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!

Korea Weather... not as bad as they say.

I thought that maybe I was just spoiled because we live right next to the ocean we get that lovely ocean breeze which means it's still in the mid-70F's everyday (22-25Celsius).

It seemed like all the other expat blogs were complaining and complaining about how hot it was, and I thought that it must be 90F+ elsewhere in Korea. Well, today I took the time to look up the temperatures, average and otherwise. While it is hotter elsewhere... mid 80F's, (28-30Celsius) it's never even once popped above 90F, which is what I consider swimming weather. So I only just figured out that unless some freak heat wave hits Busan, we won't be getting above 90F (32Celsius) this summer.

I grew up in Kansas City, MO... which is not the southernmost location. But having 5-10days in a summer at above 100F (37Celsius) is not uncommon. And yes, it's humid. I remember playing outside and feeling like I was swimming rather then running. I can't imagine living in Texas or Alabama in the summer (I've been fortunate to only visit in the winter, woot!).

Anyway... from all the talk I heard before coming here, I was expecting living in the tropics or something.

Guess not. Guess I shouldn't worry that much about the "freezing cold" winters I keep hearing about either.


Busan: Record High/Lows and Averages for July. (In Fahrenheit)

80 average is going to be real nice except the beach won't feel nearly warm enough...

Seoul: Record High/Low's and Averages for July:

 Average of about 2-4 degrees warmer then Busan doesn't seem so bad...

Kansas City, MO (where I grew up): Record high/lows and averages for July.

 5-8 degrees average difference from Seoul and about 10 degrees difference for Busan. (Not to mention... check out our records... when we go for records we really go!)

For those of you who don't know me... I'm actually pretty disappointed Busan's not going to get into the 90s, anything less makes me want to shiver when swimming...

But at least most of the time I'll be hot but not sweltering and being pretty happy we're not in say Vietnam or somewhere else tropical during the summer. :D

On another note... this rainy season has been disappointing thus far too. It's not even raining every day. And I have yet to hear thunder... though I did see lightening, once. Bring it on Korea Weather!! (except for this weekend, I have plans, the forecast can continue to stay sunny for this weekend, but I expect it to be rainy every other day!)

Trash Cans? What Trash Cans?

One thing, that's really bugged me ever since I came to Korea.... and I was going to put this into a Love/Hate post if I ever get around to making one, but I got impatient, it still might.... is the lack of Trash Cans.

Anywhere you are in public, no trash cans. And this generalization counts for Seoul and Busan and I can say that I have looked and looked and looked and not found trash cans.

The one "Trash can" at a subway station in Seoul. Actually a cardboard box with a trashbag. But hey, I'm not complaining, it's somewhere to throw my trash. And I did. I threw away trash I had been carrying for hours due to the lack of trash cans. See how small it is? And it's empty? Either they just emptied this cardboard box, or no one else throws away their trash!

Now the reason this upsets me is because I'm a conscientious person and I prefer to throw away my trash rather then litter. 

From asking, here's what I've learned about the lack of Trash Cans in Korea (Busan and Seoul).

1. There were some terrorist threats years ago (like mail bombs only trash bombs) and that's why there's no trash cans.
2. The cities employee tons of elderly to go around and pick up litter, so they don't bother with trash cans
3. The environmentally conscious citizens of Korea take their trash with them so they can sort it for recycling later.

I am a super lazy American. Because I hate the idea of holding onto my trash (ice-cream wrappers, soda bottles, coffee cups, etc) for any length of time. But I also can't bring myself to throw my trash on the ground for some poor old person to pick up, no matter if I'm helping them attain gainful employment or not.

As for sorting for recycling... I always considered myself to be not lazy in this regard. I will sort for recycling... Paper, plastic, metal and glass, right? Right???? Not in Korea, and because I can't read the signs (well, I can read them, I just don't know what those words mean)and I have to sort out the 10 different types of plastic at our apartment recycling center guessing based on what other people have done. That's right, there's like 50 different little bins and you have to put your recyclables into just the right one. Because God forbid I get something wrong, or appear to be getting something wrong (those crazy Miguks!!) because the old guy who is paid to sit there and straighten the area, and sort the unsorted, will come and yell at me! And has, several times!

