2 Years In Korea

[mbryson]

Not sure about the squid jerky but I'd imagine that's one of the more tame "delicacies" you've ran across? What else you got?

That is cool. Suggest something like that around here and people look at you like you suggested we all bite the head off a kitten.

That is quite odd. I think it'd be great to have people work for something. Very fair at the very least.

 

[TJDukit]

I surprisingly have not been that adventurous with the food. I've seen a lot that I want to try sometime. I really enjoy octopus but I don't want it still alive.

 

[TJDukit]

Who would have thought KNP rode Harleys.

 

[Hunt]

I would do 3 months tours in Pohang. I spent just under two years all together there. Its a neat place and was a great experience but I wouldn't want to do it again.

 

[TJDukit]

I would do 3 months tours in Pohang. I spent just under two years all together there. Its a neat place and was a great experience but I wouldn't want to do it again.

Hoping I never have to do it again. Daegu is the way to go at least for the Air Force. We only have 80 people here so it's pretty laid back compared to the larger bases.

 

[cackalak]

Good to see these pictures. Having spent my (very) early childhood days there, and just visited for a couple of weeks a few months back, I can attest to the vast and rapid development of the country. Just to give you an idea, this is Gangnam in the 60's, made popular by the song everyone's heard a million times:

And now:

It may not seem like a big accomplishment, but given Korea was a war torn country in the 60's, it's quite a feat (and of course, lots of sacrifices made this happen).

It was a fun place to visit (again). If you're in Daegu, you should check out Gyeongju which is just a few clicks to the east. Very touristy, but lots of history there. Get the famous bread (sold in shops literally on every street. Traditionally, you must bring back bread for your neighbors/friends if you visit.). Also, Jeju Island is a good place to visit, just off the southern tip of Korea. And SIM (Samsung Innovation Musem) is a cool place you can play with all of their high-tech stuff (in Suwon).

Food wise, lots of western restaurants there (with an eastern twist to the menu). Open markets are great places to get some good Korean food, though. Probably most unusual is going to be silkworm larva. Back during the war, with no meat available (affordable), this was the cheapest way to get protein. My wife tried it, surprisingly. Doesn't taste bad, but pretty gross knowing what it is. You won't really find anything too exotic, like scorpions, rats, etc. Maybe freshwater octopus (live and whole).

Have fun there. I miss it already.

EDIT: Well, I don't know how to make png's work here...

 

[Spork]

Good to see these pictures. Having spent my (very) early childhood days there, and just visited for a couple of weeks a few months back, I can attest to the vast and rapid development of the country. Just to give you an idea, this is Gangnam in the 60's, made popular by the song everyone's heard a million times:

And now:

It may not seem like a big accomplishment, but given Korea was a war torn country in the 60's, it's quite a feat (and of course, lots of sacrifices made this happen).

It was a fun place to visit (again). If you're in Daegu, you should check out Gyeongju which is just a few clicks to the east. Very touristy, but lots of history there. Get the famous bread (sold in shops literally on every street. Traditionally, you must bring back bread for your neighbors/friends if you visit.). Also, Jeju Island is a good place to visit, just off the southern tip of Korea. And SIM (Samsung Innovation Musem) is a cool place you can play with all of their high-tech stuff (in Suwon).

Food wise, lots of western restaurants there (with an eastern twist to the menu). Open markets are great places to get some good Korean food, though. Probably most unusual is going to be silkworm larva. Back during the war, with no meat available (affordable), this was the cheapest way to get protein. My wife tried it, surprisingly. Doesn't taste bad, but pretty gross knowing what it is. You won't really find anything too exotic, like scorpions, rats, etc. Maybe freshwater octopus (live and whole).

Have fun there. I miss it already.

EDIT: Well, I don't know how to make png's work here...

got confused with the URL in the IMG tag maybe?

I was there in the 80's and haven't been back, they built a big 60 story building when I was there that I remember walking through the aquarium they had in the basement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/63_Building I've been watching the thread and it's been incredible some of the things that seem familiar and others are totally modern and contrast what I remember.

