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Wonton posted:Korea is fun, it’s cheap as hell compared to japan. Also kind of fun with the number of north east Chinese here and the Americanization. its great but i wish tomatoes were cheaper
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Oct 16, 2022 09:33
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| # ? May 15, 2024 01:55 |
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koreagoons has anyone heard back from the maple syrup courtier from a few pages back
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Oct 16, 2022 16:23
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Man bbq here is just loving great. Would visit again, hopefully I can see more k goons and nullscan
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Oct 18, 2022 11:09
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Seeing some pretty sad images of the aftermath in itaewon, hope all y'all are safe out there
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Oct 29, 2022 19:13
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How does that even happen? Was it on one of the back alleys?
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Oct 29, 2022 23:26
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It was the road next to the Hamilton that goes back toward fountain. Not a narrow space but it always gets insanely crowded on Halloween. Horrible stuff. Hope everyone here is well.
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Oct 29, 2022 23:30
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Everyone checked in okay
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Oct 30, 2022 02:04
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Did 11 days in Korea in September. Highly recommend. Seoul is awesome and my fat rear end benefited from the long walks in subway transfers.
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Oct 31, 2022 12:36
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My wife and I (US citizens) have wanted to visit South Korea -- mainly Seoul -- for years, and we were gearing up to go in 2020 when... *waves hands vaguely*. We're looking at finally visiting in 2023. Neither of us know Korean but have picked up some basic phases and etiquette from podcasts and a beginner textbook, and we'll try to learn more before the trip. We can both stumble through reading Hangul very slowly, but our vocabulary is very limited. Despite reading a lot of travel blogs that cover travel and tourism in Korea, I still have some questions with outdated or conflicting answers. I'll just dump them here in case anyone has any insight. 1. Most of the blogs say to go in spring or fall. Is September/October still an okay time to visit? I'm hoping to stay for 7-10 days. 2. We'd mostly stay in Seoul and do the touristy things (palaces, temples, parks, museums, Hanok Village, etc.) but also want to check out some of the more local flavor. Good hole-in-the-wall restaurants, private karaoke rooms, street markets, whatever else. Is there a good resource for finding this kind of stuff? 3. I am anxious driving even in large US cities, and everything I've read said not to rent a car in Seoul. As someone with limited Korean language skills, am I going to be able to figure out the subways, trains, and buses? 4. It looks like Korean Air has massively scaled back their flights to the US since the pandemic started, and Delta operates most of "their" US flights now. And I guess they bought/are buying Asiana? Flying international carriers is generally much nicer than Delta/American/United, but it seems like that may not even be an option. Any ideas on this? 5. We'd like to spend a couple of days at Jeju Island, mainly just enjoying the sights. It looks like it's a short flight from Gimpo, and not too expensive. Is two days enough? Too much? Is there anything we should know? 6. How are COVID things going there? Are most things open with precautions? I'm full vaccinated and am used to being the only person in a public building still wearing a mask, so that's not an issue at all. As someone who hasn't done much international travel, this seems like... a lot. But it's an experience I've wanted for years, so I'm fumbling my way through it. I'd appreciate any insight or advice anyone has.
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Jan 1, 2023 02:25
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WhiteHowler posted:My wife and I (US citizens) have wanted to visit South Korea -- mainly Seoul -- for years, and we were gearing up to go in 2020 when... *waves hands vaguely*. We're looking at finally visiting in 2023. It might depend on your location but check google for your nearest Korean Cultural Centre if you want to get some language lessons from native speaking Koreans. A lot of them offer free weekly classes on Zoom and in person, and also tend to provide free ebook versions of of the texts and very cheap physical versions of the texts. You could probably learn a lot of similar stuff from podcasts and whatnot, but its a good opportunity to ask questions from people born and raised in Korea, and a lot of people tend to sign up for them with the intention of visiting Korea the same year so the teachers seem to offer a lot of good advice for people working with a limited vocabulary. In the case of the Zoom classes the geographical range they'll accept students can be pretty broad too. The one in Sydney usually has students from states all over Australia, and I'm pretty sure the main reason they insist you be living in Australia for them is scheduling purposes.
