Saturday, October 17, 2009
Bali, Indonesia- July 25-Aug. 3rd
I figured it was about time I make another post. Again, I got bad with the blog and have let so many fun times go by. Probably my best time here in Korea has been long past me and I am sorry for those of you who have been wondering about my trip to Bali, Indonesia. It was INCREDIBLE! I will keep this blog very short compared to the others because the pictures are exactly what you need to see to wonder what we did in Bali. There were 4 of us teachers who went. Daniel, Sam, Michael and myself. Obviously Daniel, who I came with, is my best friend but Mike and Sam, ever since the trip have been great friends of mine. Friends I know I will be in contact with for a long time when this is said and done.
Daniel and I stayed at a really nice resort right on the beach. Its name is the "Bali Mandira Resort and Spa." Without a doubt, I would recommend this resort to anyone planning to go to Bali in the future. I know for sure if I go again, I won’t stay anywhere else. The location was amazing. It was a little bit of a ways away from all the party which was a hassle seeing we like to party but for the days we wanted to be away from the hussle and bustle of Bali, our resort was the place to be. Mike and Sam stayed at a really cheap motel in town and would come to our spot in the mornings and we would take advantage of the Indian Ocean and try to surf or just chill by the pools in the hot sun while sipping girlie cocktails. Bali is also known for their beer called, Bintang. It was a very good beer and something we drank quite often. We only had about 8 full days in Bali and this was our vacation away from work. We wanted to be able to relax but at the same time, see the touristy things and have some great pictures. I think we did a great job with our time. We did the party scene very often but yet, saw a lot of the things we knew we should see before we left.
Some of the things we saw in Bali were: The monument site for the Bali Club Bombings. We saw the ground where it had happened and the memorial with all the names and what country they were from. It is a mind blowing site and something I am very proud to say I saw. When you are looking through the pictures, you will be able to see a lot of the other amazing things we did while in Bali.
A couple things about Bali and the tourism there...It is a BIG hot spot for Australians to go. It is only a 3 hour flight and they go often. Besides always being asked if we were Aussies, we were walking around town one day and whenever they see a tourist (the locals); they instantly ask if you need a taxi. Well this group of taxi drivers thought we were Aussies of course and insisted to talk in an Australian accent and called us "mate". It was so funny but after about two days of being there, it got quite annoying. Also, to walk around town, they are all over you to buy things; "Come in to my shop", "Oakley sunglasses, only $10", etc. I mean, it was nonstop every where you went.
But let's be real, can I be the one really complaining while I was in Bali, Indonesia when most of you were probably working that week? It was an amazing trip and spent with some amazing friends. I really hope you enjoy the pictures because this may have been one of my best vacations yet. I am hoping that Christmas/New Years in Thailand can top it, though.
Daniel and I stayed at a really nice resort right on the beach. Its name is the "Bali Mandira Resort and Spa." Without a doubt, I would recommend this resort to anyone planning to go to Bali in the future. I know for sure if I go again, I won’t stay anywhere else. The location was amazing. It was a little bit of a ways away from all the party which was a hassle seeing we like to party but for the days we wanted to be away from the hussle and bustle of Bali, our resort was the place to be. Mike and Sam stayed at a really cheap motel in town and would come to our spot in the mornings and we would take advantage of the Indian Ocean and try to surf or just chill by the pools in the hot sun while sipping girlie cocktails. Bali is also known for their beer called, Bintang. It was a very good beer and something we drank quite often. We only had about 8 full days in Bali and this was our vacation away from work. We wanted to be able to relax but at the same time, see the touristy things and have some great pictures. I think we did a great job with our time. We did the party scene very often but yet, saw a lot of the things we knew we should see before we left.
Some of the things we saw in Bali were: The monument site for the Bali Club Bombings. We saw the ground where it had happened and the memorial with all the names and what country they were from. It is a mind blowing site and something I am very proud to say I saw. When you are looking through the pictures, you will be able to see a lot of the other amazing things we did while in Bali.
