We ended up staying in a very nice hotel 5 minutes from beach that had shuttles running every 30 minutes down to the ocean. I was a little scared because the weather forecast called for overcast clouds with a chance of rain. Not exactly the ideal time to be beach bumming. But, as it turns out, the weather wasn't bad at all and the day was actually perfect the day we went swimming. Here we go...
Seoul and Busan are really on opposite ends of the country. A normal bus takes about 4.5 hours to get there, 6 hours if you factor in holiday traffic. Thankfully, Korea put in express trains (KTX) that do the trek with one 5 minute stop at 300 km/hr. It took us a little under 3 hours from point to point and was quite comfortable.
Here's our train pulling up. They hold quite a few people and we were able to get tickets for our trip 30 minutes before departure.
A pit-stop at the Fuzzy Navel before hitting the water. We had some burritos here (I haven't had one in months). It was really windy and our table outside blew over, including our meal and drinks. The bartender was really apologetic and gave us new food and drinks. 10 minutes later we were at the bar taking free shots with him (pop-itts [haven't had those since college]). We ended up meeting some people from England that joined us for the festivities. This particular drink is called the Black Mexican and was quite good.
The main beach, Haeundae. This place is INSANELY busy... but that's what we were aiming for. As I said before, beautiful weather that day. The summer gods looked favorably upon our trip.
A shot in the opposite direction. The tubes and umbrellas are available for rent at about $5 for the day. Of course we got some. I haven't had that much fun swimming in a long time. The waves are just about perfect for floating out in the ocean and also getting flipped by the occasional big one. The ocean itself was packed. I was being rocketed by a big wave, moving pretty fast and the tube and myself rolled over the head of a small child in front of me. He was shocked but wasn't crying. I didn't see any news the next day about a broken neck so I assume he was okay.
The boardwalk along the beach. Farther down, where the beach bends, we had some of the best seafood I've ever had in my life the night before. Sashimi, or Korean sushi, or whatever, is raw fish served without rice. Ocean fresh!
Yeah, this place is packed like sardines inside of a crushed tin can.
The ever-diligent lifeguards. These towers were spread all along the beach, about 100 yards apart. They also had buoys about 150 yards out you couldn't swim past in addition several more lifeguards on jetskiis patrolling the line. Pretty controlled area but is understandable considering how many people were there.
An old fishing boat farther down the coast.
A few from a rooftop where we had dinner. Some guy from San Diego was running the place and gave us some free drinks to help celebrate.
Back down on the boardwalk after dinner. They had a live Pansori event that was pretty cool. I had to fight my way to the edge of the audience to snap a few choice shots. Really interesting and these guys had tons of energy.
All in all, I had a great vacation. We did most of the things I wanted to do, and a few other non-planned ones. Good times.
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