I'm trying to figure out where my next move from Seoul is going to be. I'm pretty sure it's going to be HK since I don't have to wait for a Visa bogging me down.
Is this a good idea? Are there better places around Korea that I should visit instead? Anyone who's been there, please offer advice to a total newb. Specifically:
- Where should I stay? - What are some things to do that might not be known to the masses? Keep in mind I will stay 4 - 7 days, depending on how fantastic , terrible it is. - Which HK TL member wants to hold my hand and play tour guide?
Other than HK, my only other plan is Japan. I'd like to go to one more place. Right now I'm considering Vietnam or Thailand. I have no information about either of them, does someone who knows about them (or a better spot I should consider) want to weight in?
Why don't you hit up Chengdu for WCG for a bit, then head off to HK? Despite my Asian heritage I've never actually been to mainland China, so I'm no help there. Knowing you, you'd have a blast in Malaysia/Vietnam/Thailand, doesn't matter which one really. They're all hot/humid as hell, although the cuisine will be very different in all three.
I haven't been to asia myself, but I have a friend who went backpacking in Vietnam last year and he says it's a really awesome country he's planning another trip and I might go with him.
If you're only staying for a week or so id pick thailand over vietnam.. vietnam is wonderful but personally i think for time < 3weeks thailand is the better choice. Thailand is better for being a tourist vietnam/cambodia/laos is better for backpacking imho.
There's probably going to be nothing to do in Hong Kong for you. Vietnam or Thailand seem like nice options. Japan sounds good, too. Never been there so I wouldn't know :p
On November 11 2009 18:21 mikeymoo wrote: Why don't you hit up Chengdu for WCG for a bit, then head off to HK? Despite my Asian heritage I've never actually been to mainland China, so I'm no help there. Knowing you, you'd have a blast in Malaysia/Vietnam/Thailand, doesn't matter which one really. They're all hot/humid as hell, although the cuisine will be very different in all three.
He needs Visa for china that will take a while and possibly extra money.
On November 11 2009 19:16 Mori600 wrote: North Korea!
Speaking of which, did you do your trip to the border? How was that? I would have wanted to go there.
Yea, it sucked. The only interesting part was the history. North Korea actually built 4 huge fucking tunnels under the DMZ to sneak into South Korea through. South Korea found the first one and then set up stuff to detect if NK was building more. When they were, SK built a tunnel that intercepted NK's tunnel, and NK covered the tunnel in coal, said they were digging for coal, and abandoned the tunnel rofl. You could actually go into the tunnel. And my tour guide was a cutey. But viewing the actual DMZ, train station, "hope village" or whatever they were called wasn't good. The history and the tunnel were good though.
hong kong is soooo expensive and there is a lack of attractive females. plus it is not really china... its more of its own thing. if you want to see real china then go check out nanjing or even head all the way north to beijing where the real action is.
if visa shit is an issue then just go to thailand. i recommend koh phangan for party and koh tao for chill-ing. whites seem to love the place.
China and HK are awesome, I personnaly love Shanghai, it's a very modern city with very nice clubs. And the food is great there. If you are more interested in cultural spots, you should go to Beijing. But if I were you, I would definitely go to Chengdu. Oh I forgot you are used to see the progamers, lucky bastard ! Thailand is nice, but it's impossible to find a nice clubs or pub not full of whores. I was really disappointed when I went there, the beaches are great, the food too, but if you are a white guy you are harassed by the whores....
On November 11 2009 20:06 alffla wrote: SUP WITH ALL THE HONG KONG HATE MAN WTFFFF
all the hottest chicks are in HK
we have advanced public transport system that is unrivalled
we have food from all over the world at affordable prices
"real China" has H1N1, even Stork and Luxury agree with me.
HK is close to macau, the gambling heaven that rekrul frequents.
hottest chicks are not in HK dude. chengdu, or beijing. this is a matter of taste i suppose. seeing as you are from or live in hongkong it might help you sleep at night to think you are surrounded by "the hottest" chicks. my HK pals all thank christ daily they moved to beijing or at least that is what they say.
h1n1.. rofl. that is a publicity stunt bro. i mingle on the subway and in crowds with the masses daily... you watch too much TV. if chill is scared of swine flue then he should go home, dig a hole, and stick his head in it. the "real china" was used since hong kong people, themselves, generally do not identify themselves with what they consider to be the uncouth ways of the mainland. hongkong also has only technically been a part of china for about 10% of the last 100 years. they dont use chinese currency, they dont speak common chinese..etc.. they have their own style of cooking, 粤菜, which offers proportionately more sweet, and cold, seafood, dishes.
macau is fun if you are a sexy whore or have lots of money to blow frivolously... i'll give you that.
im sure hongkong is a blast. i just find the mainland preferable because it is NOTHING like north american, hence the requisite visa, whereas hongkong will remind of home more than you would imagine. isn't there a disneyland there? i guess it's a matter of taste. have fun wherever you go chill.
