Korean Job Discussion Forums

[captain kirk]

Never been there before, Goje island. Just got back. It was Ulsan, Pusan, Jinhae, Masan, Tongyeong, Goje. And reverse back to Ulsan. Seven hours down, slept in a yogwan, next day six hours visiting. Then six hours back up. On the way down, thru Pusan, it was bumper-to-bumper traffic that Saturday night. Started driving 7pm both way down and way back, so it was night driving. Took the 750cc Virago.
Sounds funny, but the purpose was to deliver a pet hamster in its cage to VanIslander, who said he'd take it. I'm leaving back to Canada in seven weeks. Be two months in Canada before coming back here for another job teaching English.
So I had the 'ster's cage wrapped in a down sleeping back, then a tarp, and bungied down. It was chilly, but he (the hamster) looked hyper and like it was thinking WTF when I 'unpacked' him at the yogwan at Goje Island. Then he slept.
VI's a really great guy. We went out for Korean food, drank four glasses of beer, talked about stuff. Then he wanted to hire a cab to take a tour around the coast road, which is really scenic. His hagwon ex-boss, instead (and his wife) hosted US by driving us the coast road in their Musso.
The weather there is a few degrees warmer than the mainland. The air is really fresh, and there are more stars at night. The brisk, invigorating air quality (fresh) reminded me of Canada. The coast road winds and runs alongside the sea where there are beaches, lots of beaches. And we stopped at three scenic spots, great views. One place was a embarkation point for tour boats that go around little islands with cliffs on their sides, the rock in 'imaginative' formations.
There are quite alot of foreigners there who work with the shipbuilding industry. Some 200. They're from Europe, etc. Not the usual Canada/U.S., etc. foreigners that are ESL'ers. There's a shop near the 'foreigner's centre' that sells cheese, meats, imported goods for them.
The people/locals are very friendly, because they realize foreigners help in their shipbuilding, crucial to the local economy. And I guess they're used to tourists as well.
Really nice place. Sea, trees, little treed islands. If you want some peace and quiet it's cheap to rent a place to live and live by the sea, write, whatever, for a month or more.
VI was a fantastic guide/host.

[VanIslander]

Ah, shucks. Thanks for being such a great guest! And bringing a few of your hand-made boomerangs as gifts for me and my students was wonderful. The hamster is great. He slept for hours after your long trip here. It may have taken seven hours to go southward from Ulsan to Geoje Island, but that's the long way.

For others considering a visit, if you come without a motor vehicle, it's pretty cheap (15,000 W) to take the 40-minute ferry from Busan rather than drive way around via Masan and Tongyeong to the bridge on the western coast of Korea's second largest island. I recommend stopping off in Tongyeong, "the Naples of the Orient", for those who come via the bridge, though captain kirk drove right by the edge of it in order to arrive late at night (crazy! man crazy! though he says it's not much less safe at night).

Although the weather was okay, it was a good five degrees cooler than the day before. Geoje is best on a sunny day, to take advantage of the clifftop vistas and beautiful bays.

We saw the occasional foreigner out and about for a leisurely walk on a Sunday. As for how many of them, there's a few hundred at the local foreigners' club, but there's actually a couple of thousand foreigners here working at the shipyards, mostly Europeans who are engineers and company reps for ships they are having built, smart middle-aged guys often with their wives and children along for their 6- or 10-month stint. The ratio of foreigner-to-Korean is much larger here than the national average, and indeed captain kirk's nice experience talking to the locals is typical. I haven't experienced any sort of hostility from the locals, most of whom benefit directly or indirectly from the building of ships for the foreigners who mingle about the towns at night and on the weekends.

One thing captain kirk didn't mention about motorbiking to Geoje: he's grateful that we went by car around part of the island (we only travelled a third of the long coastline) because there are a lot of corners and ups and downs, fun to do solo when well rested, but harder to enjoy with two on a bike after already taking the long route to here.

The coastal road takes over four hours to do, and the better part of the day to enjoy, and has been called one of the most scenic coastal roads to drive in all of Asia. I wish captain kirk could have seen more of it! Well, he has pictures of some of it. Maybe next time, eh?

[waggo]

Very interesting.

[nev]

I'll be visiting in a couple of weeks and am looking forward to it. However in January I may be after a couple of weeks of peace:

[captain kirk]

VI, on the coastal road tour, when I said 'look over there at that rock outcropping, cool', said he'd poked around every nook and cranny on the island. He suggested renting a little house/cottage for some time. It was while we were winding around the coast highway (two lanes, one either way) and there was a little fishing village. Like you can count the houses on fingers and toes. This little place, and hordes of places like that situation, has treed mountains behind it, sea in front, and little, cliffed islands off in the sea.
Re rates VI would know.