Korea

[keatonatron]

Anyone been? I'm going to Seoul during Golden Week (first week in May).

[Machina Maw]

Nope. Never been. How long are you going for? Just a week or so?

[keatonatron]

4 days. I'm curious to hear people's experiences, if any. I've been so involved in my Japanese studies, I've totally forgotten what it's like to be outside a culture peering in Should be interesting to go to an Asian country and not speak a word of the language... again.

[Sachi]

Good luck, keatonatron-san, and have fun there I don't know anything, but I could try to ask my cousin. She knows a family from Korea. I'll post back if I do.

[richvh]

My brother was stationed there, and married a Korean.

[TrilinguisT]

they eat live octapus!

[Takeo Saeki]

Every time someone here posts something, I get more jealous. LOL. Let me know how your experience in Korea goes, keatonatron-san! Personally, I have never been there and I don't know much about it. However, I am as fascinated by Korea as I am by Japan. I would love to visit Korea sometime. I most likely will, as I have Korean pen pals as well as Japanese ones. It'll be a while though. Enjoy your trip!!!

richvh: My brother was stationed in South Korea too! Now he's back in the USA, in Georgia.

[Christian_]

Live?! Well, I saw something like that with monkeys on a Indiana Jones movie. Anyway, thats cool Keatonatron san. Korea huh? Post back what its like, your so lucky Japan and Korea. I hope I can visit Japan when I'm a little older.

[Takeo Saeki]

I plan to visit North Korea sometime. It has opened its doors to American tourists sometimes, but the opportunities are rare, from what i've heard. I plan to visit there as soon as I possibly can. I have heard it is one of the most unique countries in the world to visit, as it is a secretive country and more untouched by tourism than anywhere else. I've also heard that, while service is not great and the hotels aren't fabulous, there are beautiful and amazing places to visit. I've read comments from people who have been there and loved it, and say it is worth the difficulty of arranging a time to get there, and worth the large amount of money it apparantly costs. I'd like to go there before it either changes for whatever reason, or tensions between the USA and North Korea (which have been increasing) make it impossible for me to ever visit.

[keatonatron]

TrilinguisT wrote:
they eat live octapus!

Anyone seen "Old Boy"?

I have a few Korean friends who have told me a bit of what it's like there, but I haven't actually been myself (Yes, they do eat dogs... But as my friends pointed out, it's not the cute pet dogs, but the scrangy mutt dogs ) Apparently they also eat monkeys in some areas.

[Christian_]

North Korea? I wouldn't visit a country thats communist/hates americans/wants to or has (whatever) developed nuclear weapons, I also heard North Korea is the most persecuting country in the world against Christians. I do agree though after it would become safer that would be a cool place to visit. I don't know much about the topic of North Korea, maybe I'm being ignorant. I dont really know and don't want to be, maybe someone can tell me some truths about north korea?

[Machina Maw]

Keatonatron; are you going to learn any of the language before you go? (Assuming you know only a little, or none)

[Takeo Saeki]

Kurisuchan wrote:
North Korea? I wouldn't visit a country thats communist/hates americans/wants to or has (whatever) developed nuclear weapons, I also heard North Korea is the most persecuting country in the world against Christians. I do agree though after it would become safer that would be a cool place to visit. I don't know much about the topic of North Korea, maybe I'm being ignorant. I dont really know and don't want to be, maybe someone can tell me some truths about north korea?

I've done a fair bit of research on this, and visiting North Korea doesn't seem like such a bad idea to me. Besides, they depend on tourist money, so i'm not worried about them harming me physically. Injure or kill one tourist and you'll never get another one. They know that. They rely on tourists, as they are one of the poorest countries in the world. Not to mention, it would put them in an even worse spot than before with the international community, and that's the last thing they need right now.

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_988.html

As you can see, if you follow their rules, you're fine. I've visited friends' houses that were more strict than that (I'm not kidding; I really have), so this is no problem for me. The way I see it, the only difficulties are arranging a time to go there and then paying the large amount of money. I think it's worth it. I'd like to go there before messy tourists start ruining places there by littering and vandalizing, before the DPRK changes somehow (like, new leadership or something), or before it is scarred to unrecognizability by WW3 (which is looking close, what with all this tension between the USA, Russia, China, the EU, Iran, Israel, and North Korea right now).

[Jim]

TrilinguisT wrote:
they eat live octapus!

I saw that on National Geographic.. I want to dry it, looks nice.



Never been to Asia nevermind Korea, would like to go one day on holiday or something but hangual looks v.hard.

[Sumi]

I would love to visit South Korea before going to Japan