This guy has it soooooo easy.

Funny story, while I'm ranting about the apartment recycling area: One time, Shannon and I went to recycle and throw away what trash we had. Including a bag of dirty kitty litter. Shannon was about to throw the kitty litter bag into the "garbage" area (2 very small bins reserved for true garbage) and the old guy starts yelling at him. Shannon, confused as to why he's being yelled at, pauses. The old guy comes up and tries to take away the dirty kitty litter bag... he goes to open it and Shannon and I both shout- "NO!, I mean... ANI-YO!! (korean no)". The old guy is still insisting on opening the bag, we keep saying Goyangi (Korean word for cat) and saying poop (we don't know the Korean word for poop). Finally, Shannon makes a gesture that I think is understandable world wide. He motions like there is poop coming out of his butt while saying Goyangi and making farting noises with his mouth. (LMAO!) The old guy gets it and backs off. Phew. In retrospect, we should've let him open it. For all the trouble they give us trying to recycle and trying to do the right thing.

Ok, back to trash cans. After discussing the lack of trash cans again last night, I decide to email the mayor of Busan and give him my opinion and idea. And to make the idea more valid, I acted like I was a tourist instead of an expat. Expats do not have the best reputation in Korea, probably due to all the young expats teaching.... they're young, they do what young people do... drink, party, otherwise make a ruckus.

Here's my letter to the Busan Mayor, short sweet and to the point. aka, very american. 

Dear Mayor,
We are greatly enjoying our visit to your beautiful coastal city, Busan. It's many beautiful sites incline us to recommend it as a vacation spot to any of our friends 

One recommendation / complaint we have is the lack of trash cans. When at Haeundae enjoying the ocean and the other beautiful sites, it's very distracting to have to hold onto our trash until we reach a coffee shop or some other place of business. 

I understand that Busan is a very environmentally conscious city, so I wanted to recommend Green Sort trash cans as used in the Atlanta International airport.http://www.atlanta-airport.com/Airport/Environmental/MaterialsRecovery.aspx 

These trash cans automatically sorts and compresses trash into easily recyclable packets.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPlc6o9AmkQ 

Having trash cans like these along Haeundae Beach would allow for ease of disposal, as well as display once again what a technologically advanced city Busan is. 

We're looking forward to our next visit already. 

Thank you,Kim and Shannon Conner.

I'd like to point out that my English seems to be getting worse since moving to Korea. It's hard to have good English when everyone around you speaks a foreign language or broken English. But the Mayor probably won't notice. He'll probably use Google Translate, which will garble it all up anyway.

I didn't LIE either, I just implied that we visited not often (tourists) as opposed to visited very often (we live here). I also realize that I'm becoming easily searchable on Google, so cross your fingers that he's not a Google wiz or a Google search of "Trash Cans" might lead him straight here.   <.<;;

Pretty good though right? Maybe I'll get something done around here. ;) j/j, but I'll let you know if I hear back from the Mayor or if Trash Cans suddenly appear along Haeundae Beach, or anywhere else for that matter!

Thanks Andy!

Comprehensive Seoul trip guide/run down - part 1

This is going to be a long post, it might even get split into multiple posts. I decided that instead of splitting our trip into bits and pieces, I would write in sequential order, everything.

We decided last minute to go to Seoul for the three day weekend. Spontaneity! But you know me, I always have to do a little planning at least. So I created a power point with some recommended places to stay, the Seoul subway map, and some potential tourist sites.

KTX/KORAIL/The Bullet Train
I booked our KTX tickets from their website. One thing KTX is not very clear about on their website is station location (or, "what it's really called"). If you're trying to sync up subway maps with KTX maps, here's what you need to know.  In Seoul, you can catch the KTX @ Seoul Station (#1 & #4 lines) and in Busan, you can catch the KTX at Busan Station (#1 line).

Seoul subway map (click to enlarge)

Busan subway map (click to enlarge)

Also, random tip, if you're ever lost and looking for a metro/subway stop, don't ask for the metro (even though it says metro everywhere) no one will know what you're talking about, ask for the subway.