A couple things about Bali and the tourism there...It is a BIG hot spot for Australians to go. It is only a 3 hour flight and they go often. Besides always being asked if we were Aussies, we were walking around town one day and whenever they see a tourist (the locals); they instantly ask if you need a taxi. Well this group of taxi drivers thought we were Aussies of course and insisted to talk in an Australian accent and called us "mate". It was so funny but after about two days of being there, it got quite annoying. Also, to walk around town, they are all over you to buy things; "Come in to my shop", "Oakley sunglasses, only $10", etc. I mean, it was nonstop every where you went.
But let's be real, can I be the one really complaining while I was in Bali, Indonesia when most of you were probably working that week? It was an amazing trip and spent with some amazing friends. I really hope you enjoy the pictures because this may have been one of my best vacations yet. I am hoping that Christmas/New Years in Thailand can top it, though.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
July 10-12 weekend: MUDFEST
No joke, every weekend in July just keeps getting better and I really think this is going to carry on into the next few months. At least that is what I hope. As much as I say it, I don’t understand how the weekends can always top the past weekends but they do! Our amazing recruiters, Joanne and Troy as you know are the creators of the Dongtan Clan group and Joanne puts together these trips for foreigners in advance and lines everything up with collecting the money, getting train tickets, rooms at hotels and things like that.
This weekend was a festival in a city called Boreyeong and the festival is called "Mudefest." Whatever you are thinking from the name of the festival is probably correct. I will get into the actual festival later in the post. There were about 50 of us in the Dongtan Clan that went together and I would say about 45 of the 50 arrived on Saturday via train and early in the morning. Lucky for Daniel and I being so close with Joanne and Troy, they were able to get the two of us on the train Friday night after work with a few other awesome members of the Dongtan Clan and Joanne and Troy as well. We figured we might as well start the party as early as we could after a long week of teaching little kids English all week. As you know from my last post, I love taking the train and that is what we did to go to Mudfest. We caught the train around 8:45 PM and no joke, when we walked on the train, I could not believe the amount of foreigners there were on every car of the train. If I had pictures, you would never guess I was in an Asian country. Without a doubt for the first time, the Asians were the minority in this country. It was only a two hour train ride but it was the biggest party on every car. Daniel and I were walking to the food/beer car and we had to go through two cars first and in both cars everyone was drinking, listening to music, dancing, laughing and anything else you can think of that is fun. Walking up the aisles alone you instantly were chatting with others that you had no clue who they were. I almost wished that this train ride was 5 hours instead of just the two. Another really cool thing about the trains here in Korea is that they have rooms with a chair massage and rooms that have karaoke machines in them. It truly is a party train.
Once we arrived into the city, the 15 or so of us grabbed taxis to our motel we were staying in and though we had a LONG day ahead of us tomorrow, the party had already started and we definitely continued it. A group of us walked around the city drinking beers and touring and then we all ended up at a "BBQ Clam" restaurant around midnight and this was my first time ever at one of these kinds of places. We were served the biggest clams and huge mussel looking things and cooked them on grills in front of us and the way you knew the clams were cooked and ready to eat was when the shell popped open. It was incredible delicious. After hanging out here for a while, we ended up randomly running into some friends we met the 4th of July weekend prior to this one in Pusan. They were our buddies from the U.S. Navy and they were eating at the same restaurant. Daniel and I ended up walking around with them on the beach and went to a couple bars but there was surprisingly not much going on Friday night because everyone was in preparation for Saturday's Mud festival. Finally, around 3 AM Daniel and I decided to call it a night because we had no idea what we were in for the next day.
Once we woke up, Joanne, Troy, Daniel and I all headed for some breakfast and were waiting eagerly for our other friend to arrive and get the party started. The other members of the Dongtan Clans train arrived before noon and they had all gotten a great night sleep in advance to prepare for the day so Daniel and I knew we were going to have to step our game up because they were expecting good things out of us. Of course, we were prepared.
