Also, the beach, as it was the more family-friendly and family oriented of the Busan beaches, was seriously lacking in regards to pretty ladies wandering the beach. That's about 90% of why people come to the beach, right? Although, in fairness, there may have been tons of attractive women, but you just couldn't tell under the t-shirts and baggy sweatpants they were swimming in. I kid, I kid. Not everybody was dressed that way. Hell, its only been in the last 10 or so years that its become okay for women to wear bikinis at the beach. Yeah, mull that over in your head for a bit. Imagine how awful it must have been before then. Hooray for the corrupting influence of the West! What would I do with out it?
The beach did have one very interesting aspect to it. Thanks to the previous day's typhoon, a lot (and I mean a lot) of seaweed washed up on shore. Tons of the shit. The worst hit areas were almost unusable, as far as the beach went. The city employed a small army of volunteers (well, I hope they were paid for their thankless job, but given the quality of the "work" put in by some, I would wager they were volunteers) to clean up the seaweed, but really not technology or machines of any sort, making the clean up exceedingly slow, in my humble opinion. The beaches are Busan's bread and butter in the summer and the only thing drawing people to this particular region of Busan, so you should probably put up a better effort than that. Ohhh well, the seaweed was finally gone by Saturday, the 3rd day since the typhoon rolled through. A pic of the folks in action:
And just for good measure since I forgot to include these pics before, we have some shots of the beach at night. Feel free to "oooohhh" and "ahhhhhh" all you like.
Having lounged on the beach long enough, we then moved downtown to visit the fish market and the harbor. But not before I analyzed my sunburns. Despite having gangly ass arms that I can nearly drag on the ground when I walk, my arms are not long enough or flexible enough to reach certain spots on my back, so my mom was kind enough to help me, while I put sunscreen on the rest of the body. So where do you think I got sunburn? Yup, all the places where I put on the sunscreen. The places where my mom did it? Perfectly fine. No burn at all....sigh. I am helpless.
Anyways, the Nalgalchi Fish Market was just the same as I remembered it. Loud, smelly, crowded and bustling. So much bustling. See in the previous times I had gone, the old ladies running the stands had been more quiet, more docile. I think it was because it was winter and they were in a mini-hibernation of sorts, like bears. But this time, in late summer? They were fully alert and on the hunt. Or maybe they were just loud. Either way, the parents enjoyed the messy, chaotic nature of it while we strolled. Again, they consistently asked what the hell alot of the things in the tanks and on the tables for sale, but as usual I didn't have any of the answers. We did however, leave the market with something we didn't enter. A purchase, you might say. What? Peanuts. You heard right, peanuts. No these "peanuts" aren't some weird sea animal, like "sea cucumbers" or "sea penises". No these were just regular peanuts. Yes, leave it to our wacky foreigner family to go to the best fish and seafood market in Korea and leave with peanuts. But that's all due to my dad's need to always have snack food with him at all times. Peanuts, nuts, chips, crackers, it doesn't matter. Without them he would cease to exist or something. It's the only reason I can understand why he always needs the stuff.
Once finished with the market and the harbor, we trekked over to the nearby Yongdusan Park to get a good view of the city. Once again, we decided against going up the tower and looking out over Busan, but this time for different reasons. Last time it was because we didn't have time or care enough. This time it was because we had an engineer in the group. Those of you who don't have an engineer in the family perhaps may not understand this, so I'll elaborate. Whenever we go out with my father, he comments on the construction/design/structural integrity of various structures. Usually his consensus is terribly uplifting. On the Giant Drop at Six Flags? "Do you realize that the only thing keeping you from crashing to your death is that tiny little metal cable? And how often do you think they check the structural integrity of the wire. For all we know, that wire could go at any time." Charming. As for the tower, he said that the base was simply too thin to adequately support the top, so its a liability to fall over. So we didn't go up. Instead we sat on the lookout at the base and watched the city and the weirdos around us. Mainly we watched as the people lined up to take their picture at a free (or maybe it wasn't free) picture stand. Group after group after group lined up to have their pictures taken, despite not being able to keep the picture. You simply used the machine to take a picture of yourself there in the park, looked at it on the screen after it was taken and then you left or took another one. Frankly I don't get the point. You have your own camera, use that. Then you can at least keep them. All I could think when the groups lined up for it was "Man, Koreans fucking love taking pictures of themselves". Although, in their defense, from what I hear, it might be all Asians that love taking photos of themselves.