For 55,500W each person/one way you can have a reserved seat on a bullet train that will take you 2.5 - 3 hours to get from Seoul->Busan or Busan->Seoul. The seats are nice, airplane style, even a little bigger (I think). We decided to take the bus and the subway down and then take the KTX up and stay downtown the entire weekend. Now taking the bus and subway take about an hour and a half for us, 45 minutes on both, and the bus only leaves once an hour. We didn't know what the lines would be like at the KTX (do we have to go through security like at the airport?) So we decided we'd like to get there at least 45 minutes early, and if we got there too early, we could go and get dinner, or coffee or something. Shannon had to get home from work, pack, we caught the 7pm bus and actually walked across the plaza at 8:45pm. 

Oh another random tip, if you're coming from Seoul, the signs aren't very good, you have to exit the KTX station and walk across the plaza to get to the subway. You can't see the subway because this is in the way: 

We stood in a very short line (about 10 minutes) and picked up our reserved tickets. We walked to see where we needed to go. FYI folks, no security, no one even checks if you have a ticket, you just walk on down to the train, so you don't need to plan on more then 20-30 minutes before your train leaves. That would be 10-20 minutes to get your ticket and 10-20 minutes to board the train. Weird right?

So we got dinner. Busan Station is a very nice plaza, with fast stuff to eat and sit down places. We sat down and still got on the train earlier then anyone else. Also, Busan station has a lot of Love Motels around it. I hear all kinds of good things about Love Motels, cheap clean and entertaining. I'll get more into this later, but for anyone wanting to know, you can get off a KTX train in Busan and find a love motel to stay, no problem. After a long ride and arriving at 12:30am, the same can not be said for Seoul. There are some you can see from Seoul Station, but can be hard to find when you actually go looking for them. After about an hour of walking (and discussing how we'd already seen a lot more homeless/bums in Seoul then we ever had in Busan) we decided to hail a cab and ask them to take us to one of the Love motels I had looked up prior to coming.

Warning! Subways in Seoul and Busan shut down after midnight! Plan on staying close or catching a taxi if you arrive after midnight.

Busan Taxi's > Seoul Taxi's

Or at least our short experience has lead us to believe this. In Busan, we have used Taxi's several times. It's always extremely easy to get one, even at 5am (yep, we've done that). And, if you're going close by, typically costs 4,000-5,000W. Not a bad deal at all. 

In Seoul, we waved and waved and waved, finally a very nice Korean man (Thank you thank you thank you!!!) hailed a cab in front of us and gave us the cab!!! We have no idea if we were being avoided for some reason or what, but it was not a good experience. The cab ride was slightly more expensive then I was used you, at 4,900W, we were going VERY close, but it wasn't bad all the same. Later we were warned that if we had been unlucky enough to catch a "Black" taxi or foreigner taxi, we could've paid up to 100,000W!! What?! That's crazy!  Glad we avoided that, but be aware - normal taxi=super cheap and in Busan super convenient, Foreigner Taxi=super expensive!! 

Or at least that was the rumor, this site seems to think it's more reasonable then that. It still would have been more expensive, and if you have a map of where you want to go or an address in Korean, or directions in Korean, you are going to be just fine with a normal Korean taxi. Still, Busan doesn't have these, so maybe we were being avoided by other taxis because we were considered belonging to the foreigner taxis?

Love Motel - a one night stand.

That's right, we stayed one night at the Love Motel. It wasn't bad, in fact, it seemed pretty clean and the bathroom was huge. But it definitely gave a sleazy vibe. And we didn't sleep well at all. Which sucks b/c we got there at 1:30am, you think we would've slept like a rock. No, I don't remember the name, but like I said, it wasn't bad so I don't want to give it a bad review anyway. I forgot to take pictures too. :( We just decided we'd rather stay somewhere more respectable if we could the next day. More on that in a minute.

If you don't know what a Love Motel is, they are motels that cater to illicit affairs, or at least that's how they got started. I heard about them on TV in the US and had been dying to try them out. Why? Because of this:

OMG, it's so wonderful and kitschy. And they're supposed to be clean and cheap. Ours was, but it also gave you the sleaze vibe. (Of course above are presidential suites, they cost more then 80,000W on a holiday weekend). I was using this site to find Love Motels near where I wanted to be. It's all in Korean, but Google does a pretty good job translating so you can use that. Just don't plan on calling, they'll probably speak little to no English. Better to try in person. Also, check in usually starts at 11pm, so it was good for us when we were arriving so late without any reservations.

