So, new ship is being picked up by the firm I work for, currently in the final throws of it's build in Korea. I'm being transferred to it soon, maybe Xmas time.
I know nothing about Korea, apart from Taekwondo comes from there. Not even watched Squid Game.
What's the low down? Who's been there?
Lived there for a year, been doing business there for nearly twenty years. Mostly in Seoul, haven't been to Ulsan (where I presume your ship is being built?), but Busan is a great city too.
Normal rules for any new (to you) country: don't be an @rse, especially don't be a drunk @rse, and sample as much of the local food and drink as you can. I've found Koreans are incredibly generous, proud and welcoming people.
If you are in Seoul, try to rent/borrow a bicycle - the Han River cycle path is an amazing (albeit mostly flat) experience of what urban planning can achieve, and a great counterpoint to the mostly lacking urban planning of the rest of the city!
#Edit: Just re-read your post - oof, going in winter? You're gonna be frozen! Forget the Han River cycle path. Do all the eat/drink you can (still), and see if you can get someone to take you to one of the amazing, and totally family-friendly, bathhouse (jjimjilbang).
Been to Seoul quite a few times - great city. Koreans are perfectly friendly. Second the Han River park for a cool flat bike ride, though there’s plenty of hills to choose from! My aim is to do a complete circuit of the city walls one day (hiking, not cycling).
I lived on the outskirts of Seoul (Incheon to be precise) for a year doing English teaching when I was in my early 20s, however I'm guessing you'll be going to the south (Ulsan / Busan?) where all the shipbuilding is?
Amazing country / people / culture. The countryside and mountains look like carbon copies of those oriental scrolls you see in museums, absolutely stunning.
Do you like spicy food? If so, you'll be spoiled for choice. Track down a good "kimchi jjigae" restaurant and ask for extra "gochugaru" then put the loo roll on ice. You also get these sashimi restaurants where you pick the fish from a fish tank (still alive) and they make it extra fresh for you.
Korean (men) love to get absolutely blotto, usually on stuff called soju which is like industrial ethanol in a nice bottle. I'd skip that stuff and try the makgeolli, which is a really refreshing kind of rice beer. From memory, the regular Korean lager style beer will give you amnesia.
Good advice above re: not acting like an arse. Like the Japanese, the Koreans don't appreciate loud, aggressive behaviour and its also worth reading up on how to greet / say goodbye. Also, don't wear your shoes in the house!
Don't even think about dropping litter.
I really liked the food you can research here https://www.maangchi.com/
You get the kind of indoor bbq places, steamed bao buns stuffed with pork and veggies, tteokbokki, so many I can’t remember.
Other than that the old architecture is nice, the bits that weren’t blown up in the war.
You can get around easily as the trains actually work.
Went to Inchon 40 years ago on an oil tanker, don’t remember too much about as it was an extremely hurried 4hours off watch kinda thing but two things stick out. 1. Everyone wore masks and 2. I managed to buy ten sets of guitar strings.. sorry not much use 😁
I was there for 24 hrs, so obviously I’m an expert… lasting impression was a lot of concrete and seemed pretty grim. A lot like Plymouth. And absolutely freezing.
I've visited Seoul. Food was excellent, people mostly don't speak English, Seoul was pretty boring in general. I suspect getting out of the city would be much better if you can.
Busan is an industrial city, obviously. Texas Street is a shit hole full of Russian hookers and hostess bars. The latter are less seedy than they sound, I spent an amusing hour or so in one with another cadet where we were joined by a 40odd year old woman who drank ginseng shots or whatever and kept trying to speak to us in Russian. Thankfully I didn't pay for that so don't know how much we got ripped off for but it was amusing nonetheless.
Hyundai Beach was supposedly nice, I never went as we didn't want to stray too far from the hotel (long but boring story).
Mobile used to be an issue, guess that's moved on some. ATM's were definitely a huge issue, none of our cards worked in any, this was 2006 though so maybe things have changed.
They love Spam, I think, certainly judging by the amount of gift hampers I saw.
English wasn't widely spoken, probably more so outside of tourist/sailor spots. Was comparable to Japan in that respect.
Oh, and the flight to Busan was fun. Mad dash from Incheon to Gimpo (no forwarding flight had been booked and agent wanted shot of us) before boarding a near empty plane that smelled of burnt insulation. I'd already been awake all the way through Glasgow to Heathrow to Frankfurt to Incheon and honestly was too tired to care at that point. The views over Mongolia were spectacular though.
Find a Korean BBQ restaurant, oooh my god yum. As for not getting drunk, that's not my memory of the clients I took out, they loved it and insisted on try5ro beat the westerner at dowing crates of soju (they lost), and karaoke.
I found Seoul to be an odd place, massively busy, frankly could have been in any western city. It's expensive.
Thanks all for the tips.
The ship is in Geoje, near Busan.
I'll probably be busy as a blue arsed fly, 4 weeks on/off 7 days a week, so not a lot of free time.
From memory, the regular Korean lager style beer will give you amnesia.
I know zero about Korea, but have been meditating on this perfect koan. From memory, it gives you amnesia... Smoke coming out of ears...
Reviving my thread from a while back.
I've been here on Geoje Island at the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard for a couple of weeks now, with a couple more to go before heading home for leave. Second trip here, but my first was out at sea doing sea trials on the new ship. Working 4 weeks in SK and 4 weeks home rotation.
1 - Beer: larger, served cold, not a lot of variety unless you go imported.
2 - Soju: Near tasteless and can make you very drunk, amnesia inducing, headache creating.
3 - Food: Eat out, supermarkets are pricey when buying small amounts of anything, you need to buy the huge packs to make it affordable.
4 - Biking: Could be good, but I'm getting virtually no free time 😒, so buying a decent bike is not a feasible option. The area around Geoje town is steep and has plenty of well made tracks, mostly walking paths, but some bike trails. I'll have to stick to walks and runs on my Sunday afternoon out of the office!
5 - People: Nice bunch, English is hardly spoken, but nods, smiles, and pointing seems to work. I'm trying to at least get the basics down, but the Koreans look at me with confused amusement.
6 - Korean BBQ: Why isn't all food cooked this way? A fantastically tasty and convivial way to eat!