To give you a little insight about the mud festival, it is this huge event in Korea for foreigners and some Koreans that happens for two weekends consecutive and it is all about mud. The festival is right on the beach and there are many different mud events. For the different kinds of events, there is a huge blow up pit filled with mud that people can go into and jump around splashing mud on each other, there is a "king of the mountain" pit filled with mud where people pretty much wrestle to be the king of the mountain, there is a mud slide that was AWESOME. Instead of it being like a slip and slide with water, it is mud. There are people that work the event who have a hose giving off mud and they will hose you down, there are people holding buckets to dump mud on you as well. There was also concerts going on during the events for people to chill and listen to or you could just keep playing with the mud. Also on the beach, there was mud troughs where you could go fix your spots or put mud on your body. There were paint brushes as well to paint it on. If you wanted to get clean, you just went into the ocean and cleaned off. They say that the mud is actually really good for your skin. They actually sell it to people. I know it sounds really gross altogether but before the whole event, Daniel and I both said that we didn’t think we would touch the mud because it does not sound too appealing. Within the first five minutes of being on the beach, we had already hit up the mud troughs and covered our whole bodies. It was awesome!
It was actually not that nice of a day but with the mud and the alcohol being consumed, that was the least of the worries. It even started raining towards the end of the day but it didn’t slow any of the foreigners down. We did all the mud events and walked around the festival and it was amazing the amount of foreigners that were there. Everyone was having a blast. Once the sun began to go down, we began to head back to the motel where we all showered up and got ready for the night. A long and entertaining day was again, only just beginning. Once we all showered, we headed to one of the bars where there were not many people yet and found a perfect location. It was called "Orange" and was right on the beachfront area. There were about 25 of us and they actually lined tables up for us so we could have one HUGE group. The amount of different drinking games going on at once is indescribable. We showed up at this place around seven and ended up leaving around midnight. Some headed to the club that was nearby and others headed back to the motel and a few of us just walked around the town. Where else can you just walk around a town with a beer in hand? I even saw some people walking down the streets with a fifth of Patron Tequila. I don’t know the laws but have never seen anyone get in trouble or be told to get rid of it. I am worried when I come home that I will get an open container ticket without realizing that we are not allowed to do it in the states.
Our trains the next day (Sunday) were not scheduled to be until around 5 in the afternoon because the mud festival is a Saturday/Sunday event and Joanne wanted to give us the whole experience. Well unfortunately, the weather on Sunday was unreal. I am very sure that it was a monsoon. It is monsoon season right now and I think that was the first one of the season. I have never seen rain so bad in Korea the whole five months I had been here, the wind was unbelievably strong to the point where it was stopping you from walking and the waves in the ocean were massive. Because of this, the mud festival was not going on and most everyone tried to leave early. For us, it did not stop us. Some of the Dongtan Clan including myself was in full party mode and we kept it going. Since we could not be outside for too long, we took it to the bars and kept it going. Once it was time to catch the train, some would have thought there was nothing else going on but once we headed down to the food/beer train, it was one massive party. I ordered my beers and never left the car one time until we arrived. I met so many awesome people on that car and we all just shared stories from the weekend and all the crazy stuff that happened. It is so amazing meeting other foreigners here because so many of them understand that we are all there for the same reason; the experience! The train ride was too short and once we arrived to our stop, the party finally ended. It was a little sad but I think there will be many upcoming weekends that are a little similar to that one. This weekend was amazing...one of the best ones yet!
