Korean Job Discussion Forums

[here it is]

Ralph....commenting on America being the strangest place...fair enough. But, a minor point of contention...with respect to the legions of fat and ignorant people watching CNN...I have to disagree. The legions of ignorance are CNN-free...news free...the minority that do watch CNN domestically may be politically and socially skewed, but I wouldn't say ignorant...biased yes, ignorant no. The masses of ignorant Americans do not include those taking the time to tune into cable news.

[buddy bradley]

Hands down, my mother's kitchen. She's crazy I tells ya.

[Zed]

Places that I would call the worst: Tangier. Morocco (although the days of Interzone sound fascinating yet dangerous); around the Greyhound bus terminal in East Los Angeles; the neighbourhood I ended up in on Pulau Batam, Indonesia. It was so dirty and depressing. (There are other places to go on that island that I understand are rather nice.)

One notable story that my friends back home seem to find dangerous was being escorted off the beach in Sokcho by soldiers at 3:30 in the morning. That one doesn't do it for me but ..... maybe we were in more danger than we realized.

[Holyjoe]

Worst place I've ever been?

East-end of Glasgow. Scary place.

[kiwioutofthenest]

well i would have to say in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on September 11 heading for New York....I guess eveyone has a september 11th story....the worst thing for me was the passengers on the ship...they just didn't care, most were American, but in retrospect they were all past their use by dates and only cared about their next meal or weither they made their next ship connection. In the middle of the Atlantic the ship looses satalite feed for 2 days, so the last thing i saw was the towers falling and receiving that bogus Nostrodamus email bout the acroplypse so for a few days i was in a really strange place....I guess i should have started a thread bout sept 11th but that seems a bit corny

[desultude]

The strangest place I have spent any time would have to be the north slope of Alaska- Prudhoe Bay, in the pipeline camp.

In the summer it is a mixture of slush and mud- everything is cold and grey. Everything you touch gives off a brown filmy residue. The main pipeline building has a tree in the middle of it- it is the only tree for hundreds of miles. The camps are series of portable barracks sitting on bricks, relentlessly taupy dried mud color. You walk between the building on planks to avoid the mud that poses as ground.

In the winter the sun never shines. It is colder than anything humans should ever experience, with constant wind blowing in off the artic ice pack. You have to travel in pairs to watch each other for frost bite and symptoms of hypothermia. The Texas oil workers leave their trucks running 24 hours a day so they don't freeze up. The exhaust freezes in the air at eye level, forming what is called "icefog" - a deadly concoction of exhaust and other pollutants frezen in ice particles so dense you can hardly see the person standing next to you.

Then theres the people- when I was there it was 95% men, mostly Oklahoman and Texan oil workers with 8th grade educations that took great pleasure in torturing women and minorities that had the temerity to try to work there. I usually attached myself to the one or two good guys for protection and didn't wander out on my own (and I feel quite safe alone on the streets of Mexico City.)

But if you did manage to get a truck and wander out of camp, it was the most extraordinary place ever- caribou and artic fox, lynx and polar bears. The aurora overhead could make your heart stop. You could hear the moisture of your breath crackle and freeze as you exhaled.

[camel96]

Surabaya - Indonesia.
Hands down.
Ugh - What a craphole.

[Tiger Beer]

[Paji eh Wong]

Poipet, Cambodia

Do you remember that movie 'Outbreak'? Do you remember that bomb that was 1 step down from nuclear weapons that they were going to drop on the town? They need one of those for Poipet.

The town is a border crossing between Thailand and Cambodia. Thai's go for the Casinos and cheap hookers. Khmers go to beg and pick pockets. Tourists try to get the hell out as fast as possible, but can't. Nobody likes anybody. The place just has bad chakra.

[rapier]

I agree with Poipet. Also, One or two little places in the desert of australia sucked as well. Scariest place: jo'burg, S.Africa, and a few other citiy areas there- life is very cheap there.

[Zed]

Right, TB. That's the place. My story sounds similar to yours. I got off the ferry there and couldn't get any information from anyone there about where a good place to go would be. I ended up agreeing to take a taxi ride to some place where I could go shopping. I thought I might be able to pick up something cheap and perhaps a little different from the ubiquitous selectionof clothing available here. It just seemed like driving through slum after slum. Even the newer areas and ones under construction looked like they were being built on a moonscape. I was followed and eyed up when I got to this mediocre plaza they called a mall. I stayed there about 20 minutes and took the first taxi I could find back to the ferry terminal. Read for about an hour before going back to Singapore. The money exchanger must have thought I was nuts changing my money back into Singapore currency again only 3 hours after getting there. I understand there are pricey resorts with jet skis and the whole bit on that island but that's not really my thing. One of my students was at one of the resorts with her family while I was there.

[camel96]

[Moldy Rutabaga]

I don't have any glamorous horror stories, but I found two places very unpleasant to visit and I wouldn't ever live there.
-- Mexico City. I love Mexico-- beautiful scenery, friendly, laid-back people, pretty girls. But Mexico City is dirty, smoggy, dark, and dangerous. Transportation to/from the airport is a nightmare. I risked being mugged in a taxi, only because the time before I was attacked in the subway. Take the bus if you must set foot there.
-- Lombok, Indonesia. Bali has its share of Gawdammd aggravating hawkers, but at least there are enough tourists to go around. The next island in the chain was, as another poster mentioned about Indonesia, a giant throng of people waving junk at you and wanting to ferry you or your luggage. After two days of this and Muslim prayers being screeched from the mosque next to our hotel at 5 and 8 AM, we quickly left. What a way to build tourism, guys.

But then, I've had great vacations in the world and I've been lucky. Mexico, Edinburgh, Belgium, Auckland, Texas.. I've had a good stay every time I've been in the US. And there's good places back at home in Canada too.

Ken:>

[camel96]

[Kwangjuchicken]

Korea