Once done with the park, we headed back near our beach but stopped off at the big beach where everybody who's everybody has to go. Haeundae Beach, the most famous in Korea, and thus the one that everyone has to go to. I would never bother trying to use the beach to swim, as like everything else in Korea, it is massively overcrowded and I hear they stack people 2 or 3 high just to fit everybody in. No thanks. But at night, just walking the beach, man it doesn't get better. Seriously. Apparently, all the pretty people in Busan and all the ones down visiting on vacation have nowhere else to go, so they just sit along the boardwalk there. They just sat there, being pretty. Nothing else. Just sitting. It does look kinda odd to see those people dressed so nicely at the beach, but after seeing people walk around the ski resort (outside in the snow, mind you) in high heels, I won't ever be surprised at where people wear clothes like that. The view was so wonderful that I came back the next day with my friend Danny. It was that good. I had to go back for seconds.
Now for some pics from that day.
Friday the 13th (...gasp) saw no sun or anything else necessary for nice beach weather. Overcast, windy and cool does not nice beach times make. So we just gave up on the beach and instead headed to my favorite sight in Busan, Taejongdae Park. The coastal park along the southernmost edge of town never fails to disappoint and this time was no different. Nothing particularly of note to mention. The greenery and trees? Still green and purdy. The rock formations on the the coast? Still rocky and still amazing to look at. The other visitors? Still goofy and good for a laugh from time to time (more like all the time, but I'll be generous). From the perfectly healthy young people who ride the park train just to get out of walking a couple of kilometers to the ladies who insist on wearing stilettos while walking through the park, even in the areas where the "path" is in fact a uneven and slippery rock face with no guard rail. I try to be a decent person and all, but I really can't guarantee I wouldn't laugh if someone rocking footwear like those ladies slipped and fell from the cliff face. Stupid is as stupid does, they say. I could talk more about the park, but I figure the pics can speak for themselves.
Once done with the park, the family headed back to the hotel and the parents decided to lay low as they were tired from all the walking, leaving me free to head back to Haeundae Beach to meet up with my friend Danny and, you guessed it, stare at the locals some more. And if I had thought it was good the day before, then I hadn't seen anything. Since it was Friday night, everybody was out and about. I also finally learned why the hell everyone was there. Apparently Busan has a pretty weak club/nightlife scene and all the best clubs are in the basements of the hotels along the beach area here in Haeundae, meaning all the pretty people just linger on the beach waiting for the clubs to open. Which ends up being a huge win for me, as I can see all the sights of a club without having to pay 20 bucks or have to suffer through Soldja Boy music (and I'm aware I didn't spell his name right, but I really don't give a shit, I dislike him that much). The one weird thing that I still can't get used to about Asia is the lack of mingling between the sexes. All down the boardwalk we had groups of boys and girls, but none were mingling. Hell, some of the groups were basically touching they were sitting so close, yet no mingling. Perhaps this is how most of the world interacts between the sexes, and I'm just the weird American. All I know is that back home, in social/night-life settings like this, if the female at least has 2 eyes, a face, and minimal body hair, then somebody is gonna be humping up her leg. Ohhhh America, how I miss your crazy ass. So for the evening: ate a burger, lounged around a beach, creeped on pretty ladies. Sounds like a win by my book.
Our final day in Busan (Saturday the 14th) started just as shitily as the previous days: looking out the window, then cussing heavily when it becomes apparent that the weather is shit yet again. Yes, 4 days in Busan and 1 day on the beach. 25 percent. Awesome. So instead we lounged around the hotel and area, then headed back to Haeundae for lunch at this really awesome Korean pizza chain. I'm not sure how the name turns out when Romanized, but I think it would be something like "Papa Johns". Actually, exactly like that. From there we hopped the train back to Seoul, and got in in time to go grab dinner in the foreign district. Again we avoided Korean food like the plague and instead went for Indian food. We did get a bit of a chuckle when, after explaining to my parents how I had just randomly stumbled onto this restaurant when walking around in the area, we arrived at the restaurant to find that a transgender club had opened up in the basement. And with most of the adult clubs in the foreign district, they have dancers/employees standing outside the doors trying to draw in customers. So while squeezing past those barely robed silicone bosoms, I tried to explain that "this place wasn't here last time...honestly". Awkward. I probably neglected to mention that this hill the restaurant was on was one of the infamous hills of the district. Still not sure if it was the affectionately titled "hooker hill" or "homo hill". All this serves to show that I will wander through some pretty sleazy areas just to find decent Indian food. Cuz its worth it.
That's it for part 3 folks. Part 4 is coming soon and should wrap the whole thing up. Huzzah. Progress. Maybe someday soon I'll actually be writing about stuff that happened within the last week or two. A man can dream, can't he?
Pics: Facebook album "That's no earthquake, that be giants a rumblin" (part 1)
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