I am beginning to notice a trend here in my last few posts and the common theme is the partying on the weekends. It is wild but for some reason, that is just what they do in this country!! I am just taking in the moment and having a blast with every opportunity thrown at me. It is funny because I chose to come to Korea to teach English and I feel like I am now here for the experience and the party. I sometimes feel like it is college and more all over again...AWESOME! This will be my last post for anywhere from 3 weeks to a month because in two weekends from now, Daniel, Michael, Sam and I are heading to Bali, Indonesia for our summer vacation. Daniel and I are staying at the same resort where we split the room (which is amazing by the way) and Michael and Sam may stay with us some or will just be looking for hostels and backpacking. A little insight, we are looking for this to be the ultimate experience. We have one full week and are looking to bungee jump, snorkel, whitewater rafting, cave tours and much more. The upcoming posts should be very good so be on the lookout for them.
This weekend was a festival in a city called Boreyeong and the festival is called "Mudefest." Whatever you are thinking from the name of the festival is probably correct. I will get into the actual festival later in the post. There were about 50 of us in the Dongtan Clan that went together and I would say about 45 of the 50 arrived on Saturday via train and early in the morning. Lucky for Daniel and I being so close with Joanne and Troy, they were able to get the two of us on the train Friday night after work with a few other awesome members of the Dongtan Clan and Joanne and Troy as well. We figured we might as well start the party as early as we could after a long week of teaching little kids English all week. As you know from my last post, I love taking the train and that is what we did to go to Mudfest. We caught the train around 8:45 PM and no joke, when we walked on the train, I could not believe the amount of foreigners there were on every car of the train. If I had pictures, you would never guess I was in an Asian country. Without a doubt for the first time, the Asians were the minority in this country. It was only a two hour train ride but it was the biggest party on every car. Daniel and I were walking to the food/beer car and we had to go through two cars first and in both cars everyone was drinking, listening to music, dancing, laughing and anything else you can think of that is fun. Walking up the aisles alone you instantly were chatting with others that you had no clue who they were. I almost wished that this train ride was 5 hours instead of just the two. Another really cool thing about the trains here in Korea is that they have rooms with a chair massage and rooms that have karaoke machines in them. It truly is a party train.
Once we arrived into the city, the 15 or so of us grabbed taxis to our motel we were staying in and though we had a LONG day ahead of us tomorrow, the party had already started and we definitely continued it. A group of us walked around the city drinking beers and touring and then we all ended up at a "BBQ Clam" restaurant around midnight and this was my first time ever at one of these kinds of places. We were served the biggest clams and huge mussel looking things and cooked them on grills in front of us and the way you knew the clams were cooked and ready to eat was when the shell popped open. It was incredible delicious. After hanging out here for a while, we ended up randomly running into some friends we met the 4th of July weekend prior to this one in Pusan. They were our buddies from the U.S. Navy and they were eating at the same restaurant. Daniel and I ended up walking around with them on the beach and went to a couple bars but there was surprisingly not much going on Friday night because everyone was in preparation for Saturday's Mud festival. Finally, around 3 AM Daniel and I decided to call it a night because we had no idea what we were in for the next day.
Once we woke up, Joanne, Troy, Daniel and I all headed for some breakfast and were waiting eagerly for our other friend to arrive and get the party started. The other members of the Dongtan Clans train arrived before noon and they had all gotten a great night sleep in advance to prepare for the day so Daniel and I knew we were going to have to step our game up because they were expecting good things out of us. Of course, we were prepared.
To give you a little insight about the mud festival, it is this huge event in Korea for foreigners and some Koreans that happens for two weekends consecutive and it is all about mud. The festival is right on the beach and there are many different mud events. For the different kinds of events, there is a huge blow up pit filled with mud that people can go into and jump around splashing mud on each other, there is a "king of the mountain" pit filled with mud where people pretty much wrestle to be the king of the mountain, there is a mud slide that was AWESOME. Instead of it being like a slip and slide with water, it is mud. There are people that work the event who have a hose giving off mud and they will hose you down, there are people holding buckets to dump mud on you as well. There was also concerts going on during the events for people to chill and listen to or you could just keep playing with the mud. Also on the beach, there was mud troughs where you could go fix your spots or put mud on your body. There were paint brushes as well to paint it on. If you wanted to get clean, you just went into the ocean and cleaned off. They say that the mud is actually really good for your skin. They actually sell it to people. I know it sounds really gross altogether but before the whole event, Daniel and I both said that we didn’t think we would touch the mud because it does not sound too appealing. Within the first five minutes of being on the beach, we had already hit up the mud troughs and covered our whole bodies. It was awesome!