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Jan 1, 2023 03:05
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1. October is ideal, yeah. The best bet for nice weather. If you're lucky with timing the foliage can be especially nice. 2. I think 10 days is a bit long for just Seoul, give yourself a couple of days in Busan to make a better trip. It's just a 3-hour train ride (Edit: Oh well since you might go to Jeju, maybe just spend longer down there). Ask here for the out-of-the-way recommendations closer to your trip. That stuff changes constantly, so new stuff will exist by next Autumn and there's no guarantee whichever little treasure I recommend now will still be around. 3. Yeah all the signage and navigation apps have English. 4. Korean Air and Delta codeshared half of their US-bound flights even before recent activity. If you're lucky, you'll get the Korean cabin crew. They were the only airline operating flights to my hometown, so I don't know what the alternatives might be like. 5. If you go to Jeju you need to drive. Public transit isn't nearly as useful as on the mainland. Most of the best beaches are on the west side and northeast corner. Most of the sightseeing spots are on the southern side. Jeju city sucks, don't stay there. Seogwipo is a better base to travel from. You won't see everything in two days, but you could have a nice full itinerary. 6. You currently have to wear masks indoors but probably not by next Autumn. Schools are dropping them this month. Otherwise, it's back to normal.
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Jan 1, 2023 03:57
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Redezga posted:It might depend on your location but check google for your nearest Korean Cultural Centre if you want to get some language lessons from native speaking Koreans. A lot of them offer free weekly classes on Zoom and in person, and also tend to provide free ebook versions of of the texts and very cheap physical versions of the texts. Thanks! The Korean population here is extremely small, sadly. The local Korean church offered free Korean lessons before the pandemic, but they were mainly geared toward children. No idea if they're still offering them, but I can ask around. Online will probably be the way to go. Bugblatter posted:2. I think 10 days is a bit long for just Seoul, give yourself a couple of days in Busan to make a better trip. It's just a 3-hour train ride. I love going places to new places and just... living there for a little while. I'll usually do touristy things for two or three days and then spend the rest of the time exploring food and activities that aren't necessarily geared toward tourists. Not having anything to do for a few days is a bonus, to be honest. I don't know anything about Busan, other than that the cast of Running Man occasionally make fun of it for being a backwater (but I think it's kind of like New Yorkers making fun of Chicago?). quote:3. Yeah all the signage and navigation apps have English. I know Seoul is rotten with English, but how common is it in other cities? Does Busan get enough western visitors to bother putting up English signs? Oh, and the OP says Google Maps is useless in Korea. Is that still the case? quote:5. If you go to Jeju you need to drive. Public transit isn't nearly as useful as on the mainland. Most of the best beaches are on the west side and northeast corner. Most of the sightseeing spots are on the southern side. Jeju city sucks, don't stay there. Seogwipo is a better base to travel from. You won't see everything in two days, but you could have a nice full itinerary. Good advice, thanks. I'd probably be okay driving around Jeju or anywhere outside the major cities, but city driving triggers anxiety even when I'm somewhat familiar with the place. I'm guessing Uber/Lyft-type services aren't a thing there?
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Jan 1, 2023 04:48
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WhiteHowler posted:I don't know anything about Busan, other than that the cast of Running Man occasionally make fun of it for being a backwater (but I think it's kind of like New Yorkers making fun of Chicago?). It's my favorite city here. Nice oceanside metropolis with relaxed vibes, good views, and good food. I think it's easily the prettiest large city. Night-time beaches drenched in neon make for a nice vibe. And yeah, Seoulite attitudes are very much like New Yorkers who disregard anything outside their own city. Busan would dwarf most major American or European cities. quote:I know Seoul is rotten with English, but how common is it in other cities? Does Busan get enough western visitors to bother putting up English signs? Yeah, it's a major tourist destination, so English signage is on everything. Really only the smallest little towns are lacking in English these days, I don't think you'll be anywhere where it's a significant issue. quote:Oh, and the OP says Google Maps is useless in Korea. Is that still the case? It's less terrible than in the past but still not nearly as good as the local apps. Especially for public transport. Kakao or Naver maps both have full English options and their UIs are close enough to google that they won't take much getting used to. On that note, there's an app called Papago that is better for general Korean translation than Google. Especially for speech or photo translation. I don't think it was in the OP since it's a newer app and was kinda poo poo until more recently. I should probably edit it in. quote:Good advice, thanks. I'd probably be okay driving around Jeju or anywhere outside the major cities, but city driving triggers anxiety even when I'm somewhat familiar with the place. I'm guessing Uber/Lyft-type services aren't a thing there? Yeah, Seoul driving is hell. The countryside is quite pleasant though. Jeju has a unique problem where it gets a lot of Korean tourists who have licenses but no real driving experience, so you'll see a lot of truly stupid driving. Like, Seoul drivers are aggressive assholes, but Jeju drivers are just clueless. The traffic is sparse enough down there that it's generally not a danger, but just be aware that there will be a lot of people who don't really understand how stuff like intersections work.
