By now everyone must be well aware of the unusual conjunction of holidays and weekend(s) at the beginning of October — Gaecheon-jeol on Tuesday, October 3rd and Chuseok Thurs-Sat Oct 5~7. Nobody but putzes and drones will work or attend classes on the Wednesday “sandwich day” and many will find a way to take Monday the 2nd off also…
And therefore, most of the nation including its esteemed expat community will have at least six days in a row of vacation (3rd~8th) and quite a few will have nine (30th~8th) — during what is usually the some of the BEST weather of the entire year, including the Eighth Full Moon rising so big & yellow then shining so big & white — quite the exceptional opportunity! A great chance to go somewhere you’ve never been before, somewhere remote or extensive that you’ve always wanted to make the scene at… the East Coast, the South Coast, the central areas, Ulleung-do, Jeju-do, China perhaps… The usually-so-horrific traffic / public-transportation situation should be a bit better than most years, as the Korean masses will be heading to all kinds of different places on various different schedules, not so monolithic at all.
An October holiday-lineup this great only comes along once a decade, so none of us would want to miss the chance.
So I’m just throwing this out here for discussion, out of curiosity — what mad adventures do you all have planned? What use have you dreamed up to make of this extraordinary travel-opportunity…? I’ll bet we get an interesting and possibly wild variety of responses, from this bunch….
16 Comments
Funny you should ask. It is either Kangjin or some local temples in mountains north of Seoul, much thanks to a certain website that marks such in regards to Sanshin shrines . . .
Good chance to leave this place if you ask me. The PI beckons.
Yes, such a stretch only happens once every 10 years…and last time it did my no good of a boss ‘forgot’ to pay me like he was supposed to do before leaving for the week. I was stuck at home for my whole vacation, starving because I only had 15 000 left in my account. I had made the mistake of trusting my boss, and wired most of savings to my Canadian account a couple of days before payday.
Not wise — never trust a Hagwan boss!
> Good chance to leave this place if you ask me. The PI beckons.
It always does, but the weather in most of Southeast Asia sucks in October — doesn’t get good until December. The PI is a great choice for ones Christmas, January-break or Lunar New Year vacation, when most of it & SE Asia has its best weather… but this coming week is a rare chance to travel around NORTHeast Asia during ITS best weather!
I think R. Elgin’s got the right idea…
Using my usual political awareness and innate sense of timing I booked for Thailand!!!
I am going to trawl around blogs making comments.
It’ll be fantastic!!!!
I’m going to the ‘Southern Resort island’ of Jeju. I’m looking forward to it.
Why stop at 9 days? Sixteen days in Cambodia and Thailand, and with the Thai coup the baht has weakened a bit and perhaps scared off some of the other punters. Good books, a nice beach, and some affordable golf.
A happy Chusok to you all.
Hmmm, I should see if there’s a way to have these holidays recognized here in Canada. At least for Chuseok, I could argue that it’s a religious holiday (for ancestor worship)….
I decided to take in the autumn foliage on Mt Kumgang on one of Hyundai Asan’s ludicrously expensive tours…..and have some friendly fireside chats with the local populace of course.
I am going to take this opportunity to work on a backlog of projects.
I will also do some work on the new apartment we will be moving into on October 10.
Best place to be during Chuseok is definitely Seoul. You have the city for yourself, there’s zero traffic, and nobody in the streets. Pretty much the only week in the year (with lunar new year) when this city is liveable
My clients are mostly foreign, and not in Korea. Their offices will be open, while ours will be closed (at least, my staff will have abandoned their posts). I’ll still be answering e-mail. But this long vacation will severely hamper our ability to get things done. Not paying much attention to holiday schedules, I just figured out our associate has pulled a fast one by scheduling a European vacation starting today and returning the 30th. There are things that she’s pushing back until her return, which I have now figured out will be the 8th.
To the Phillipines. Boracay. My first time there. Hope the weather is nice. Can’t wait to get in the water for days of swimming.
BR: Good point. Similarly, I’ve heard that Hong Kong is a ghost town during the Lunar New Year. Good if you live there, but it sucks if you’re a tourist.
It’s Oberammergau, GM for sure!