It was actually not that nice of a day but with the mud and the alcohol being consumed, that was the least of the worries. It even started raining towards the end of the day but it didn’t slow any of the foreigners down. We did all the mud events and walked around the festival and it was amazing the amount of foreigners that were there. Everyone was having a blast. Once the sun began to go down, we began to head back to the motel where we all showered up and got ready for the night. A long and entertaining day was again, only just beginning. Once we all showered, we headed to one of the bars where there were not many people yet and found a perfect location. It was called "Orange" and was right on the beachfront area. There were about 25 of us and they actually lined tables up for us so we could have one HUGE group. The amount of different drinking games going on at once is indescribable. We showed up at this place around seven and ended up leaving around midnight. Some headed to the club that was nearby and others headed back to the motel and a few of us just walked around the town. Where else can you just walk around a town with a beer in hand? I even saw some people walking down the streets with a fifth of Patron Tequila. I don’t know the laws but have never seen anyone get in trouble or be told to get rid of it. I am worried when I come home that I will get an open container ticket without realizing that we are not allowed to do it in the states.
Our trains the next day (Sunday) were not scheduled to be until around 5 in the afternoon because the mud festival is a Saturday/Sunday event and Joanne wanted to give us the whole experience. Well unfortunately, the weather on Sunday was unreal. I am very sure that it was a monsoon. It is monsoon season right now and I think that was the first one of the season. I have never seen rain so bad in Korea the whole five months I had been here, the wind was unbelievably strong to the point where it was stopping you from walking and the waves in the ocean were massive. Because of this, the mud festival was not going on and most everyone tried to leave early. For us, it did not stop us. Some of the Dongtan Clan including myself was in full party mode and we kept it going. Since we could not be outside for too long, we took it to the bars and kept it going. Once it was time to catch the train, some would have thought there was nothing else going on but once we headed down to the food/beer train, it was one massive party. I ordered my beers and never left the car one time until we arrived. I met so many awesome people on that car and we all just shared stories from the weekend and all the crazy stuff that happened. It is so amazing meeting other foreigners here because so many of them understand that we are all there for the same reason; the experience! The train ride was too short and once we arrived to our stop, the party finally ended. It was a little sad but I think there will be many upcoming weekends that are a little similar to that one. This weekend was amazing...one of the best ones yet!
I am beginning to notice a trend here in my last few posts and the common theme is the partying on the weekends. It is wild but for some reason, that is just what they do in this country!! I am just taking in the moment and having a blast with every opportunity thrown at me. It is funny because I chose to come to Korea to teach English and I feel like I am now here for the experience and the party. I sometimes feel like it is college and more all over again...AWESOME! This will be my last post for anywhere from 3 weeks to a month because in two weekends from now, Daniel, Michael, Sam and I are heading to Bali, Indonesia for our summer vacation. Daniel and I are staying at the same resort where we split the room (which is amazing by the way) and Michael and Sam may stay with us some or will just be looking for hostels and backpacking. A little insight, we are looking for this to be the ultimate experience. We have one full week and are looking to bungee jump, snorkel, whitewater rafting, cave tours and much more. The upcoming posts should be very good so be on the lookout for them.
