JamesEaston

Hi - hoping or Korean locals, or expats living and who know Korea inside out.

I loathe large, crowded, polluted cities. The worst I ever experienced was Taipai, but even Bangkok, unless you are right on the river, is pretty unbearable for me. Even a place like Barcelona, unless you're on the beach, is, for me, just a mess of noise and crowds and traffic.

I assume Seoul is about the same?

In order to spend a couple of months traveling around and getting to know Korea, we'd need a home base. Since, again, assuming Seoul would be torture, are there any suggestions for a mid-size city, maybe with a great lake or river or by the sea - and hopefully with an expat community and good restaurants, that we could find a two month apartment rental to use a base to tour the country?

Any help greatly appreciated

Cheers

mikesaidyes

Seoul is, for all intents and purposes, the center of everything you'd do for travel around Korea. And while I don't feel bothered by the pollution or city noise, if you don't like Taipei, it will be hard for you here. Much bigger.

Even if you stay in the suburbs, it will still be dense. As far as expat communities go, sure, they exist in other places, but they're smaller.

If you go somewhere in the countryside, like Gyeongju, that's a tourist destination, you can get around to a lot of places. But staying there for two months, I think you'd be bored. There are few foreigners and really few things to actually do there.

mikesaidyes

The other big cities are Busan, Daegu, Daejeon and Gwangju. Also, being in these cities for two months, you'd probably need to learn some Korean to help.

Do you actually need two months here? Where did you want to go? Most small tourist cities and other towns can be seen in just a day and a half or two - Gyeongju, Damyang, Danyang, Andong, Sokcho.

mikesaidyes

You could try Jeju. Clean air there, for sure. And there are flights from there to cities all over Korea, and can be as cheap as 30$ one way with taxes.

JamesEaston

Thanks Mike for all the tips. It was a wild idea we were tossing around, to really get a feel for Korean culture, one of the few in Asian democracies that we've yet to really get to know. This was not a trip to see museums or tourist traps, but to immerse in the country and it's people for a short time.

Based on what you said though, maybe not a good idea at all?

glennaa11

doesn't Korea have a reputation of being a fairly insular, closed society? I have the impression that a foreigner trying to immerse himself there would not find it easy to do. Unless you are really good with learning languages I would imagine that it would be extremely difficult.

mikesaidyes

By learning a language, I mean the basics for getting around. Which are actually quite simple. In the countryside, there are not many foreigners. English will not be spoken. Yet, most people will still try and be helpful.

JamesEaston

OK glenn and mike, thanks very much for your input. I think maybe it's an idea we'll toss and pick another place or just faggetaboutit Thanks again for the great insight.