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Jan 1, 2023 05:22
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You won't have to worry about big city driving because you won't be driving in Seoul, there is absolutely no reason to do that. I dunno about Lyfty stuff but taxis are everywhere and cheap. Have the address of your hotel in a note on your phone and you're good. The only time you'll need a taxi is if you're out after the subway closes, anyway.
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Jan 1, 2023 05:47
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For 2. I agree it's probably too far to recommend any specific ones, but Iksandong and Hongdae will likely still be good general aeas to be if you want a taste of non-nightlife youth culture, loads and loads of little restaurants and shops. Insadong too for little shops. You can also definitely fill 10 days in Seoul, but then I also don't much like Busan personally so
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Jan 1, 2023 06:15
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I remember my first visit to Seoul. At least a few times I would take the subway and get out at random stops just to explore. That’s more of a solo type adventure though. If you’re with others they’d probably just think you were lost.
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Jan 1, 2023 06:31
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Grand Fromage posted:I dunno about Lyfty stuff but taxis are everywhere and cheap. Have the address of your hotel in a note on your phone and you're good. The only time you'll need a taxi is if you're out after the subway closes, anyway. Taxis are definitely not everywhere anymore since the pandemic. Pre-pandemic I didn't even need to think about how I was getting back, last May I ended up walking from Wangsimni to Chungmuro because I couldn't get a cab and the night buses were all filled up. Uber was useless, KakaoTaxi didn't work because I didn't have a Korean phone number.
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Jan 1, 2023 12:29
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Whoa crazy, it happened the same to me. Walking back shivering and annoyed  lots of things use kakao app/phone number. I guess I could have used someone’s else number as a proxy but im sure it would get annoying after a few days
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Jan 1, 2023 12:35
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Yeah, getting taxis in the Seoul Metro Area is by no means a sure thing anymore. Especially if you're not familiar with local reservation systems or don't have a local number that can be registered with Kakaotaxi. If you plan on partying past midnight, it would be best to have accommodations within walking distance, just in case. During the day it won't be an issue. Maybe the driver shortage will have been fixed by next Autumn, but that's how things stand right now.
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Jan 1, 2023 16:13
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I assume I'll need to change over to Korean mobile service while I'm there. Can one pick up a Korean SIM card with a short-term or prepaid plan and pop it into an unlocked western phone? I have a Pixel 6 that theoretically works with all carriers.
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Jan 1, 2023 16:34
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Glad I brought it up before I got caught taxi-less, then.
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Jan 1, 2023 19:03
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WhiteHowler posted:I assume I'll need to change over to Korean mobile service while I'm there. Can one pick up a Korean SIM card with a short-term or prepaid plan and pop it into an unlocked western phone? Yes. There are booths outside of baggage claim at Incheon airport specifically for renting SIMs and loaner phones. You can also get a prepaid SIM at any cell phone store in town, but it might be difficult unless you bring a friend who speaks Korean. (I used to use prepaid SIMs, but now I use my US-based Google Fi, which has international coverage).