4th of July weekend in Pusan
So about 2 weeks ago, I was on the internet and came across this American owned restaurant in Pusan, South Korea (which is the very far south of the country where many beaches are) and they have different events throughout the week (for instance, taco Tuesday's, margarita Wednesdays, etc.) Of course it being an American owned restaurant, they were having a 4th of July party on their rooftop, cooking steaks, cheeseburgers sandwiches and all kinds of western goodies. I told Daniel that we NEEDED to go here for the weekend because it not only looked like a good time, but also because it was near the beaches and away from the ordinary. Also, the 4th of July is a great time of year and I wanted the experience to be something similar to what I am used to. As the two or so weeks went by, we were able to recruit a nice little crew to go with us and there turned out to be 7 of us. Six from our school and our good buddy Michael from another school.
After work on Friday, July 3rd, the six of us went straight to the train station to catch our train to Pusan (Michael got off work later than us and had to catch a different train). The train ride was 5 hours but surprisingly not that bad. That is one thing I have noticed about transportation in Korea; it is all really good. Back home, I would not think twice to taking a train and definitely do not prefer to bus and we don't have a subway near us. But here in Korea, all three of those options are awesome. We use the subway a lot, we bus all the time to Seoul and I plan on taking the train anywhere I go. It is very cozy and cheap. The five hours to Pusan seemed much shorter. Tate, Jillian, Daniel and I all sat together and turned the seats around to play cards and just chat. Once we finally reached Pusan, Michael was waiting for us in a bar because he caught the fast train and like most things we do in Korea, we did not know much about what we were doing.
We got in a skeptical taxi and then called the guy who owned the hostel we were staying at to give directions to the driver. This driver, no joke I thought was going to kill us. He was an awful driver and you could tell he was just trying to get people from place to place as fast as he could to get his next customers. We arrived to the hostel and let me tell you, this was no hostel. This was someone's apartment complex that he turned into a hostel. No complaints one bit because this place was not only nice, it was huge. It had a living room with seats, TV and internet, two bathrooms with showers and then the seven of us shared a mixed dorm room that had 4 bunk beds (I got top buuuunk!!! That's for you Tyler). Though it was already nearing 1 AM, we were too eager to see the beaches and the bars that we were going to become oh so familiar with on the 4th of July that we had to take the walk from the hostel to the beachfront where the bars were. The seven of us arrived to our first bar/restaurant (not knowing what we were getting ourselves into) and we ordered a couple pizzas and some beer and then once we coated our bellies a little, we moved to the cocktails. After a few bourbon and cokes, pizza, chatting and some laughs, we wanted to walk around and see what else there was to do. The beach was honestly right across the street so we all walked down there and hung out on the beach, shot some street sold fireworks at one another (thank god no one got hit, they were roman candles). Thinking the bars were all closed and it was time to go home, we all remembered we were in Korea where the bars do not close until 7 AM....you can see where this is going. To make a long story short, we went to another bar, met some other people and watched the sun come up to go home at 6:30. The first night did not go quite as planned but all in all, it was a great start to an even better Saturday and Sunday.
We only slept a few hours because the mixed dorm room with seven people gets hot and a little noisy. So once it was time to get up, we all walked back to the beachfront area and found a nice breakfast place and Daniel, Michael and I all went into the ocean which was crazy warm. We hung out on the beach all day until our 4th of July party began. We headed back to the hostel to begin getting ready for the night (the party started at 4:30). As usual, we didn’t know where this place was located, just going to try and get close and surely we will find it. After about an hour of walking around, we found the restaurant and its name is Sunset Lounge and it started off just with the boys and the girls were going to meet us later. They had many deals on beer, margaritas and food. We were on the rooftop and there was a decent amount of people to start off but it was really quiet. It seemed really casual but after everyone had a few drinks, it started getting really comfortable and rowdy in a good way. As scary as it seemed at first, it turned out to be an awesome time. The bartenders came to like us guys a lot and one of them kept coming to talk with us and hang out. He was Canadian (ironic huh?) and an awesome dude. We ended up getting to know a group of others that were in the U.S. Navy and came to Pusan for the weekend as we did. Once Sunset Lounge began to slow down, we were walking out the door to all go down to the beachfront bars and the bartender stopped me and said "Grab your boys" and poured five shots of Jagermeister for the four of us and himself. Great times!
