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Joe Thanks
Joined: 01 Oct 2003
Location: Dudleyville
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 Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 11:56 pm Post subject: |
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| Tiger Beer wrote: |
Pusan sucks as well.. there is just about 4-5 decent bars around Pusan National University (compared to about 20 decent bars around HongDae University in Seoul)..
Itaewon Seoul has about 10 decent bars or so.. as opposed to Texas Town in Pusan which is basically 'hooker hill' part of Itaewon.
The only decent place in Pusan was Haendai Beach in the summertime.. not really a bar.. it was extremely crowded however and not that much fun.. but good place to drink beer at 9-10pm at night.. i suppose that could be done in Ulsan in the summertime as well though.. |
Ulsan has "Tombstone." Great decor - lame music - cliques. NOTHING goes on - near the University in Moogo-dong. At tops, the bar has eight people. 99% expats. While not a hostile environment - there's little hospitality - and like almost ALL of the bars in Ulsan (save Arsehole) - there's NO SOAP in the blood bathroom.
I'll pass.
It seems like the expats in Ulsan are as whitebread as they come. Wish I was wrong, but I see little otherwise. Even Ulsan web is pretty sucky. I thought about offering my services to it - but why write for something where nobody would care anyway....?
Stepford central for expats.... Ugh.
Now, to find the local's favortie hot spots....
Joe |
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weatherman
Joined: 14 Jan 2003
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2004 12:29 am Post subject: |
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| Joe Thanks wrote: |
Now, to find the local's favortie hot spots.... |
I also don't feed well on the expat entertainment here in Korea, and have found I am better off by myself... also hate being the toy foreigner for a group of Korean men partying... I think what you have said about finding the local's hot spots is a move in the right direction, but when thinking about it, is there really a local's hot spot.... I know where to go to see a lot of locals having fun... I know which nites are the best, where the best soju bangs are, which bars bring in the females, the popular po-jung-ma-chas but, and maybe I am missing something, but how do you get in on the fun, when all these places are dominated by groups of partying friends, that it becomes a little difficult to just try to 'pal' around with them without being the toy foreigner. I don't want to come off sounding negative here, but how do you do it? |
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Joe Thanks
Joined: 01 Oct 2003
Location: Dudleyville
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| Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 8:45 pm Post subject: |
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Good points. The "panda" treatment - which, while hospitable, is not the most fufilling. I find that one has to surf through the "panda" groups and usually through one of the folks you connect with in that group, you end up in another, less patronizing one.
Soak up the free drinks and give 'em a little face and mine the fun out of it and eventually you'll network.
That was Pohang when I was thre. Here in Ulsan - I need to find the place to start the Panda social pinball. The other pain-in-the-arse factor is not having my own pad yet. I am living out of a (decent) yeogwan. Once I have my own place I can then have a permanent place of operations. That won't be until mid-February (ugh).
So, now I spend my weekends drinkin' at home, watching Japanese TV and wrestling and Dvds. With the school having a "winter camp" I work a lot, so I don't mind this, but once the regular schedule kicks in and I have more free time this will really get to me.
Ulsan expat night life:
Joe
| weatherman wrote: |
| Joe Thanks wrote: |
Now, to find the local's favortie hot spots.... |
I also don't feed well on the expat entertainment here in Korea, and have found I am better off by myself... also hate being the toy foreigner for a group of Korean men partying... I think what you have said about finding the local's hot spots is a move in the right direction, but when thinking about it, is there really a local's hot spot.... I know where to go to see a lot of locals having fun... I know which nites are the best, where the best soju bangs are, which bars bring in the females, the popular po-jung-ma-chas but, and maybe I am missing something, but how do you get in on the fun, when all these places are dominated by groups of partying friends, that it becomes a little difficult to just try to 'pal' around with them without being the toy foreigner. I don't want to come off sounding negative here, but how do you do it? |
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weatherman
Joined: 14 Jan 2003
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 9:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Joe Thanks wrote: |
I find that one has to surf through the "panda" groups and usually through one of the folks you connect with in that group, you end up in another, less patronizing one.
Soak up the free drinks and give 'em a little face and mine the fun out of it and eventually you'll network. |
I have forgotten how to do this, it brings back memories of another time... maybe I need to rediscover all this again.. it is a lot of fun and you meet a lot of local chicks this way too, that you would have never met any other way... I owe you beer for this reminder. |
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Joe Thanks
Joined: 01 Oct 2003
Location: Dudleyville
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| Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 9:25 pm Post subject: |
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| weatherman wrote: |
I have forgotten how to do this, it brings back memories of another time... maybe I need to rediscover all this again.. it is a lot of fun and you meet a lot of local chicks this way too, that you would have never met any other way... I owe you beer for this reminder. |
De nada, companero.
