Gwangalli Beach (A Review)

Versus.... Haeundae Beach vs Daytona Beach vs Waikiki

Ok, no, I'm not going to really compare it to all those. Just to Haeundae.

Yes this is our super sweet sand castle!! And you can't even see the twigs we used for trees!

Our goal is to try all the major beaches near Busan and some closer to us. Unfortunately, I suck at taking pictures recently and this is really the only picture I took while we were at Gwangalli. God I suck.

I summary, Haeundae is a much nicer beach. Nicer sand, nicer water, beach umbrellas are nicer and they don't stab you in the head by accident. <-- Ok, that was mostly me and not the beach. Still it goes into my reasons why Gwangalli just wasn't as good.

So, at Haeundae you can rent an umbrella and beach tarp for 5,000W for all day. At Gwangalli, you can rent an umbrella for 5,000W, but it doesn't come with a sweet tarp. However, you can buy a tarp for forever if you pay another 3,000W.  But who wants to lug a tarp around with them? Also, at Haeundae there are umbrellas that have chairs you can rent for slightly more. They don't at Gwangalli though... sad face.

At both beaches you can rent inner-tubes for 5,000W all day. That's pretty cool. Though I have yet to do this because the water is still so cold (think spring fed river cold). My theory thus far... get in, get numb, get back out.

Some better pictures thanks to the Korea Tourism website...

Gwangalli Beach

 And at night during one of the many festivals.

Although I wouldn't recommend Gwangalli during the day... unless you're staying in Busan during the peak season and you just can't stand the thought of going to Haeundae during this:

***Shudder***

I would recommend Gwangalli at night. After having spent several several nights trying to get drunk at both beaches I feel confident in saying that the bars and nightlife at Gwangalli far exceeds the one at Haeundae. Just walking up and down the strip it is far easier to find bars that have a nice view of the beach and there are Noribangs in excess of course. Whereas in Haeundae you really need to head in-land, not so easy for the normal tourist to know where the good spots are. If you're not careful you could easily end up in the red-light district of Haeundae. (Not Joking there)

I would also like to emphasize how easy public transportation is in Busan as well. Between trains, buses, very reasonably priced taxis and even a "representative driver" (too drunk to drive but don't want to leave your car downtown? Call a representative driver to drive you home!) service which costs about the same as a taxi, there's no reason to drive drunk and no reason why everyone in your party can't drink! Gombae!!

I'll let you know how the other beaches go as the summer continues on!

A day at the beach, or, our first time at Haeundae Beach

On Saturday we spent our first time at a Korean Beach. We rode the bus down and met our friend, YeonSil at Jangsan Station and took the subway over to Haeundae. We (I mean YeonSil and I) wore our cute outfits, though YeonSil doubted that we would get into the water so she failed to wear a swimsuit... she'll know better for next time.  :::If you go to the beach, you have to go into the water. Even if it's only for a minute cause it's cold:::

At Haeundae you can rent an umbrella for 5,000W for the day, which we did. They put down a tarp/mat for you to claim your spot, which is handy to put your towels on for some lounging. There were some umbrella's with lounge chairs that you could rent for more, but we didn't ask how much. For Your Reference: If you come to Korea and you need to know how much something is, just ask: Ul Mai Yay Yoh?

Also, news flash - everywhere else in Korea it's blazing hot. It's still comfortable and the breeze is still cool down here at Busan. So Saturday it was about 75F. Not what I would call normal swimming weather, but dangit, we were at the beach!

Shannon, running back out of the water after his dip in the ocean. Surprisingly, a lot of people besides ourselves were swimming, though you can't see them in this picture.

While we were lounging, Shannon got bored and buried my and YeonSil's unsuspecting feet.

We got our revenge, sweet sweet revenge. mwhahaha. Yes, he's a very lumpy mermaid. Turns out just cause you have them doesn't mean you can properly carve them.

At this point we were the only people who had thought about burying anyone. It was fun, and a lot of people took pictures of poor shannon and came by to point and laugh.