As you can see, we left the bar on a high note and could tell that this night which had been going on for so long, had also only begun like Friday night. The amazing thing about Pusan is that they close off the roads where the beachfront area is and set it up for the people to have outdoor parties. There were tables lined up outside with chairs, outside vendors and loud music all along the strip. One thing they know how to do well here in Korea is to let people have a good time. Another good thing is the seven of us did not rely on each other and didn’t feel we had to stay with each other because we all knew where we were staying. We walked up and down the strip, ran into some of our friends from Sunset Lounge and again, partied until the sun came up. Daniel, Ta-Leah and I met this Korean couple who took us under their wing and bought our drinks for the rest of the night, took us out for soup after the bars (who in the WORLD eats soup after drinking!?). I was hoping for the usual Jack in the Box run after the bars as we do in the states but I obviously that is not the case here in Korea. All of us arriving back to the hostel at different times anywhere from 6-8 AM, knew it was going to be tough to make the 11 AM check-out.
We missed it by about 2 hours. Luckily, the owner of the hostel was awesome and didn’t mind, we packed our bags and headed out for some lunch and then to the beach to fall back asleep. Some of the group was feeling awful (rightfully so) but I actually felt fine. Us guys all fell asleep on the beach for a few hours and then it was time to head to the train station to leave this gorgeous town and experience. If I learned anything from this trip, weekends always seem too short because of sleeping. We rarely slept and the weekend seemed so much longer! The train ride was again good but waking up Monday morning for work was not the easiest. As you can see, I survived and would do it all over again with no regrets. I did not get many "good" pictures but will be going back there in August or September and will have more. I have a few and I hope you enjoy them.
Also, a funny story that is a little gross but something I do not want to forget. When Michael, Daniel and I were in the ocean, I turned around and looked at Michael who was looking at something in the water. He bent down to pick it up and out he pulled a condom. Not sure if it was used or not, but it was the funniest thing to see him pull it out and realize what it was and then freak out. If you have ever seen the movie "The Hangover" you know the scene I am talking about and it reminded me of that. If you have not seen that movie, I definitely recommend it!
After work on Friday, July 3rd, the six of us went straight to the train station to catch our train to Pusan (Michael got off work later than us and had to catch a different train). The train ride was 5 hours but surprisingly not that bad. That is one thing I have noticed about transportation in Korea; it is all really good. Back home, I would not think twice to taking a train and definitely do not prefer to bus and we don't have a subway near us. But here in Korea, all three of those options are awesome. We use the subway a lot, we bus all the time to Seoul and I plan on taking the train anywhere I go. It is very cozy and cheap. The five hours to Pusan seemed much shorter. Tate, Jillian, Daniel and I all sat together and turned the seats around to play cards and just chat. Once we finally reached Pusan, Michael was waiting for us in a bar because he caught the fast train and like most things we do in Korea, we did not know much about what we were doing.
We got in a skeptical taxi and then called the guy who owned the hostel we were staying at to give directions to the driver. This driver, no joke I thought was going to kill us. He was an awful driver and you could tell he was just trying to get people from place to place as fast as he could to get his next customers. We arrived to the hostel and let me tell you, this was no hostel. This was someone's apartment complex that he turned into a hostel. No complaints one bit because this place was not only nice, it was huge. It had a living room with seats, TV and internet, two bathrooms with showers and then the seven of us shared a mixed dorm room that had 4 bunk beds (I got top buuuunk!!! That's for you Tyler). Though it was already nearing 1 AM, we were too eager to see the beaches and the bars that we were going to become oh so familiar with on the 4th of July that we had to take the walk from the hostel to the beachfront where the bars were. The seven of us arrived to our first bar/restaurant (not knowing what we were getting ourselves into) and we ordered a couple pizzas and some beer and then once we coated our bellies a little, we moved to the cocktails. After a few bourbon and cokes, pizza, chatting and some laughs, we wanted to walk around and see what else there was to do. The beach was honestly right across the street so we all walked down there and hung out on the beach, shot some street sold fireworks at one another (thank god no one got hit, they were roman candles). Thinking the bars were all closed and it was time to go home, we all remembered we were in Korea where the bars do not close until 7 AM....you can see where this is going. To make a long story short, we went to another bar, met some other people and watched the sun come up to go home at 6:30. The first night did not go quite as planned but all in all, it was a great start to an even better Saturday and Sunday.