This is as far as I got today, I need to get some unpacking and cleaning done. More tomorrow. Maybe I'll actually go into what we did this weekend, not just how we got there. :D

<3 <3 <3   Kim

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!

ArtsyFartsy - part 2

I finished editing a lot of pictures yesterday and split them in to reasonable groups. Turns out I have 3 more posts worth after this one! Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to use Gimp very well yet, so these are still just edited using Microsoft Office Picture Manager. I'm sure when I figure Gimp out my pictures will blow your mind! Until then, you'll have to settle for simple awe. :D

I love color saturating the pictures with the temple buildings because of all their beautiful painting!

Jangan Temple during Buddha Birthday. Shannon's favorite out of these pictures.

Jangan Temple 2.

Looking up through the Bamboo Forest.

Well manicured forest path behind Jangansa.

It's definitely a toss up between the one above and the one below for which is my favorite picture in this post.

Cherry Blossoms against the mountain.

Beomeosa waterfall from the top.

 I loooove the bright and pretty lanterns!

Feel free to use my photos anywhere you want to. Just please link back to my site if it's on the web, and let me know... I'd love to know you liked my photos enough to use them somewhere!

I'll probably blog about something else tomorrow (I have a list of topics I haven't gotten to yet), but don't worry, in the near future there will be a part 3, part 4 and part 5... and I'm sure many more parts in the future!

ArtsyFartsy - part1

I've really enjoyed taking photos ever since I arrived in Korea. (I've never been a really big photo person before this, I swear.... on our Honeymoon, Shannon and I had to make a resolution, yes, a resolution to take at least 1 photo together (as a couple) every day, in Hawaii! We still missed 1 day I think. Still, that shows how much we're not typically picture people. We both are usually like, "You take pictures" "No, you take pictures, I don't want to carry the camera" "Meh, guess we're not getting any pictures". But since we've been here I've pretty much monopolized the camera, with Shannon occasionally saying "make sure you get a picture of that!" Ok, side story over.)

Since I've been so enraptured with temples and mountains and cherry blossoms and ocean and all the beautiful stuff around me, I've actually taken the time to tweak some of my more awesome photos. This is just part 1, I have so many awesome photos I'll have to blog more after I edit them.

Gwangalli Beach at night. I was told the words being projected on the sand was a poem.

Haeundae park.

Jin-ha Beach and Island (10 minutes north of our apartment!)

Early spring, flower barely peaking out!

Valley on the way to Moonsoosa.

Mountain view with pine tree.

Cherry blossoms outside our apartment.

Wind-swept tree on a mountain. 

Approaching Moonsoosa.

Path down.

Moonsoosa bell tower coming down from the peak. 

I couldn't decide which one I liked best, with or without color. Gwangan beach.

If you're wondering how I edit my pictures, I swear it's just Microsoft Picture Editor. I don't own any sweet editing program (though I wish I did). This is just cropping, enhancing color (or getting rid of color) and playing with shadows and highlights.

I've actually taken so many photos at this point, there might be a part 2 tomorrow or later this week, just so I can catch up. :D

Feel free to use my photos anywhere you want to. Just please link back to my site if it's on the web, and let me know... I'd love to know you liked my photos enough to use them somewhere!

Random Misadventures...

Last weekend, we were trying to have adventures but kept having misadventures instead.

On Saturday, we woke up super late (Noribang kicked our butt the night before!), puttered around and finally decided we didn't want to do any hard core hiking so we'd go to the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple... or as Shannon and I have been calling it, the Temple on the Sea.

First, we got lost, but we found this old fortress along the way, Gijangeupseong Fortress.

This fortress was built by the Japanese when they invaded Korea in 1590something. Obviously the Koreans haven't felt any urge to preserve it (who would?), so it's really just stone walls piled on top of one another. Nice views from the top though!

We got back on the road after this, and we got the GPS to work so we didn't get lost again. You're probably thinking "Why didn't they use GPS to begin with?" Did I mention that the GPS is in Korean? We're trying people!