He had to get all that sand off somehow! lol.

 About an hour later....

You can only see two, but in this direction are 4 groups of people we could see, burying their friends and making them into mermaids.

And in this direction were three more groups of people, though you can only see two... We had inadvertently set a trend.

And these guys were taking things just a little too far.... ok, you don't have to fondle it any more buddy.

Far enough that I convinced Shannon to go take a picture of the final product. (Notice the guy to the right, he just can't take his hands away!) That's seaweed they're using for long luxurious hair. Poor guy.

A yummy beach sandwhich. It seemed like a cabbage hamburger in a bun thing. It was really hot and tasty, that's all I cared about.

We took a nap under our umbrella before we called it quits at about 5pm. Just in time to rinse off at the 500W showers and go get dinner and some Moccoli. 

What a great day! Now if only rainy season would get here and then go away again so we could plan another beach trip! I'm looking forward to trying out Gwangalli, Jinaha, and Sungjeong beaches too!

The grass may be greener - part 2

Some more cute fences and iron work in Korea! Including... drum roll please! The screaming kid fence!

Wooo!!! Isn't it awesome! The two children on the left are skipping together while the one screams (haha, I just think "BLAAAHHHHH" every time I see this". The child on the right is flying a traditional Korean kite.

Tree grate at Haeundae... beach themed of course!

Pretty sewage cover? If they can't make it smell better they can at least make it prettier.

Random colorful pretty fence. :)

I promise a longer post tomorrow, most of my day today was taken up with learning to cook Bachimgae and Kimchi Jigae!! Yum yum!

Godangbong 801.5meters above the ocean

Sunday, we hiked to the peak of this mountain- Geunjeongsan. Though I didn't blog about it, a couple of weekends ago we went to Beomeosa temple. It's a very large temple and a very busy tourist attraction. It's on the Geunjeongsan mountain, but we didn't hike up the mountain last time. There are a lot of hiking trails behind Beomeosa, but we really wanted to go to the peak - Godangbong.

Why? There were lots of reasons, it's the highest peak around, it's all rocky and cool looking, it overlooks a large fortress, and it has a golden spring - Geumseam.

Geumseam is a naturally formed cavity on top of a granite boulder standing off a cliff. According to the legend a golden fish came down from the world of Brahma on a 5 colored cloud and took residence in the golden fountain. The fountain is said never to run dry and the color of the water is always gold. The name of the mountain and the Beomeo temple [Beomeosa] originated from that legend. - Wikipedia

Shannon checking to see if it's really gold. Conclusion- not really, just dirty. Maybe on a less cloudy day it reflects gold or something.

But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. First, we walked about 3 very steep km until we saw this: 

It was .3km to the top at this point. This wasn't just hiking, we had signed up for a little bit of rock climbing while we were at it. You can barely see it in this picture, but there are platforms and steps up there. But not to get up to the rock. We have no idea how they built the platforms on the top of the rock without building an easier method of getting up the rock. By getting up the rock, I mean there were points where ropes were attached to the rocks to help you climb.

It was rough, especially for me as I have never claimed to be in shape, but it was totally worth it.

For this gorgeous view. That's the huge fortress wall front and center and Haeundae beach and the Gwangan bridge at the upper right. It was a little hazy that day, dang China Yellow Dust.

For anyone here in Korea, looking to do this hike. Go to the Beomeosa temple, continue to walk up hill (follow the other people), then you'll see signs, stay on the main path and follow the signs to Godangbong, the peak. Once you're at the peak, you can actually go a whole bunch of different ways. Make sure you keep track of the way back to Beomeosa, or you could end up hiking to the fortress or somewhere else instead. There are picture signs pointing the way to the Gold fountain, Geumseam. If you're slow like me, but faster then a lot of the Koreans (they like to take breaks and picnic and stuff, I'm jealous, I can't bring myself to stop for more then a couple minutes at a time), it will take you about 1.5 hours to reach the peak. Bring some water and plan on working hard, this is not easy walk!