It's a trip -coming back after 4 years. Part of me thinks the xenophobic orgy that raped reality behind the poor, unfortunate tragedy with the teenage girls last year - helped a lot of pent up hostility subside. I haven't gotten half the heat in Ulsan I would have back in 2000. Still, I know that crap exists.
I digress, but the point is that this place has changed in some ways, since 2004. While people allow me to do my own thing in peace, I find it harder to meet up with locals. If I go to pubs I can chat it up with the employees, but I've yet to have one of the experiences I had when I was three weeks in on my first sojourn in the land of the morning clam - er "calm." It's sad.
So, for me, it's about finding the place to go and make the connections. Ulsan we breally sucks. Totally expat-centric with little in regards to expat-local interaction - unlike Pusan web. I also find fewer posters here from Ulsan. Part of that (80%) has to be the weird registration process for this forum, but I think the other part is that they don't give a damn about things outside of their universe.
Anybody know any places to post (for free) adverts/personals about hooking up with Ulsan locals to be able to chat and start to network?
Ulsan web ain't it.
I'm very disappointed at how things have gone. Not so much like "oh this place sucks," but in "oh, there really is NO information about Ulsan out there."
Ulsan web really doesn't count. It's almost a slap to the face. ALMOST.
Oddly, Ulsan offers a lot of interesting palces to go.
The other catch-22, companero (getting back to the general issue of meeting and networking with locals) is that being a lone wolf doesn't help. If you go in pairs and start from tehre - then you're in. As a lone wolf many stay away.
Buddy Bradley - where the f are ya? When's your shindig?
The main thing is to keep lookin'. For me, waiting until the first payday - and moving into my pad - that makes it mroe agonizing as it's all "wait and see." Why bother hitting the haunts where I'm staying now since they will be far removed from where I will end up - and - when I can't afford to cover the cost of drinks, etc. on the days when the "fish don't bite."
This is more difficult than hooking up a date! That's CAKE in comparisson. How ironic!
Well, in Ulsan - it's officially dead. Stone Cold Joe says so..
It's weird trying to doing it a second time 'round - as you are probably experiencing too.
Anybody in Pohang over Sollal? I may be visiting my hyeong up there an could hook up there.
Joe |
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ulsanchris
Joined: 19 Jun 2003
Location: take a wild guess
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| Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 10:00 pm Post subject: |
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HEy JOe i feel a bit sorry for not warning you about the night life here. I don't get out much so i felt i couldn't really comment on it. My gf doesn't drink so i don't get out much anymore.
The royal anchor used to be good but that was a long time ago. A lot of foriengers around here just bitch about korea and that gets pretty boring. A reason why i never bothered going out much even before i met my gf. I"m not sure if there are any hotspots for the locals around here. I think most koreans around this town just go to hoffs and such with their friends and if they want to dance and such they go to one of the night clubs, which are far cheaper here than the ones in seoul. I can ask a couple of friends.
how do find the rest of the city? |
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Joe Thanks
Joined: 01 Oct 2003
Location: Dudleyville
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| Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 10:19 pm Post subject: |
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| ulsanchris wrote: |
how do find the rest of the city? |
I think it will be a decent place to live. It has a LOT more sprawl to it than I ahd expected. Got a scooter and on Monday I'll get it tuned up and get the plates - so that will make life easier to handle the sprawl.
It's large - but small. Locals seem laid back. Lots of stuff to do, but most of it SUCKS when you're running as a lone wolf. Most of it requires more than one person to be entertaining.
No more of the ferry to Kitakyushu - which was a reason I came here. I don't know anyone in Pusan so I have little reason to go there. Weekend trips to Seoul are out of the question. 5 hours on trains up and back - there's half of the weekend. So, that could be a monthly thing, at best.
I have friends in Pohang, so that's possible. Still, life is going to suck in in Ulsan since it will be work - shopping -and going home.
I doubt the situation will improve, and frnakly a lot of the cliques running around here are chickensh@t suburbanites. Most seem to stick to their nationalities too. F@#k that.
Outside of the livability and low key nature of the locals - the expat scene here strikes me a wee bit more arrogant - and a lot LAMER - than the one in Seoul.
Folks in Pusan were too scared to take me up on being a guide for a weekend of Fear and Loathing down there.
Anybody nearby in Kwangju or any Daegu folk out for some Fear and Loathing - even formng a punk band (I'd trek there every weekend)?
