Seoul
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- DrBombay
Thinking about a trip there next year. I found a few threads, but am looking for what neighborhoods I should be staying in, temples, shopping, nightlife and what not. Any help would be dope.
- Peter0
Have you checked out http://www.pusanweb.com/ and their forum?
Make sure to stop by Japan when you're in the neighborhood.
I know a place for a mean bbq.Could hop on a beetle from Pusan, I think, ( http://www.jrbeetle.co.jp/englis… ) and go hang around Fukuoka or Okinawa before making your way up to Tokyo. Some nice beaches there...
- I bought a tiny grill over the weekend similar to yours for baseball games.DrBombay
- DrBombay0
Peter, have you been to Pusan before? I am trying my best to do it all come April.
- Peter0
Almost dragged there once. Mean Korean girl who could drink most men under the table, even after a night of binging.
But no.
- www.bing.com ?DrBombay
- A night of binging? I am perplexed.TheBlueOne
- Binging. I'd paste url to some facebook pics, she's the one holding scotch or beers in all pics, but I wouldn't want this crowd to see it.Peter
- ...viewable for everyone on qbn ;)Peter
- ps. the dragging started after a night of boozing. ds.Peter
- haDrBombay
- inteliboy0
Pusan aint that great - was there for the film festival. Had an amazing time, but not sure if it's picture-perfect for an actual holiday.
- i_monk0
Shinchon: University student area, full of noraebang (karaoke) and restaurants.
Hongdae: South west of Shinchon, it's the nightclub area for that part of town (at night) and the trendy artsy district during the day.
Myeongong: the fashion district, but Korean fashion can be odd and unless you're kinda small it probably won't fit.
I highly recommend the National Museum of Korea; it's a bit of a trek but you can get there on the subway and it'll take at least an afternoon to see most of it. The National Museum of Contemporary Art was an even longer trek (still on the subway of course) but it was full of interesting stuff, spent another afternoon there.
Itaewon is where most non-student foreigners can be found in the city, and it's a bit shit. I wouldn't go there.
Yongsan is the big electronics district, check out E-Mart if you want to blow a ton of cash on electronics, games, etc.
The main palace is Gyeongbokgung, it's just north of City Hall. I went there as a kid and remember liking it, but I didn't get back to it last time. This is also near the downtown stream they resurrected, Cheonggyecheon, and Insadong the antiques market (this is where one of only 2(?) Starbucks in the world was forced to change its wordmark to the local writing). There's a huge music store somewhere in this area too, quality foreign brand stuff at lower prices than you'd expect.
I didn't go, but Seoul Tower is a big sight seeing stop too, pretty much what you'd expect.
Yeoido Island (the big island in the Han River) is also nice in spring, with the trees blossoming and whatnot.
All of this, except the two museums, is on the north side of the river. I lived on the south side when I was a kid, but it's changed a lot since then so I can't recommend anything.
- October0
be sure you can speak / read some korean if youre spending any time outside of seoul. when i was there, i nearly got lost transferring train lines. no english on their signs outside of seoul.
i stayed at seoulbackpackers.com for 2 weeks. good value and good location + free wifi. 2 minute walk to the nearest subway station, 1 station away from seoul station and its just in front of the namdaemun markets. check the seoul subway map, if youre staying somewhere near the middle and north of the river, you should be fine cause you can easily transfer to other lines.
clothes shopping, dongdaemun has the best stuff. its like seoul's shibuya. its also close to seoul tower so you can make another stop there.
check out as many temples you can, theyre all pretty cool and you wont be able to see them all anyway. dress up in traditional korean clothes and take pics for posterity.
insadong for souvenirs and traditional korean stuff. its one of the best neighborhoods in seoul ive been to but its gets really crowded on weekends i heard.
try not to spend too much time in itaewon, thats where most of the tourists, us soldiers and hookers hang out. its good if you want someone to talk to in english for a while.
done be afraid to try out korean food. i hope you can handle spicy food. point if you cant read it. korean bbq is teh awesome ++ if you can handle soju. get used to kimchi with every meal. honestly, every meal i had to get burger king on my 5th day cause kimchi was wreaking havoc. street food is fantastic.
i hope youre not obsessive about everything being clean, if you are, seoul's not for you.
ultimately, the best way for you to enjoy seoul is if you know someone who lives there. i had a buddy from work who was doing his doctorate there so he showed me around. he had some more korean buddies who were more than willing to be your entourage on nights out. they would know the best places that you wont find on online travel guides. you can also read up on korean blogs for tips.
and print the english subway map before you go. they dont always have them. http://www.nsubway.co.kr/korea/s…
good luck and have fun!
- jfletcher0
I think most good stuff has been mentioned.... but I'll drop in. My wife is Korean, and I've been there a ton.
in-sa-dong is like the tourist old school korea. It's a cool place, espcially if you like traditional art supply stuff. I had a seal/stamp made for me there. Love it although I rarely use it :p
I'll take Myeong-dong (note the "d", not sure if the above was accidental mis-spelling) over dong-dae-mun. Dong-dae-mun feels a little too knock off for me I think.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Gang-nam which may be my fav place.
I have never been to I-tae-won and unless I have a real reason won't go there. I prefer Korean-Korea. I usually stay outside of Seoul in San-bon, but unless you want to wander into the weeds outsdie Seoul I wouldn't worry about it... but someone said it above, if you go outside Seoul, learn a little. It's an alphebet system and some basics arne't too bad... well, actually "hello" may be the biggest pain in the ass in learning :p
Few notes besides places:
try street food. It's fine, won't get you sick. My favs are:
dokk-bokk-i - spicy rice cake
man-doo - dumplings/gyozaIf you can find a place, try live octopus/squid. They chop off the legs and serve them moving. Just an interesting experience.
Learning to say a few phrases is helpful and people appriciate it.
an-nyong-ha-se-yo = hello
hwa-jeong-shil = bathroom :D
gam-sa-ham-ni-da = thank youSomeone can feel free to correct my english spelling above. I haven't spelled the words in english in a while >.<
- jfletcher0
Hey Bombay - I see you do some music stuff in Tokyo. Random question, you ever been to a small/tiny music bar in Shibuya called Wasted Time?
- i_monk0
"ko-map-sum-ni-da" is a more formal form of "thank you" they don't expect foreigners to know (barely pronounce the p in map).
"chal mok-ges-sum-ni-da" is the equivalent of "this looks delicious",
"chal mok-oss-sum-ni-da" is the equivalent of "that was delcious", basic niceties for restaurants or if you're a guest eating over.It's been a few years since I studied Korean so I'm a bit rusty at the phonetics.
- pressplay0
check out PLATOON Kunsthalle
http://www.kunsthalle.com/
- instrmntl0
*bump
- omg0