"There's no half-singing in the shower....

.... you're either a rock star or an opera diva." - Josh Groban

The same is true in the Noribang! aka Karaoke bar. In Korea, there are two types of Noribang (unless there's another out there that's hiding it's awesomeness from me). The first type is like Karaoke in the US. A big room, lots of strangers, and a waiting list to sing your song. The second type is a private room for you and your friends. You rent it by the hour. You get to choose the songs and you can order food and drinks, mainly drinks.

The second type is the type we've been going to with friends, and I've got to say I like it a lot more then the first type! It makes me wish Steph Sortwell was here to go Karaoke-ing with me!

Our little room with Karaoke machine. Shannon singing his heart out.

Sing your hearts out boys! Notice the beers, popcorn and tambourines, yep, that's right, tambourines. And we used them! (come on, some songs you just have to)

From left to right: Wayne, Eric, Andy, Doug and Shannon!

The comfy bench seats and big table are awesome.

Some stuff you should know when going to a Noribang: Some Noribangs are like the ones we've been to. Dirty dive bars in basements where not many women hang out. Some are really high class and flashy. I assume the high class ones cost a lot more. The basement ones (depending on location) cost about $20-$30/hr, not bad for 5-6 people. I assume the flashy ones would have a real toilet.... the basement dives don't, get ready to squat girls! 

Girls, that's another thing. I've heard some tales. We were offered a "cheerleader" one night for 20,000W, we said no thanks and didn't ask very many questions. I recently heard a story about a "cheerleader" at a Noribang, taking her top off and having zipper panties if you get my drift. I don't think this is typical for all Noribangs, I think it's just our luck. lol. 

That's all my insights on Noribangs for now, I'll update this if I learn any new fun factoids.

This was Friday night, before this we had gotten some Fried chicken and beer for dinner, then we went to a popular bar at Haeundae beach called the Fuzzy Navel, then the Noribang, then....

well, we had been drinking for a while at this point and we heard that there was a red light district close by and we were curious. Now that I'm sober, I'm a little horrified. We just went and looked, no STD's here, thank you. But still, these were genuine brothels with girls selling their bodies. Prostitution is illegal in Korea, but it's obviously not enforced. I was too nervous to take pictures (even drunk), but I wish I had so you could see something of what I saw.

After that, we went to one last place, it was 2am by this point and we were late night hungry. So we went and got this awesome pizza thing and talked about what we had seen. And drank some more. I didn't get into bed until 5am Saturday, which is the longest I've been up in a looooong time.

Pizza (more like bread with onions and stuff on it), edamame, and bowls of Maccoli (The milky looking substance).

Wayne drove home because he didn't drink hardly at all, but if he hadn't been able to drive, we would have called a "Representative Driver". This is an awesome service. You call a number, a guy get's dropped off and drives your vehicle home for you. So you don't have to leave your car somewhere, get a taxi and come back for it tomorrow. This awesome service would have cost us about 30,000W from Haeundae to our apartment complex. Not bad to split between 6 people!

That's the end of our Friday night out. I can't wait till our next Karaoke adventure, but I can do without the red light district next time.

Haeundae Beach/Park (or last weekend in a nutshell)

Finally, I will tell you about last weekend. Though I have so many pictures, most will need to go on facebook.

Last weekend we went down to Haeundae Beach and Park, which is the # 1 tourist spot in Busan. We parked at the Chosin Westin (the hotel Shannon stayed at for the first couple of days he was here), which is close to the beach and easy to find. Then we walked down to the park area.

If you can see, there are three characters carved on this rock, which is on a cliff overlooking the ocean at Haeundae.

