Seoul, the capital of South Korea, is pretty high up there when it comes to favorite cities in the world amongst tourists. Seoul is very high-energy and is often compared to New York City and Tokyo. There is so much to see and do and is the perfect place for anyone to enjoy.
I wanted to head to the southern coast of South Korea for a short 5-day break. During my search, Namhae and Yeosu stood out the most. Officially called Namhaedo Island, Namhae in Gyeongsangnam-do is the fifth largest island in Korea and just one of the the 70-plus islands off the southern coast. A large section of the island is considered a national park and offers splendid landscapes where the mountains meet the sea. Yeosu is a port city on the East China Sea Coast to the west of Namhae. Both locations are definitely worth visiting!
Here is a compilation of the sights in South Korea that I have visited along with a brief description and some photos of each. I will be in South Korea for 3 years and want to see as much of it as possible. Keep checking back to see more locations and let me know if you have any suggestions that I haven’t been to yet.
My husband and I moved from RAF Lakenheath to Osan Air Base on September 29, 2021. Here is a brief summary of our PCS move. I hope this can be a helpful timeline for anyone else that is PCSing to Korea and is hoping to go Command Sponsored. Take everything as a rough estimate! You know how the military is 😉 Please especially take the information related to Covid with a grain of salt – everything is changing daily. Months Before Departure 9 Months Prior November 4 – Given Overseas Assignment Listing Overseas assignment listings are based on the availability for my husband’s rank and job title. Our Overseas Assignment Listing: Kunsan, Korea – 5 spots, Lajes, Portugal – 1 Spot, Osan – 12 spots This was a huge bummer of a listing. We were not happy to receive all short tour options, but thankfully we learned that I could go with Phillip to Osan so that is what we were aiming for. We definitely didn’t want to go back to the states. Phillip changed his “Dream Sheet” to the following order: Lajes, Osan (He left Kunsan off the list completely) November 28 – Received Assignment Notification for Osan 8 Months Prior December 5 – Applied for CSP (Command Sponsorship) – Do this as soon as possible! The only reason we didn’t do it immediately is because the application asked for receiving squadron information that Phillip was unsure of so he had to get some assistance on filling out the application correctly. Most people get a tentative offer pretty quickly (if you are being accepted). However, it shouldn’t take more than 21 days. In our case, the 21 business days passed so Phillip called Korea and apparently they switched people in charge of the applications and the new guy hadn’t been given our application so we had to re-apply and wait another 21 business days. This has since become a trend with Osan. They seem to be very unorganized so make sure you contact them if it’s been longer than 21 days! In fact, it wouldn’t hurt to check the status of your application sooner than that. 6 Months Prior February 12 – We received tentative CSP notification Medical Clearance – Once you receive the tentative offer, you will need to get a medical clearance from your current base and fill out some paperwork before you can receive your official CSP notification To get the Medical Clearance, you will need to have the doctor and dentist at your current base signing off on a form stating that you are up-to-date. I had to have a dental exam and a health checkup before they signed off on the form. You (the spouse) will also need to meet with EFMP. Due to Covid, they were only doing this via phone call. The Medical Review Board at Lakenheath only did these once a week from 1-2PM. It only ended up being a 5-minute phone call, but it was difficult to schedule since I worked during that time. 5 Months Prior March 15 – We submitted EFMP paperwork and required documents March 19 – Received official CSP approval Shipping Dogs – We have 2 dogs that we knew we’d be bringing with us. As soon as we got the CSP Approval, we started looking around for pet shippers. Because we were going from England to Korea, we knew the rotator wasn’t going to be an option. We also started to plan for taking leave-en-route so knew our dogs would remain in England while we were in the states and then they would follow us to Korea. I think hiring a pet shipper is necessary if you don’t plan on taking the rotator (Patriot Express). I recommend contacting numerous pet shippers to get various quotes and see who is the best at communication. You want someone that is quick to respond and shows that they care about your animals!! We decided to go with Fetchapet in England and Shindogs Air in Korea. For more information on shipping dogs overseas you can check out: Shipping Pets To/From UK, Flying Pets Korea, and Military PCS with Pets Extending DEROS – Our original DEROS was July 2021, but our RNLTD to Korea was September 2021. We heard that you must leave no later than the last day of your DEROS month (July 31) and arrive no earlier than the first day of your RNLTD month (September 1). Because we originally only planned to take leave-en-route for 2 weeks, we thought the gap was going to be a problem so Phillip extended our DEROS in England to August 2021 DEROS. Turns out, the information was incorrect and changing our DEROS actually bumped our RNLTD to Oct 2021. Looking back, it’s a good thing we did this anyways, because I highly doubt we would’ve received our hard orders in time and would’ve ended up having to extend anyways. 4 Months Prior Vaccinations – To be stationed in Korea, the active duty member will need to get multiple country-specific vaccinations (ex: Japanese Encephalitis, Typhoid, Anthrax, Smallpox, etc.). The vaccinations are required for AD and optional for dependents, depending on availability. June 24 – No-Fee Passport Appointment. I did not have to have hard orders to apply for the government-issued passport, which dependents will need to obtain. I’ve heard this will vary from base to base – some bases may make you wait until you have hard orders, and it may depend on if you’re already overseas or not. Start this application sooner rather than later, as it will be less stressful. Make sure you take all required documents to your appointment or they will turn you away. Don’t worry if you don’t have it before you depart though, as it is only required to BEGIN the process to get into the country. If you don’t receive it in time, the passport office will provide you with a memo that you will need to carry with you instead. 3 Months Prior
