South Korea

[geogteach]

I'm going next week for my brothers wedding, anyone been before and got any hints / tips about the place?

I've spent several months in various parts of South Korea. It is really interesting and varied - beautiful countryside, tiny tranquil fishing villages, huge cities (obviously) and really buzzing city centres, esp. at night - much more exciting than any European cities IMO. And lots of missionaries / people working with christian charities (like me when I was there).

The thing I noticed was that even tho it is much more developed than other parts of East ASia (certainly the countries I've been in) there is still a very strong Confucian culture which dictates the manners of people everyday. So you have to get to know what is acceptable to do/say or people may get offended by things that would not be an issue in the Uk. I noticed that there were more tightly defined roles for men and women, and for women to disagree with men is not really the done thing, for example. But I was working for a christian charity so maybe that's a more traditional sector of society anyway.

A few must-dos -

A Korean BBQ (if you eat meat)
A Korean bath experience! (Communal same-sex hot baths - very relaxing but lots of naked bodies! )
A trip up to the DMZ (the weird no-man's-land which is as far as you can get to the north)
A facial / massage - there are some very good spas!

Thanks this sounds good. My brother had recomended the DMZ, but the spas sound good.

We are going over next Easter for my sons wedding. He has lived there for 4 years now. Really looking forward to it but a little apprehensive as not too sure what to expect, but my son loves it there and has no plans to come back to live here.