To quote the information sign from nearby: "The inscribed charcters are said to have been written and inscribed by Choi Chi-won, who was a great poet and scholar of the late Silla period. According to a tradition, when he was going to go to Gayasan mountain to escape from adverse political circumstances, he was struck by the beautiful scene made by the sea, clouds, moon and hills here and thus inscribed three letters Hae(sea), Un(cloud), and Dea(hill) on this rock. It is uncertain that these characters were personally inscribed by him. However, it is obvious that the inscribed characters had existed already in the early fourteenth century. Today, the middle character, Un, is severely worn down, eroded by wind, rain, and waves."

Very poetic! I'm sure this guy had servants carve the letters, but it's much more picturesque thinking of him so enraptured sitting down and carving them himself.

Next we went to the APEC building, which was built for some sort of world conference. I didn't get what the conference was for, but the US attended, we had our own pillar. 

Very pretty.

Next we hiked up the hill to get to the statue of this guy:

There has got to be a culture gap here, I don't understand why there's a statue of him. Here's what the placard says: "A Profile of the late Go-Woon Choi Chi-won. He was born on the Nam-Churn river in Kyungju in the first year of King Hurn-An of the Silla Dynasty in the year of 857AD. At the age of 12, he went to study to the land of Dong (Hahahaha, Dong, sorry), a name of old China. At the age of 18, he passed the state examinations and then became an official of 'Yool-Soo-Hyun-Wee', a Dang-government post. At the age of 25, by issuing a great manifesto, he suppressed a rebellion aroused by Hwang-So,a traitorous subject and became widely known in the fields of Chinese literature, which resulted in his being granted a government post named 'Si-Ur-Sa' and 'Ja-Kum-Ur-Dai' and his having the greatest glory and the highest spirit that any foreign student had ever had. At the age of 28, he returned to his country and became an official of 'Si-Dok'.

This caused others to become jealous of him (riiiiiigghht). As a result, he degraded to work as a government official of 'Tae-Soo' of such distritets(I think they mean districts) as Tae-in, Sur-San, Ham-Yang etc, leaving a great essays and poems behind him. Though he gained a government post of 'A-Chan' by appealing to the King the urgency of clean politics he continued to make upright the fast of his declining country for nothing. Finally he gave up his post. At the age of 40, he began to wonder all over the country, taking his family with him at last into Mt Ga-Ya, located at Hap-Churn, to cultivate his moral sense. After that, nobody knows where he went leaving only his 'Got', an old Korean hat, and his shoes behind him in the woods.

At the time of the Korea Dynasty, they had great respect for him as the Father of 'He-Dong-Yu-Hak' Korean Confucianism, and the king himself granted him a pstumous(that's not a typo, that's how it was written on the sign) title of 'Mun-Chang-Hu' appraising his highest morality and achievements of literature."

Ok, so what I got from that was this guy, who went to school in China and stopped a rebellion with his literature (what what?) came back to Korea but no one liked him because he was a prig so he went wandering dragging his family behind him (probably because they were now poor). One day he decided to commit suicide all mysterious like. After he was dead he was named the father of Korean Confucianism?? When did he do that? I know I'm missing a lot in the translation here. I've got to be...

Next we went to the beach.

Notice the guys in business suits hanging out at the beach watching the kites. This was Sunday, what were they doing down at the beach on Sunday in business suits? 

Pretty though huh? I've seen pictures of this beach in summer, covered in people and giant umbrellas. There was a group out wind surfing and professional kite teams.

Near here are lots of american places to eat, Bennigan's, TGIFridays, a bar called The Guinness. There's also lots of cafes and coffee shops. It's very expensive to eat down here, similar to any other commercialized tourist attraction. :)

Happy day at the beach!

We went to the aquarium as well, I've got lots of pictures for that so I'll just post those on facebook. It was a nice aquarium. The big cool thing about it was they had a "main tank" that was huge. You could take a glass bottom boat ride on it and there were multiple tubes that went through the same tank. The tank had some vicious looking sharks, schools of fish that didn't have to swim in circles. Just awesome. Unfortunately, there was no good way to take a picture of that. :)

This upcoming weekend, we'll either be going hiking to some temples or drive north up to Ulsan to see what's there!