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Jan 1, 2023 21:55
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TLDR: get your sim sorted out before landing to save time. Klook or whatever online vendor that can mail it to your house. Airports all over the world sell prepaid SIM cards, but their value is like the old airport foreign currency exchange booths: Expensive, slow and for boomers. Not only do you have to queue again with every other schmuck once you clear immigrations/customs/get bags, you are at their mercy of their inflated prices, they ask you a bajillion questions, they scan your passport, and make you fill or acknowledge forms and poo poo. They just sell you some rebadged name like Sakura mobile/do you know dokdo mobile/greater bay #1!!!!!!1 with castrated services. Then you get that one wise guy who checks out all sim booths thinking he will find the “best deal “ and waste another 35 minutes of his life. Or a group of people where they all hold the line and debate with each other if they should all use the same plan or one main phone person should get a bigger plan. Oh and people haven’t even swapped their SIM cards out of their cases and load some web page. On the grand scheme of things, this doesn’t really matters as much because everyone’s excited to travel!!!!!! But if you arrive at the airport later at night, you might miss that last night train or wait another hour for the next night bus. Whereas if you got your sim business sorted out beforehand you can walk pass everyone, go to a convenient store, buy some snacks and get the gently caress out the airport and actually enjoy your vacation. By going on the forums or scrolling your phone when you are public transit.
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Jan 1, 2023 23:04
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KT, SK, and U+ are the major cell services here. They all have prepaid or short term options, and they all have clearly marked booths outside international arrivals. All three have similar coverage and speed and comparable pricing. KT has a handy foreigner help like, so some people prefer them. You can reserve a sim online before arrival to save a little time (honestly they’re pretty fast and clear on site), but the options are the same as at the booth. Just make sure you reserve from the company itself, not a third party, to avoid extra costs. Any other options will just be using those networks with caveats. Generally worse service for not much money saved. This is KT’s reservation page: https://roaming.kt.com/ib/eng/m/cts/sim.asp I dunno the other two, but they’re probably google-able.
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Jan 2, 2023 00:20
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Or search Amazon and get something like this Australia, Japan, Singapore, Israel, United States , India, China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Philippines, SIM Card https://a.co/d/cT3dBVN Once the plane lands on the runway, it takes another 20 min to get you into the actual terminal, or god forbid there’s no air bridge and you get smashed into some mini bus and use another 10/20 minutes. Yeah, it’s neat to look at luggage trolleys, catering cars, different planes and airlines, hangar bays and all the people working at the airport in the background. But most of the time it’s either a packed sweaty bus at night where you can’t see much or just want to get out of the airport after a long flight. Best downtime to use your phone.
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Jan 2, 2023 01:08
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The shuttle buses take like 3 minutes tops, the airport has wifi, and SK's immigration is relatively breezy? That card is interesting though, any experience using it? I'm heading to Japan soon and that's cheaper than most options I've seen. (Edit: Wait, only 6GB. Nevermind. I uh, I use a lot more)
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Jan 2, 2023 01:27
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In japan you can just use go to yodobashi/big camera stores and buy a prepaid sim. No need to check passports and all. 5G is like 3,400 yen - not the cheapest but convenient at least. I’m sure if you are in Korea you can find something cheaper. I think those shuttle buses take an eternity because you could have walked straight into the airport but nope your airline is too loving cheap and now you have to jump through another hoop. Time to get packed into a dimsum cart! Airport Wi-Fi is actually fine but it doesn’t exist in the tarmac. You just have to go through a few splash scenes and when you are walking across new hotspots you might need to re-accept the Wi-Fi splash screen again. Which gets cumbersome quickly. I know I’m a little adamant and goony on sorting this stuff out beforehand. I’m not advocating for max package/optimal data package before each trip - but buying data at the airport sucks. Being a data hobo also blows, you have to hunt for Wi-Fi hotspots and ask for passwords - you feel like some kid asking for screen time permission
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Jan 2, 2023 02:09
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Man the shuttles aren’t that bad, I’m pretty sure they’re only used for regional connections to Asia anyway. Every trans-pacific flight I’ve done pulled directly to the terminal.
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Jan 2, 2023 02:58
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I honestly can't remember any point in a Korean airport (arriving, I mean) where I had time to gently caress around on a phone anyway. Gimhae is like 20 minutes from gate to exit even with the stop to pick up a wifi or sim. Incheon's a bit more just because it's bigger but it's not like you're just standing around for an hour desperate to post.
