basketball saw me coming, came off their court and stood in the middle of the street, blocking my way. I passed right through the middle of them, not breaking step. Either they saw I was totally cranked or thought I was crazy or both (bingo!). Definitely used one of my nine lives that day.

Maybe I should post this on the most dangerous street thread. Caracas (et al) has to be one of the craziest cities in the western world. I've known several people from there and heard lots of stories. It is straight up loco.

[Zark]

Worst Bathroom:

Chobe National Park, Botswana

Water hadn't been on - maybe ever - yet people continued to use the toilet - until it was piled at least a foot above the seat.

Funniest Bathroom:

Pusan, Korea - with a toothbrush tied to a string for everyone to use (how thoughtful!).

Most Dangerous City -

Have to agree with previous poster - Johanesburg RSA:

Lived in Botswana for two years and feared for my life several times in Joberg - particularly when lost in the wrong part of town. REALLY feared for my life.

[Tiger Beer]