 

[cackalak]

got confused with the URL in the IMG tag maybe?

I was there in the 80's and haven't been back, they built a big 60 story building when I was there that I remember walking through the aquarium they had in the basement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/63_Building I've been watching the thread and it's been incredible some of the things that seem familiar and others are totally modern and contrast what I remember.

Thanks for fixing it. I was there to watch the 63 building go up as well. And remember that aquarium. And to answer your question above, they still have Choco-pies, although they are much smaller than I remember (maybe I've just gotten bigger).

 

[TJDukit]

Well that was a killer weekend hanging out with those Teraflex guys and the guys from OXK here in Korea. I'll do sort of a trip report thread. Mostly just some pics and a bunch of video I got once I go through it all.

Here's a quick video of Brandon James...he's the one that helped put all this together for the Teraflex guys and did a killer job hooking them up here in Korea.

There course was pretty cool and I think they said 25 rigs competed. Brandon rocked out third place proving how awesome Teraflex speed bumps and long arms are. The Korean that took 1st was running a Teraflex long arm on two door JK. That's just awesome publicity for our friends down at TF.

[video=youtube;jfVxWkO_4z8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfVxWkO_4z8&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[TJDukit]

And here's Brandon's first run. Not sure which of these was his best time.

[video=youtube;gOh41TgBVxM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOh41TgBVxM&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[sixstringsteve]

Hah, that's one way to test your speed bumps! I'll bet that was an exciting weekend.

 

[TJDukit]

Went to a place called Herb Hillz today to celebrate out 8th wedding anniversary. Had an absolute blast out there. I took a bunch of video from my gopro of the zip lines and obstacle courses.

This is honestly my first real attempt at editing any video I've shot. I didn't feel like taking the time to figure out music so some of it's quiet and you have to listen to my heavy mouth breathing but it's still pretty cool.

There is one swear word but if you've seen Step Brothers you'll understand the need for it.

[video=youtube;cEzFrLla6f0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEzFrLla6f0&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[TJDukit]

Hah, that's one way to test your speed bumps! I'll bet that was an exciting weekend.

The got tested for sure. I've got some free time this week so I'll have more time to go through the rest of my videos and pictures to get them up. There is some pretty epic stuff that happened out there.

 

[sixstringsteve]

Congrats on 8 years, that's exciting. That ropes course would have made me nervous. I don't do so well at heights.

 

[TJDukit]

Next exciting bit of news is after being here for only 9 months we are finally free of credit card debt. Now we can finally start saving for our planned Hawaii trip next summer. I will say that not having a Jeep sure did allow me to keep my pennys in my pocket.

 

[sixstringsteve]

Congrats, that's great news Brian.

 

[TJDukit]

Congrats, that's great news Brian.

Thanks Steve. It really is a huge weight lifted. We spent a lot of years living outside our means. Coming here and selling the Jeep may have been the best financial decision I've ever made.

 

[TJDukit]

My wife's mom and brother came to visit for 10 days last week. Thanks to Jim I learned of a really cool place out on the coast called the Hands of Harmony located in Homigot which is the furthest east point on the peninsula. The also call it the tail of the tiger because when you look at a map of South and North Korea together it is shaped like a tiger.

We hit the road at 5 AM to get out there in time for the sunrise. Being as far east as you can get on the PEN it's also the first place to see the sunrise. An hour and a half of excessive speeding got us there with about 10 minutes to spare before sunrise.

This is the left hand which is up on land


And the right hand out in the water


Don't know exactly what this is but it's pretty cool


And now the reason so many people go out there to take pictures.




Here you can sort of make out what looks like a Tiger in the shape of the Korean Peninsula

 

[sixstringsteve]

Nice shot with the hand grabbing the sun! Hard to believe it's only been a year. I feel like I haven't seen you in 5 years.

 

[TJDukit]

It seriously feels like I've been gone for 5 years. Can't wait to get out of here. Korea is great but I don't have any job satisfaction anymore. Hopefully it will be better when we get to where we are going. Wont find out though until mid summer where we are going next.