Vacation: Part II

Here's the second set of photos from my recent vacation. My friend and I headed down to Haeundae, Busan for 3 nights of fun in the sun.

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.

Haeundae

Greetings from Korea. The weather here is starting to warm up and spring is in full effect. What better way to spend your time then at the beach?

Haeundae beach is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Korea. It's a fantastic beach located in Busan, about 30 minutes away from me. There's also a lot of foreigners in this area and they have many clubs and Western style bars to check out. I've heard that in the summer it's literally impossible to find one square inch of sand to hang out at, it gets that crowded. Enjoy the pics.






Korean pizza before the trip. They don't put marinara sauce on their pizza here, and it's kind of sweet. Difficult to describe but it's pretty decent. I still prefer New York style pizza though.


They have these monitors at almost all of the bus stations here in town. It's nice because you can tell when exactly your bus will arrive.


Bus terminal in Changwon. They have buses traveling all over S. Korea leaving all of the time. My particular bus to Busan leaves every 10 minutes and is less than $3 for a ticket. Very efficient and affordable.


Vending machine selling books.


Haeundae at night. There were many people lighting off fireworks all over the beach. Actually you could buy bottle rockets from an old lady 10 feet away from this spot. I don't think they have firework laws like we do in the states.


Night shot.


Another night shot.

Cass, the Korean version of Budweiser. They have no laws in terms of open containers. You see people walking around with beers everywhere- on the street, on the bus, in movies, you name it.


This is the main area nearby the subway station. Many nice hotels along this strip.



Same beach, the next morning.


All of those buildings in the background are hotels, again, very popular tourist destination.


More people enjoying their Sunday at the beach.


NO SMOKING! Many kids signed their names on the sign.


This ship looked like a booze cruise from the distance.


Random.


Random.

It was pretty crowded but nothing like how it gets in the summer.



Saw a few jetskiis and sailboats out today. I've heard the water here is very warm, definitely planning on coming back in the Summer to swim.


Backpack baby is having a good time.



Spent most of the day just hanging out on the boardwalk and people watching.

I have a few other interesting stories about my jimjilbang experience that I think deserves a full proper post. Definitely one of the most interesting experiences I've had here. More to come soon.