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Jan 2, 2023 03:05
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CaptainEO posted:Yes. There are booths outside of baggage claim at Incheon airport specifically for renting SIMs and loaner phones. You can also get a prepaid SIM at any cell phone store in town, but it might be difficult unless you bring a friend who speaks Korean. Trains are easy without speaking Korean, the apps are great and the stops are posted in English. Local buses not so much -- the station maps are korean only, and many buses don't have a screen so you have to listen for the name of the stop. The inter-city buses are much more accessible though. Last I checked (several years ago tbf) in order to get a prepaid sim at a cell phone store you needed to have already been in the country for 48 hours, and the appointment would take 20-30 minutes as they needed to call someone and fax your ID somewhere. The 48 hour rule never made much sense to me, maybe it changed. Either way, much easier to get that sorted out before leaving the airport where they are much more used to foreigners needing a prepaid SIM. Noraebang (karaoke) is everywhere. Tip, go for a coin noraebang -- you still have your own room and it's typically something like 1000/3 songs which goes a lot further than the hourly rate, especially if it will take you 10 minutes to figure out how to use the remote.
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Jan 2, 2023 09:52
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We're looking at planning a trip to Korea in June, probably Seoul and Busan? I appreciate this is kind of a stupid thing to ask, but, I'm really into Dakgangjeong. Is there someplace in particular worth visiting? In New York we did like a 'best pizza slice' tour (I mean, y'know, we plotted a route on google maps) and it was a cool way to explore, to just have a reason to wander vaguely in certain directions. Would something like that be possible or even slightly sensible?
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Jan 2, 2023 23:29
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!Klams posted:We're looking at planning a trip to Korea in June, probably Seoul and Busan? Yeah, 닭강정 is everywhere. While the vast majority are national chains, there are enough famous individual stores spread around the city to plot a course. If you search around Naver for 닭강정 맛집 BEST you'll find a bunch of lists. Just check the Naver map entries for each to make sure there are recent reviews, restaurants come and go all the time. The caveat is most of the ones ranked at the top will be in a few specific food-centric districts, and stuff near the palaces will mostly be generic chains. So, it'll be more of a supplement to a standard tour. Also, a lot of them will be takeout only, so you'd eat in a park or something (Really common in the months you'll visit. Can even have it delivered to you in the park if you're confident enough in giving Korean directions).
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Jan 3, 2023 01:10
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Please report back on the 닭강정 tour, I'm curious to know what hit and what missed
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Jan 3, 2023 02:29
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Bugblatter posted:Yeah, 닭강정 is everywhere. While the vast majority are national chains, there are enough famous individual stores spread around the city to plot a course. If you search around Naver for 닭강정 맛집 BEST you'll find a bunch of lists. Just check the Naver map entries for each to make sure there are recent reviews, restaurants come and go all the time. Oh, wow, perfect thank you so much! This is ideal! Yeah, it's always kind of supplemental, but whenever I go anywhere I like to have a kind of mission to go on, just because it's a good excuse to go places and see things. A perrenial one is "find spooky sweets", because its broad enough that you can feasibly try anywhere, but specific enough that it's never easy, and it usually takes you to cool places.
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Jan 3, 2023 12:37
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Not really a travel question but I figured this is the best place to ask: I want to buy a Korean BluRay and it appears only available at small Korean webshops that don't ship internationally (and also are completely in Korean). So I'm looking for a forwarding service to help me with the purchase. Apparently there is like a million of these around. Does anybody have experience with such services and can recommend one? Doesn't need to be the cheapest or fastest but it should be reliable and offer assisted purchasing. Thanks!
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Jan 9, 2023 22:36
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Have you tried gmarket? They ship internationally but their selection is spotty.
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Jan 9, 2023 23:50
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Unfortunately no luck, but thanks for the suggestion!
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Jan 11, 2023 22:28
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So my heir apparent and wife are planning on visiting Korea this spring. It's my understanding that he's gonna need a Korean passport to go into Korea, and will need his US passport to get back into the US, right? I'd love to join them, but I used up all of my vacation time last fall to help be a good dad and help raise him in those first few months. So, sorry kgoons no soju chugs 
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Jan 24, 2023 00:33
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AmbientParadox posted:So my heir apparent and wife are planning on visiting Korea this spring. It's my understanding that he's gonna need a Korean passport to go into Korea, and will need his US passport to get back into the US, right? I think for young children who have never been to Korea and never been issued a Korean passport, you can enter with their birth country passport and explain your situation at immigration. but don't take a goon's word for it, this is just something I vaguely remember reading while looking up something else.
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Jan 24, 2023 07:16
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Every once in a while, out of the blue, I think of maple syrup guy.
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Jan 31, 2023 11:55
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