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southernman
Joined: 15 Jan 2010
Location: On the mainland again
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 Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 4:07 pm Post subject: The joys of Island living |
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This morning was awesome, riding through cherry blossoms, they were on both sides of the road. No traffic, pleasant climate for 8.30 am about 13 degrees probably.
Views of both the sea and the hills before I left my apartment.
Living within 7-8ks of a well structured, western friendly, small city
The quality of life is great, soon I'll be going to some GOOD beaches after work.
For those of you that say Seoul is the only place to live in Korea, hehe, you really are joking right.... |
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sigmundsmith
Joined: 22 Nov 2007
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| Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 4:11 pm Post subject: |
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so whats the island? Bali, Koh Samui, Phuket? Or is it here in Korea, Dokdo?
Yes, I can see those lifestyles being better than Seoul. But then again, we all have different tastes in our personal lifestyle.
But enjoy what you have. That is the important thing. |
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Dr. Whom
Joined: 06 Mar 2010
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 4:25 pm Post subject: |
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Ya goin' out for dinner after work? Waddya gonna have? Kimchi and
rice? haha, wash it down some with some soju and a pack of smokes? haha |
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Xuanzang
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Location: Sadang
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| Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 4:42 pm Post subject: Re: The joys of Island living |
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| southernman wrote: |
This morning was awesome, riding through cherry blossoms, they were on both sides of the road. No traffic, pleasant climate for 8.30 am about 13 degrees probably.
Views of both the sea and the hills before I left my apartment.
Living within 7-8ks of a well structured, western friendly, small city
The quality of life is great, soon I'll be going to some GOOD beaches after work.
For those of you that say Seoul is the only place to live in Korea, hehe, you really are joking right.... |
If Geoje or Jeju ever got a Costco then I might be sold... |
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southernman
Joined: 15 Jan 2010
Location: On the mainland again
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| Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 6:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Dr. Whom wrote: |
Ya goin' out for dinner after work? Waddya gonna have? Kimchi and
rice? haha, wash it down some with some soju and a pack of smokes? haha |
No I usually cook food at home at nights . I enjoy cooking and have worked in Restaurants in several coutries. But the Restaurants here are plentiful and good. Theres a large contingent of extremely well paid Western Engineers here, so most Western tastes are catered for in excellent Restaurants, the Korean Restaurants are awesome.
I live on Geoje so its a rich place, over 25% of the population work for the two major shipyards, which are the second and third largest in the world. Luckily I'n not effected by either of them.
I agree it's all about personal preferences..... and I do miss good live bands, here we only have live music once or twice a month (if we're lucky).
Sorry theres no Costco, but Homeplus has a surprisingly large stock of western food again no doubt because of the Western engineers here
I admit my post may have been a tad tongue in cheek but I'm into quality of life and yes financial rewards. It's amazing the arrogance of some of the posters on this forum who say that Seoul is the only place to live in Korea. |
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Chet Wautlands
Joined: 11 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 6:07 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm interested in Geoje-Do. I've only ever heard good things. Far from Busan? Winter weather OK? Are the beaches actually decent? |
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AsiaESLbound
Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri
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| Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 6:37 pm Post subject: |
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| OP's location is Geoje Island which is where there are many foreigners in the ship building and engineering manufacturing industries. It probably is the best far from Seoul place to live due to their being many foreigners from many different countries working there. I like fitting right into diverse places, but I tend to stick out a lot in my homogenous 150,000 people town. |
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the ireland
Joined: 11 May 2008
Location: korea
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| Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 7:10 pm Post subject: |
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| southernman wrote: |
Luckily I'n not effected by either of them.
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not even at 5 or 6 oclock when you are sitting at the traffic lights next to homeplus and about 2000 samsung workers join you in a motorcyle/scooter parade??? That is an awesome sight!!
Geoje is excellent, we have some great western / korean / s.e asian restaurants down here....it's becoming so popular that McDonalds will be opening at homeplus shortly, just to the other side of the main entrance, opposite of starbucks |
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Kurtz
Joined: 05 Jan 2007
Location: ples bilong me
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| Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 7:39 pm Post subject: |
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| Chet Wautlands wrote: |
| I'm interested in Geoje-Do. I've only ever heard good things. Far from Busan? Winter weather OK? Are the beaches actually decent? |
There's a bridge that's going to be finished in the not too distant future joining the island (even though it's already joined by a bridge to the mainland) to Busan. I can just imagine the busloads/carloads of people from Busan heading over to Geoje in droves on a weekend after the bridge is completed.