We only slept a few hours because the mixed dorm room with seven people gets hot and a little noisy. So once it was time to get up, we all walked back to the beachfront area and found a nice breakfast place and Daniel, Michael and I all went into the ocean which was crazy warm. We hung out on the beach all day until our 4th of July party began. We headed back to the hostel to begin getting ready for the night (the party started at 4:30). As usual, we didn’t know where this place was located, just going to try and get close and surely we will find it. After about an hour of walking around, we found the restaurant and its name is Sunset Lounge and it started off just with the boys and the girls were going to meet us later. They had many deals on beer, margaritas and food. We were on the rooftop and there was a decent amount of people to start off but it was really quiet. It seemed really casual but after everyone had a few drinks, it started getting really comfortable and rowdy in a good way. As scary as it seemed at first, it turned out to be an awesome time. The bartenders came to like us guys a lot and one of them kept coming to talk with us and hang out. He was Canadian (ironic huh?) and an awesome dude. We ended up getting to know a group of others that were in the U.S. Navy and came to Pusan for the weekend as we did. Once Sunset Lounge began to slow down, we were walking out the door to all go down to the beachfront bars and the bartender stopped me and said "Grab your boys" and poured five shots of Jagermeister for the four of us and himself. Great times!
As you can see, we left the bar on a high note and could tell that this night which had been going on for so long, had also only begun like Friday night. The amazing thing about Pusan is that they close off the roads where the beachfront area is and set it up for the people to have outdoor parties. There were tables lined up outside with chairs, outside vendors and loud music all along the strip. One thing they know how to do well here in Korea is to let people have a good time. Another good thing is the seven of us did not rely on each other and didn’t feel we had to stay with each other because we all knew where we were staying. We walked up and down the strip, ran into some of our friends from Sunset Lounge and again, partied until the sun came up. Daniel, Ta-Leah and I met this Korean couple who took us under their wing and bought our drinks for the rest of the night, took us out for soup after the bars (who in the WORLD eats soup after drinking!?). I was hoping for the usual Jack in the Box run after the bars as we do in the states but I obviously that is not the case here in Korea. All of us arriving back to the hostel at different times anywhere from 6-8 AM, knew it was going to be tough to make the 11 AM check-out.
We missed it by about 2 hours. Luckily, the owner of the hostel was awesome and didn’t mind, we packed our bags and headed out for some lunch and then to the beach to fall back asleep. Some of the group was feeling awful (rightfully so) but I actually felt fine. Us guys all fell asleep on the beach for a few hours and then it was time to head to the train station to leave this gorgeous town and experience. If I learned anything from this trip, weekends always seem too short because of sleeping. We rarely slept and the weekend seemed so much longer! The train ride was again good but waking up Monday morning for work was not the easiest. As you can see, I survived and would do it all over again with no regrets. I did not get many "good" pictures but will be going back there in August or September and will have more. I have a few and I hope you enjoy them.
Also, a funny story that is a little gross but something I do not want to forget. When Michael, Daniel and I were in the ocean, I turned around and looked at Michael who was looking at something in the water. He bent down to pick it up and out he pulled a condom. Not sure if it was used or not, but it was the funniest thing to see him pull it out and realize what it was and then freak out. If you have ever seen the movie "The Hangover" you know the scene I am talking about and it reminded me of that. If you have not seen that movie, I definitely recommend it!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
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