I'd probably suggest either Malaysia or Singapore. But since they've already been suggested, perhaps Indonesia and go to Bali? It's a pretty popular tourist destination among Australians.
Seriously, go to Vietnam Chill, this is awesome country you will never forget...
SC community here is pretty big and very active (not so integrated to international community though). If you come around last week of this month probably you will attend our Lan tournament which has the prize pool of 1000USD. LOts of nerds are gonna be there.
Speaking of weather, This is perfect time of the year, the weather is fucking cool not hot as fuck as it is in Thailand now. The food, I swear is amazing. To be fair food in Thailand is also good but the way ya gonna enjoy it in Vietnam makes a huge difference. Hope you have strong stomach though
People are also very nice and friendly. Language would also be a minor problem but we can help you out. But on average, the level is still much higher than in Korea.
You will never see a country as lively as Vietnam. Stepping into the traffic here (lots of motorbikes) is making you a true man. Pretty much holding your breath like you control dark templar in Terran base full of turrets. Walking on the old street at night interacting with people is also very memorable
Girls here are also beautiful and are not sex maniacs like in ThaiLand. You also have so many chances to get drunk by amazing traditional whisky here. We have some kinds which are even good for health, and sex ofcourse, no hangover after getting fucking high I promise
You also will be warmly recieved by SC addicts. Age may be not a problem but there are several fathers still playing SC here. We even can discuss about more complicated shit.
Last but not least, in terms of living expense, and travel cost, Vietnam is one of the cheapest countries in the world, given the same satisfaction...
Thats for now, otherwise I am gonna spoil the fun of your being here...
Depends on how much money you have and what you really want to do. Japan, Tokyo, is a lot of fun, but can be quite hot this time of year. Also living can be quite expensive, but food and transport is relatively cheap, but def more than u are use to in korea. If u want to go south i recommend thailand or malaysia, there is good scuba diving in both of these places and u dont need to be certified to have a good experience. also it is very cheap, cheaper than korea even. gl
On November 11 2009 20:06 alffla wrote: SUP WITH ALL THE HONG KONG HATE MAN WTFFFF
all the hottest chicks are in HK
we have advanced public transport system that is unrivalled
we have food from all over the world at affordable prices
"real China" has H1N1, even Stork and Luxury agree with me.
HK is close to macau, the gambling heaven that rekrul frequents.
As someone who was in HK last week...
Seoul has better chicks than HK (sorry it's true, walking around Gangnam is pretty fun in itself)
definitely best public transport system in the world... I still have my Octopus card! HK more or less invented efficient public transport and everybody else has just been trying to copy them since. HK also has like the world's second best airport after Seoul
wide-ranging cuisine for low prices, but tbh I would rather go to HK for HK cuisine and the respective places for respective cuisine.
lol @ H1N1 paranoia and ninja masks everywhere
if you stay for a week, you may have time to take a trip to Macau
seriously though, all we did in HK was go shopping a lot at night markets and such, because there's really not that much good touristy stuff to do. there's some nice beach and disneyland but that's not really unique to HK. If you love shopping, then HK is the place to go... but otherwise I'd probably run out of things to do after a 2-3 days esp. without a tour guide
In a tiny bit of help, everyone I know that is: my Grandparents, my College friend, the family I work for (the parents are from Hong Kong, the children are born here) and my Dad's friend who have been to Hong Kong have massively enjoyed it and said it's a wonderful place to visit. That is not a 'boast' of how many people I know, it's to give a range of people and ages for comparison.
My friend who goes there once a year told me that Kam Tin is nice place in/around Hong Kong but you may not know about. He said he quite liked it and that it was easy to get to. He also said about Cat Street market being 'cool for some antique stuff'. I'm unsure if that interests you but there you go. The rest of it is in tour books and so on. The only other thing he said is that you should really go to Victoria peak or to one of the smaller islands. He was in a hurry to go out so he wasn't too useful.
On November 11 2009 21:42 Chill wrote: k plan now is mountains -> HK -> Vietnam -> kyungju -> japan -> seoul. plan changes hourly.
I think it might help to explain to people what you really want in a tourist destination.
As people have said, Hong Kong is probably the city with the largest influence from Western culture. So there are plenty of English signs and a lot of things will remind you of home. Except that Hong Kong is an extremely packed city and it feels very busy.
If you're in the mood for hiking and climbing, the mountains would obviously be a good idea.