Good beaches....well, that's all relative but I wouldn't rate them very highly, but then again, I have high standards. Yes, there is sand, water, but any waves? not likely.
I guess week to week living would be OK, especially in Okpo which is very international, but one wanting some city action would probably leave it behind on a weekend. |
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southernman
Joined: 15 Jan 2010
Location: On the mainland again
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| Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 8:17 pm Post subject: |
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| the ireland wrote: |
| southernman wrote: |
Luckily I'n not effected by either of them.
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not even at 5 or 6 oclock when you are sitting at the traffic lights next to homeplus and about 2000 samsung workers join you in a motorcyle/scooter parade??? That is an awesome sight!!
Geoje is excellent, we have some great western / korean / s.e asian restaurants down here....it's becoming so popular that McDonalds will be opening at homeplus shortly, just to the other side of the main entrance, opposite of starbucks |
Yes it is and sometimes I join in. But i actually live about 7 kms from there so I usually avoid it, plus its only a 7-9000 won taxi trip for later in the evenings, so my semi-rural location is not bad at all. Now that I'm stocked up on all the neccessities
Yeah just a subway to go and my western food cravings will be sated
I agree that theres no real surf here but some of the beaches are ok and I now know about the non-tourist ones that the locals go to, which are susposed to be better.
The weather here was relatively mild this winter (and I ride my scooter to work, one of my schools was a 14 km ride) nothing under -8 at 8.15am still I was rugged up big time.
Theres about 3-4 fast ferries to Busan a day and the bus ride can take as little as 4 hours to Seoul if the traffic gods are with you.
The extra money you make for multiple teaching placings and living in a rural location is a nice bonus as well.
Can't really agree about Okpo though, I've been avoiding it, loads of Hostess bars from all accounts catering to the well healed western engineers. From what I've heard it does have some excellent western restaurants and a couple of 'normal bars' that are good. The ex-pat club is susposed to be the goods for western meals at cheap prices. I know a few western teachers living in Okpo that seem to cruise over to Gohyeon or Jangpyeong most weekends.
Actually the western engineers are fine for the most part, when they find out you're a teacher its kinda a surprise for them and to get shouted a drink or two is not uncommon |
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the ireland
Joined: 11 May 2008
Location: korea
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| Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 8:37 pm Post subject: |
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| southernman wrote: |
Yeah just a subway to go and my western food cravings will be sated |
we had one here in gohyeon but it closed down about 2 years ago, it was located across the road from the old dunkin' donuts (where KFC is now) on the second floor above the head shop. A friend of mine called moon owned it, he was a really nice guy but had no business sense however the sandwiches were great, not to mention the free cookies he used to throw in.
| southernman wrote: |
| I agree that theres no real surf here but some of the beaches are ok and I now know about the non-tourist ones that the locals go to, which are susposed to be better. |
The further south you go, the better the beach.
| southernman wrote: |
Can't really agree about Okpo though, I've been avoiding it, loads of Hostess bars from all accounts catering to the well healed western engineers. From what I've heard it does have some excellent western restaurants and a couple of 'normal bars' that are good. The ex-pat club is susposed to be the goods for western meals at cheap prices. I know a few western teachers living in Okpo that seem to cruise over to Gohyeon or Jangpyeong most weekends. |
I agree, Okpo hasn't got a patch on gohyeon, I avoid the place as much as possible however I did take a trip there on sunday to go to the Indian restaurant only to find out it closes on sunday, walked around the place for a half hour just giving out about it to my g.f.
We ended up going back to gohyeon and eating in VIPS instead. It was easter sunday so we fancied something different than we have been eating lately.
There is a great group of us getting together of late, usually WA Bar or jazz bar will have about 20 foreigners residing in it on a fri/sat night. |
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southernman
Joined: 15 Jan 2010
Location: On the mainland again
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| Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 9:28 pm Post subject: |
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There is a great group of us getting together of late, usually WA Bar or jazz bar will have about 20 foreigners residing in it on a fri/sat night.[/quote]
No doubt our paths crossed at the weekend. I was in Wa bar around midnight for an hour or so. Then saw the new Korean band on Saturday night.