So, to answer your question: Ulsan is a nice place to settle down in, or come if you are too chickens@t to travel by yourself and to have your friends or entire neighborhood/province come with you.
I won't slag any expats directly, since I hold out hope thre are cool folk here (outside of my expat coworkers - who are sincerely saints, bless 'em - but I don't want to spent EVERY day with them. it ruins the working relationship and vice-versa, plus they deserve their right to be on their own too and I'd feel like a third wheel).
Joe
Last edited by Joe Thanks on Sat Jan 10, 2004 10:59 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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ulsanchris
Joined: 19 Jun 2003
Location: take a wild guess
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| Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 10:33 pm Post subject: |
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where are you working?
it gets better here in the spring and summer. the parks are nice to go to. Also I here that around Ilsan beach there is a lot of drinking to be done. Tons of soju tents and such. Also there are some ok sight seeing places to go to nearby. If you lived in Pohang you probably already know about some of them. |
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Joe Thanks
Joined: 01 Oct 2003
Location: Dudleyville
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| Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 10:41 pm Post subject: |
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| ulsanchris wrote: |
where are you working?
it gets better here in the spring and summer. the parks are nice to go to. Also I here that around Ilsan beach there is a lot of drinking to be done. Tons of soju tents and such. Also there are some ok sight seeing places to go to nearby. If you lived in Pohang you probably already know about some of them. |
I will end up living in Moogo dong. Not too far from the Uni.
Now I'm in Taehwa dong living in a yeogwan until a coworker exits the apartment, mid-Febraury. I'm not into parks by myself. I'm a city boy - born and bred - and I prefer checking out touristy spots with folks.
In Ulsan I am but a lone wolf - and that works against me here.
I don't run with people just becasue they come from the same country - but there's nobody out (except for the LAMEST BAR KNOWN TO MAN (a SLIGHT exaggeration, but not that far off - Tombstone) - and then they are all in their cliqhes already - all five people there over the weekend.
Bam bam bam bam ba bam bam bam bam - I Wanna be sedated.
Really.
Joe |
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ulsanchris
Joined: 19 Jun 2003
Location: take a wild guess
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| Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 10:56 pm Post subject: |
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i lived in mugeo dong for awhile and i didn't like it. too far away from the rest of the city and nothing happens there. The tombstone crowd does seem insular. Never had problems meeting people at the Royal Anchor or Mckenzies.
What hagwan do you work at. |
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Joe Thanks
Joined: 01 Oct 2003
Location: Dudleyville
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| Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 11:04 pm Post subject: |
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| ulsanchris wrote: |
i lived in mugeo dong for awhile and i didn't like it. too far away from the rest of the city and nothing happens there. The tombstone crowd does seem insular. Never had problems meeting people at the Royal Anchor or Mckenzies.
What hagwan do you work at. |
Royal Anchor seems as dead as Bobby Kennedy. Cute barmaids but no conversation and when I asked for a Hite I got a Heiniken - whcih I wouldn't drink unless it was given to me for free.
McKenzies - Alex is a nice bloke but that's pretty dead and pockets of Koreans do spill in but the expats there are in their cliques... Max I've seen in a bar since New Years - 10 people - and not at one time, but over an entire night.
Moogodong does suck. Abso-f'n-lutely NOTHING going on there. NOTHING. It will just make life easier once I have my own pad to pal things. Ironically - I will end up doing more work in DalDuen - but you know Korean wangjang - never do things logically, like house people NEAR the school (this is actually the first time this has happened, most places I lived in did house me near the school).
Joe |
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ulsanchris
Joined: 19 Jun 2003
Location: take a wild guess
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| Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 11:09 pm Post subject: |
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| JOe do you mean Daldong? I haven't heard of Daldeun. where is it? |
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Joe Thanks
Joined: 01 Oct 2003
Location: Dudleyville
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| Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 11:16 pm Post subject: |
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| ulsanchris wrote: |
| JOe do you mean Daldong? I haven't heard of Daldeun. where is it? |
That might be it. Right now I work in Moogo-dong. The other branch is a few clicks from the Hyundai department store. I would prefer to work there since Moodong is BORING.
Joe |
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ulsanchris
Joined: 19 Jun 2003
Location: take a wild guess
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| Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 11:28 pm Post subject: |
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That would be daldong.
I am guessing you don't want to name the school? |
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Joe Thanks
Joined: 01 Oct 2003
Location: Dudleyville
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| Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 11:29 pm Post subject: |
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| ulsanchris wrote: |
That would be daldong.
I am guessing you don't want to name the school? |
I'd prefer not to do it in a public forum.
Joe |
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