The Weekend Escape to Busan

Okay, I can honestly say that I'm happy that we were abandoned by Boug/Bong after all! If we hadn't have been, we wouldn't have gone to Busan and had the most AMAZING weekend!

So, we rocked up to Seoul Station at 7am to get the KTX (bullet train) to Busan, which gets you right to the other end of the country in just three hours. We ended up having to jump on first class (look at me complaining - sheesh, talk about Poor Little Rich Kid! XD), since all the regular seats were taken as we'd left it so late! But that was actually pretty sweet, and we were 200 miles away in Busan by 10.30!

We'd manage to secure a place at a hostel not far from the station the night before - £8 a night for a pretty decent place!

Indisputably the best part about the hostel though was the fact that, because we were living communally, we got to meet loads of other people from all over the globe who were travelling South Korea too! We were staying with Willow (from the US) and Linda (half Korean/half Australian), both English teachers in Seoul who'd escaped to Busan for the weekend like us, as well as Frederick (French) and Alex (English), who had both reached Busan during their own lone travels of Asia! It was really cool getting to meet them all - but... more on THAT later!

So, as soon as we'd arrived in Busan, and before we'd been lucky enough to met all of these crazy globe-trotters, we made the typical tourist beach to Haeundae Beach. Now, despite the fact that Haeundae is the title and setting of an apocalyptic "Day After Tomorrow" style move just recently released over here (check out the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCZql4G_eno), luckily, we didn't see any tsunamis or wanton-destruction, just an endless stretch of sun, sea, parasols... and MORE PARASOLS.

Literally, have you ever seen so many parasols in your LIFE?! NO, you haven't! Apparently, it's quite popular (or VERY popular, if the above picture is anything to go by) for people to go the beach but not want to tan. I spoke to one of my students, and she said that people her age don't mind tanning, but others have told me that being pale is more "in", kind of like a reverse Western logic... conflicting stories! Either way, there were A LOT of parasols. Another funny thing was the fact that there were loads of people patrolling the beach SELLING MEXICAN CHICKEN! ...umm, WHAT?! Surely when it's as hot as it is in Busan (and in Busan, it's HOT), you want something to cool you down like an ice cream or a bottle of water? ...not FLAMING HOT MEXICAN CHICKEN! Straaange...!

Anyway, the beach was so big that we eventually managed to find a more tranquil area, where we could just sit with our toes in the sea and relax in the sun, diving under the cover of our own parasol every now and then just to ensure we weren't fried like the Mexican chicken that everyone else was scoffing down.


...the picture probably does all the talking, but, in case you're blind or just stupid (XD), it was AWESOME, and made such a difference from the hustly bustly city life of Seoul. I love that about South Korea: the fact that it's just so diverse a country. You can have breakfast in the city in the morning, hope on the KTX and go to a stunning beach like Haeundae for the afternoon, then hit the nightlife big-style in the evening!

...which is EXACTLY WHAT WE DID! It was when we returned from Haeundae in the early evening that we met Willow, Linda and Frederick, and, after quickly hitting it off, we all headed out to check out Busan's nightlife. Willow had been told about a club called "The Velvet Banana" by one of her friends back in Seoul, so that was our first stop of the night (well, after we stopped off at a bar conspicuously named "50 Cent", but the less said about that the better! XD). So, we rocked up to The Velvet Banana at midnight and...


...IT WAS COMPLETELY EFFING EMPTY. On the plus side, they were playing Miley Cyrus (:D!), but I seemed to be the only one who appreciated that fact. Nevertheless, we took advantage of the free drinks on offer, and by the time we'd chilled out a bit, it had started to full up, so me, Willow and Linds took to the dancefloor. Well, actually, we took to the STAGE - some guys on the dancefloor were doing a synchronised dance routine (you don't get THAT in England!) and we had to outdo them somehow, so we hopped on the stage and started struting our stuff! Needless to say, we won the Dance War! (We even got some claps for our moves! XD).

A shout-out must also go to the random Korean girls who jumped in our picture above. LEGENDARY.

So, after we'd completely demolished The Velvet Banana with our stage dance moves, we hopped in a taxi and headed to another club ... and if we'd been disappointed with how empty The Banana had been, then this club (...I can't remember what it was called! :S) was the answer to our prayers!

Now, two clubs and six hours later, we were all struggling to keep going (bearing in mind that I'd got up at 6AM in the morning and had little over FIVE HOURS sleep!), so after a second round of showing the Koreans what we had to offer on the dancefloor, we headed back to Haeundae Beach to lap up the nighttime scenery. Sadly, the camera couldn't do justice to the BEAUTY of Haeundae at night, but, trust me, it was GORGEOUS, and so much fun just sitting there and chilling out of the pure HEAT of the last club.


So, by the time we'd reached 5 in the morning, and impulsively decided it'd be good to look for a DVDbang. Remember the whole "bang" craze? ...DVDbang's just basically a room where you can chill out and watch the latest filmsexcept, as I've recently discovered, it's SO MUCH MORE than that. Yes, a DVDbang isn't just for film-watching, it's for sleazy, make-out film watching. The stories say that the sofas are covered in cellophane and that there's a customary box of tissues in every room. In other words, PURE SLEAZE. Of course, having discussed the trashiness of DVDbangs, we wanted to experience it for ourselves! So there we were, at 5AM in the morning, traipsing the streets of Busan looking for a dirty DVDbang. ...sadly our prayers were not answered and we didn't get a chance to experience the sleaze for ourselves - don't worry though, I've still got two weeks here! Mwahaha! XD

...okay, so that was our first (eventful!) day in Busan. Next came Day Two, when we made a trek to Beyonce Temple. Okay, it's not actually called that, it's called Beomeosa Temple, but that's not as fun, right? So, Beyonce it was!




Now, Beyonce was definitely much more of an exhibitionist than her Seoul-counterparts! I had thought that Gyeonbokgung in Seoul couldn't be topped, but Beyonce definitely gets the prize of being the best temple I've visited so far! Mainly because she's in the middle of the mountains, as opposed to all of the Seoul temples, which are all on the ground level amongst all the other city buildings. So while Seoul perhaps offers a better clash of old and new, Beyonce definitely wins on the natural, unspoilt scenery factor.

At one point, I actually thought I heard people praying to the tune of "Single Ladies", okay, so it wasn't, but there was a definite resemblance! Hahaha. Oh, and there was also a stand giving out free tea, which was OLDER THAN ME! It had been brewing for TWENTY YEARS - that's crazy! Definitely made me feel like a baby amongst all this history, and yet another example of the awesome diversity of Korea (soju in a club by night, twenty-year old tea in a mountain temple by day!).

So that was our second day - sadly we weren't able to spend longer in Busan, since teaching carries on as normal during the week, but, as weekends go, we had an AMAZING time! ...strangely enough, being in Busan actually made me miss Seoul! I guess I just feel settled in Seoul now! That being said, I'm glad I seized the opportunity to see more of the country outside of Seoul - I would've hated to have gone home having only spent my time in one city, and, as you can see for yourself, it was such an awesome experience!

Anyway, in the unlikely event that you've bothered to read this far, well done! Have a cookie! n_n