An engineer I met over a beer told me that engineers actually get charged 8000 won for a beer at Jazz bar. Another good reason to be a teacher here coz its only 4000 Won for us. He did say that the long term engineers get the locals rate |
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the ireland
Joined: 11 May 2008
Location: korea
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| Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 5:15 am Post subject: |
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| southernman wrote: |
No doubt our paths crossed at the weekend. I was in Wa bar around midnight for an hour or so. Then saw the new Korean band on Saturday night.
An engineer I met over a beer told me that engineers actually get charged 8000 won for a beer at Jazz bar. Another good reason to be a teacher here coz its only 4000 Won for us. He did say that the long term engineers get the locals rate |
Quite possibly, I headed home before they all went to the norae Bang though, got up early the next morning to play rugby with one of the other lads, there was supposed to be 8 of us playing but late nights for the other 6 meant the didn't show up.
I'm guessing you are talking about the engineer who hangs around with most of the teachers, I won't name him but he's a big guy from romania with excellent English??? That's mad that they get charged 8,000 for a beer. The way Jazz bar works is crazy though, they always mess up the bill and get annoyed when you pay for the beer before you drink it....people wanna pay before they drink because they keep overcharging for what you had!! |
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southernman
Joined: 15 Jan 2010
Location: On the mainland again
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| Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 5:48 am Post subject: |
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| the ireland wrote: |
| southernman wrote: |
No doubt our paths crossed at the weekend. I was in Wa bar around midnight for an hour or so. Then saw the new Korean band on Saturday night.
An engineer I met over a beer told me that engineers actually get charged 8000 won for a beer at Jazz bar. Another good reason to be a teacher here coz its only 4000 Won for us. He did say that the long term engineers get the locals rate |
Quite possibly, I headed home before they all went to the norae Bang though, got up early the next morning to play rugby with one of the other lads, there was supposed to be 8 of us playing but late nights for the other 6 meant the didn't show up.
I'm guessing you are talking about the engineer who hangs around with most of the teachers, I won't name him but he's a big guy from romania with excellent English??? That's mad that they get charged 8,000 for a beer. The way Jazz bar works is crazy though, they always mess up the bill and get annoyed when you pay for the beer before you drink it....people wanna pay before they drink because they keep overcharging for what you had!! |
Yeah can't say I went to the norae bong either, headed to Jangpyong to play some pool. No the Engineer I was talking about is Scottish. Ahah must admit I usually pay as I go unless its Wa Bar.. its far easier on the pockets |
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the ireland
Joined: 11 May 2008
Location: korea
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| Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 5:58 am Post subject: |
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| southernman wrote: |
| the ireland wrote: |
| southernman wrote: |
No doubt our paths crossed at the weekend. I was in Wa bar around midnight for an hour or so. Then saw the new Korean band on Saturday night.
An engineer I met over a beer told me that engineers actually get charged 8000 won for a beer at Jazz bar. Another good reason to be a teacher here coz its only 4000 Won for us. He did say that the long term engineers get the locals rate |
Quite possibly, I headed home before they all went to the norae Bang though, got up early the next morning to play rugby with one of the other lads, there was supposed to be 8 of us playing but late nights for the other 6 meant the didn't show up.
I'm guessing you are talking about the engineer who hangs around with most of the teachers, I won't name him but he's a big guy from romania with excellent English??? That's mad that they get charged 8,000 for a beer. The way Jazz bar works is crazy though, they always mess up the bill and get annoyed when you pay for the beer before you drink it....people wanna pay before they drink because they keep overcharging for what you had!! |
Yeah can't say I went to the norae bong either, headed to Jangpyong to play some pool. No the Engineer I was talking about is Scottish. Ahah must admit I usually pay as I go unless its Wa Bar.. its far easier on the pockets |
It really is, WA Bar never seem to mess up the order though, they use a sensible system called writing it down, or inputting it into a computer!!
There are a group of guys in my school and some others in gohyeon who ride around the island on their bikes (and one scooter) every weekend, usually on a sunday. They even set up a facebook page called G.I.R.T.H. They go see some nice places, I don't have a bike or a scooter, I'm not too fussed with getting one, it would be handy to tour the island but I'm not willing to pay 800,000 for one plus the guys aren't insured on theirs either. |
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