I would agree with whoever said China has hotter girls than Hong Kong, but I personally (this is a matter of individual taste) think that Japan has the hottest Asian girls.
Speaking of Japan, its culture is quite different from Korea and China, and the food is quite different as well. I think there are a lot of unique things in Japan that you can't see anywhere else (Kyoto especially if you're looking for a really hot tourist spot with lots of stuff from traditional Japanese culture).
So it all depends. Maybe talk about what you want to do the most in traveling, and then people can orient their advice based on that?
I've been to thailand twice, and I can honestly it is awesome. You can bargain ANYTHING there and you can get it down to like any price. I loved it when I went there. However, I also stayed in rather nice resorts and things, but I'm sure you can enjoy the beaches as well even without that (I visited mostly bangkok and phuket). There are a lot of temples and stuff you can visit if that's your thing also. Hong Kong also has some things to see but definitely not as fun as Thailand IMO. I'm not sure if I'd change my mind based on going alone or not. I also really helped you 0 xD. Glad to see you're just enjoying life though and traveling around, I want to do that some day :D.
I guess I'm looking for a country with a good balance between historical tourism and nightlife. Also somewhere either English friendly, or with enough of a TL / tourism base that it's not hard to link up with some people and go out with.
In that case HK and Singapore are best. Both fit your criteria pretty well. In all honesty I don't know about the nightlife in either of the places, but I've been to both and confirm that they fulfill your other requirements easily (but I think Singapore might have more TL presence than HK, but affla's in HK :O). In both places, English is one of the two main languages and it's not hard to communicate at all, and in both, there is an abundance of historical tourism spots.
hoon u missed meating luxury's gf with me and elric. actually if you were there she wouldnt have sat with us and i wouldnt have this story. good thing you didnt come lolol
I'll be back in a month. In response to what you want Chill, I'll say that Hong Kong is one of the most English-friendly places in Asia (Singaporeans probably speak it better but Hong Kong has more Westerners, and you have to contend with Singaporean accents rofl). Nightlife in Hong Kong in some ways as good as it gets, and if you go to the right places you can avoid the dearth of good looking women. There is not much historical tourism in Hong Kong, it's better for "nature" tourism - seemingly paradoxical since it's a city but true. Finally, there isn't much of a TL/SC community there at all. So in conclusion, unless you know people there, I wouldn't really recommend Hong Kong.
On November 11 2009 22:51 Chill wrote: hoon u missed meating luxury's gf with me and elric. actually if you were there she wouldnt have sat with us and i wouldnt have this story. good thing you didnt come lolol
On November 11 2009 22:23 Chill wrote: I guess I'm looking for a country with a good balance between historical tourism and nightlife. Also somewhere either English friendly, or with enough of a TL / tourism base that it's not hard to link up with some people and go out with.
Except for the historical tourism, this description perfectly fits singapore
On November 11 2009 22:23 Chill wrote: I guess I'm looking for a country with a good balance between historical tourism and nightlife. Also somewhere either English friendly, or with enough of a TL / tourism base that it's not hard to link up with some people and go out with.
Except for the historical tourism, this description perfectly fits singapore
Singapore and Malaysia are easily the only 2 english friendly asian countries due to the education system provided but if you want a decent amount of people from tl to hang out around then singapore would be the better choice. Nightlife wise i would say both are equal though
After last night, i gave it some thought, you would want to go taiwan/hk. The nightlife there is great. I don't know about Thailand but viet's nightlife is almost non existence, not forgetting my mom got her handbag snatch by a biker thief. Taiwan/hk also have a decent english standard, not as good as singapore or malaysia even but it will get you places still. Historical tour wise, viet is awesome, so is probably thailand, don't know about taiwan man unless you want to learn how they end up there after facing defeat in mainland china
edit: and yeah, dont come singapore, nightlife is kinda expensive compare to the rest of asia. not worth it totally.
wtf with those bags snatched by biker thief? You come with us and you are under FULL protection...Nightlife here is only good if you go out with local people, if you wanna discover on your own its almost non-existent. Where else in the world not so?
I think recommending a white guy Hangkang or Singapore for tourism is really meh. Those are places for business, man. TL community in Singapore imo is the only reason for you to go there.
The only thing you dont have in Vietnam is gambling unless you stay in 5 star hotels
Vietnam ftw <3 first, the most important thing for you to survive in a foreign country is food and we have the best food in the world, trust me ^^
And if you come to us, I'm sure that you will get warm welcome from our ppl and our players. You will see how VNese SC Community rolls
Things are also really cheap in Vietnam so you don't have to worry how much you should bring. Otherwise, I'm sure that our players are willing to treat you nicely ^^
EPT
He is very lonely without me
so many hk's are leaving 