Finally, we ended up at the Temple on the Sea, only to suddenly recall that Buddha Birthday celebrations were still on going. So this very beautiful temple, very close to Busan and Gijang, was packed. When we were parking I spotted this awesome couple. [Thank you to Kaori for introducing me to the matching couple concept, without you I probably wouldn't have noticed them!]

Shannon is super embarrassed when I take pictures of matching couples. My arguments- #1 If they didn't want the attention, they wouldn't dress that way, it obviously takes a lot of planning. #2 My picture is taken all the time because I'm Caucasian and I'm not angry or upset about it.     Win!

When we walked down to the temple, this is what we found: 

Good lord it's crowded!

But totally worth it, it's sooo beautiful... one of the few photos I managed to get with no people in it.

The next day, we got up at a decent time and we wanted to go see the Geumjeongsanseong Fortress. We grabbed some lunch and started driving. We didn't bother trying to use the GPS because we knew there would be signs. Well, we must have missed a sign because soon we were in downtown Busan. We found a place to turn around and decided we just wanted to hike afterall. We drove back to Beomosa Temple, got out and started walking. We stopped at a trail map and Shannon said he really just wanted to see that fortress. So we hiked back and got back in the car. We messed around with that GPS and got it to give us directions to the fortress this time. 3 hours after lunch we finally made it to the fortress. 

This is a huge Korean fortress built in 1703 (after the Korean and Chinese invasions, the Koreans decided to mount a better defense), it was destroyed during the Japanese occupation (1910-1945). In 1972 it began to be restored. 

Since we didn't have much time - Shannon had to go into work Sunday evening :P-, we only hiked to a command post. This command post had recently been restored. (or rather, reconstructed on site)

I assume there was less growth back in the day so the generals could view and command battle, you couldn't see much of the surrounding countryside because of all the trees.

However, you could see this...

Dang-it, that's where we wanted to hike!!!

Maybe this weekend or the weekend after, when we're not having such a run of bad luck.  -.-;;;

Jangan-Sa (Jangan Temple) Saturday 23rd

On Saturday we went to the very touristy Jangan-Sa. In contrast to Moonsoo-Sa the previous weekend, there was no mountain to climb up (though you could climb the one behind the temple if you felt adventurous), there was a huge parking lot, and lots of souvenirs available for purchase! There were people actually worshiping here too, and real monks chanting (which was piped out amongst the grounds). Our friend Doug came with us, too. (God, I really hope he reads this someday, haha!)

I tried to take a picture of the entire temple and failed, it was just too large, so here's some bits and pieces.

First, some temple history (Thank you multi-lingual tourist sign!):

This is the main building of Jangansa temple. The temple is said to have been founded by the great priest Wonhyo in 673, originally called Ssanggyesa, but renamed Jangansa after King Chungjang of Goryeo kingdom visited this temple. It was burnt down in 1592 by the Japanese and rebuilt in 1638, by the great priest Tae-ui. Daeungjeon was rebuilt in 1654 by three priests. Each side of the building has three bays with a tiled roof, a double eaves and a multi-cluster bracket structure. The building was recolored in 1975. It is a high and solid structure manifesting a majestic appearance as the main shrine of this temple.

Here's some folks taking a drink of the cool stream water. It looked really good, and I don't think you had to be "baptized" to take part. However, unlike the Blood of Christ, there is no alcohol in this water to sanitize the germs, so we didn't take part. (Happy Buddha!! I love him, he's so cute!)

This is a sneaky photo of the monks(!) chanting. I didn't know if it was respectful or appropriate, but I had too, they're just so cool!! No one glared. So either no one saw or no one cared. I didn't want to find out. :D

Blinging. (I can only hope that this is all real gold, cause that would be so super sweet)

We went on a walk behind the temple. Beyond this are hard core hiking trails, we stuck to the formal paths through the bamboo forest this time.

And when we were leaving, Shannon told me to take this picture. Good thing he did, it turned out great!

We were going to buy some souvenirs, but the ones we fell in love with were more money then we had on us, and they didn't take credit cards. We'll have to go back I guess. Oh darn!