Korean Job Discussion Forums

[crescent]

Any comments on this list for us nonSeouls ?

http://travel.cnn.com/top-things-do-and-see-seoul-915321?hpt=hp_c4

[Yagremohbhg]

Page too slow to load.

Off the top of my head....

For cinemaphiles - the Insadong Cinema has monthly retrospective of great actors or directors as well as arthouse, indie, documentaries from all over the world with K and Eng subtitles as well as small festivals. Also the restaurants on the main street or off the side alleys have the best kalgooksoo I've ever had with many varieties you'll be hard pressed to find elsewhere.

For a romantic date, I have no idea what it's like now, but "All that Jazz' in Itaewon had a great ambiance and a perfect margarita back in the early 2000's. Sky Bar in Gangnam has / had an amazing rooftop view of the city and the Han with soft jazz, good cocktails and free cigarettes.

If it's true they have lifted their smoking ban, Nasheville's in Itaewon happy hour of a pint of OB Blue on tap for 1.250 won and their two pool tables represents a great hangout for the cheap booze-hound pool player scumbag like me

For pure noxious, meat market sleazefests, Tin Pan and Ho Bar franchises in Hongdae cannot be beat.

COEX is a decent mall for a day out - kimchi museum, casino, decent aquarium and all the stores ready and waiting to fleece your wallet or purse for luxury western brand items. The Hotel cigar room there is good as is their lounge bar for a quiet Romio et Jullieta and Canadian Club with ginger ale. Wear a suit and hope that a rich single cougar enters and meets your gaze for James Bond fantasy fulfillment.

The National, state run Horse racing association building near I think exit 2 of Seolleung station is a fun day out and a great opportunity to see a slice of Korean life and some very colourful characters that shouldn't be missed and at min cheon won or max 100k won a bet limits, you won't lose your shirt. Be ready to be 'rubbed for luck.' Yup, some of the elders, including ajumas that go there believe touching a foreigner will give them luck at the gee gees. They'll also ocaisionally mutter things about the waygook in the room causing the bad luck when they lose also. But nothing dicey ever happens and it will open your eyes to some colorful going ons.

I could do this all day but I have other stuff to do....

I lament that there are no longer any non sleazefest (as mentioned above) or non metrosexual overpriced nightclubs anymore where you could just dress casual and dance with girls who might be looking for some frollicking if they met a nice chappie.

There used to be two in Itaewon called 'Hollywood Basement' - Now 'Spy bar' and Limelight's (my fave) which is now The Hollywood Rock store or whatever they call that.

For me I died spiritually when the two aforementioned 'normal' nightclubs closed down and the glory days came to an end and I can only now gaze at Itaewon in those days in the early 2000's as a bitter old man with acid reflux disease and a bad liver glancing squintingly at a snowglobe; so far am I removed from that universe, those times of brilliance and the self that once inhabited it.

The Hamilton sauna used to be good and a great way to recover on a Sunday before a nice meal, but now you get stared at by homosexuals. It's not every comfortable and I recommend the 'Itaewon World' one further up on the opposite side of the street.

Oh, Olympic park is gorgeous and whilst not quite Hyde or Central Park, it's a good day out accompanied with a camera, a date or a friend, family etc.

I liked Korea, just hated working there.

[rainman3277]

[Stan Rogers]

Go to a love motel.

[maitaidads]

Kiss-bang

[hellofaniceguy]

Why 13?

[hellofaniceguy]

Why 13/

[dairyairy]

[toby99]

What a bland, awful, uninspired list. Say a tourist has seven or eight nights in Seoul- who on earth would recommend spending one of them at JJ Mahoney's. Maybe someone with their hand down Hyatt's pocket, or a fly-by journalist who did little more than open a Lonely Planet Korea before writing that list. Just shameful. That list is almost as bad as the expat bloggers pumping Suji's every third post.

[crescent]

Yeah, it struck me as a list for retirees. But, I have never been to some of those places so I wondered what people living in Seoul thought.

[chrisblank]

If I were a tourist, with limited time...just off the top of my head:

63 Building
Seoul Tower
Nam Dae Mun Market
Tong Dae Mun Market
Yong San Market
Han River
Myung-Dong
Insa-dong
Deoksugung Palace
Gyeongbokgung Palace
Changdeokgung Palace
KOEX Mall
Lotte World

Bars, clubs and restaurants can be found anywhere. I would take tourists to pojangmacha, little antique pubs or ajuma run galbi places.

[littlelisa]

I've told a bunch of visiting people to check out a market, like 광장시장. You can wander around and get some good 빈데떡 or whatever. It's more of a local fun thing than a touristy one, but people who've gone have liked it. There are other markets around, like the fish market, and for people who don't live here it's different and interesting.

For people who like music, the 국립국악원 has a lot of cheap traditional music concerts, and they have a free museum there too. I suppose it would be boring for a lot of people, but I like it.

[seoulsucker]

For swank nightlife they were pretty spot on, though. It doesn't get much hotter/busier than Glam and Octagon. Those two places hold up to just about anywhere in Asia.

[dairyairy]

[Landros]

"Rachel Sang-hee Han is a freelance writer for CNN Travel. " She doesn't resonate with me. I mean I have been to JJs and Glam and they are pretty lame. But I can see that some visiting ladies woudl be into that sort of safe kind of place.

Much prefer cycling along the Han, strolling along the Cheonggyecheon, the Burn for a cigar, walking around hongdae, but hey to each their own.