Summer Fun in Korea

This was my first year without a long summer vacation. Sure, I had summer jobs in college and high school, but for the most part, summer was a long mental break. This year I worked straight through the summer, with only a one week vacation during which I visited Japan (see previous posts). Koreans don't even have a summer holiday that results in a long weekend. As a former swimmer, lifeguard, and swimming coach, I'm used to spending the vast majority of my summers poolside. I'm also used to escaping up north to my grandma's cottage in Caseville for a couple long weekends of relaxing on the beach and reading. Despite spending nearly all of my summer indoors, I did find time for a couple short weekend trips. The first was to Boryeong for the infamous Mudfest. The second was to Busan, a mountainous coastal city and the second largest city in Korea.

Boryeong Mudfest

The Boryeong Mudfest is exactly what it sounds like: a huge party on the beach where everyone covers themselves in mud and has a great time. During the week it's mostly Koreans, but on the weekends English teachers and American GIs converge on the small coastal town to take part in the festivities. This was my first chance to get out of the Seoul metropolitan area, and my first chance to swim all year. Boryeong has some nice beaches, especially when the tide is low. The waves were high, so simply swimming in the Yellow Sea was a lot of fun. Here are a couple shots of the beaches:

We attended Mudfest through a trip put together by an English teacher recruiting agency. In hindsight this was not a good idea. They overcharged us, and gave us a room that allegedly sleeps four people. It consisted of one double bed. Luckily there were only three of us, not four, but we still barely fit into the bed. We arrived in Boryeong late at night on Friday because the bus didn't leave until 9 or 10 PM. After arriving, we picked up some refreshments and some small fireworks (sparklers and some small bottle rockets) and headed to the beach. This served as our three-weeks-too-late 4th of July celebration.

The following morning after a samgyeopsal breakfast/brunch we headed to the beach. There are inflatable pools filled with mud, giant inflatable mudslides, mudpits, and even a jail that you can enter and be hosed down with mud. Some of the mud pits were pretty violent, particularly the ones populated by American soldiers. For the most part, everyone just tackled everyone, though I got into one or two one on one wrestling matches. The pits below were some of the less crowded ones. There was on pit that had over 30 people in in at any given time. Due to being covered in mud it was very difficult to take pictures. These pics are courtesy of Alexa, who dried her hands off from time to time to snap some photos.

Left: In the mud pit. Right: A mudslide down a hill and on to the beach.

The picture above on the left is me covered in mud, and the one on the right is of a wrestling match. Antonio and I enjoyed the opportunity to release our primal instincts and get into a few scuffles. I don't think Alexa took advantage of this opportunity...she preferred the beachside mud spa.

Another drawback to going through the agency was that we had to leave by noon on Sunday, so we basically only had one day of mud-related activities. All in all it was a lot of fun, but could have been done at a cheaper cost.

Busan

The thriving coastal city of Busan is the second largest city in Korea, and by some measurements, the third largest port in the world. It is famous in Korea for its beaches, so for the last weekend in August, Alexa and I decided to visit and enjoy one last weekend of summer fun. Busan is a very mountainous city of 4 million people, and it seems as if canals of buildings and roads connect massive islands of mountains. Given the spread out nature of the city, we knew it was not going to be possible to "see Busan" in the two days we had. We prioritized and decided to spend most of our time relaxing at the beach, as this was the last weekend of summer and we had yet to unwind with a weekend in the sun (I wouldn't call Mudfest relaxing...). I will have to go back in order to see some of the sights we missed.

Beaches

Given all the hype I had heard from Koreans about the beaches of Busan, I have to say I was a little bit disappointed on the whole. There are three main strips of beach in Busan, all between a half mile and a mile long. The first we went to was the famous Haeundae Beach. Part of the reason we waited so long to come to Busan is that in late July and early August Haeundae Beach often looks like this. It was pretty overcast, and most Koreans had already had vacation, so we were lucky that the beach was not that crowded. The disappointment began when I went in for a swim. In Boryeong we were allowed to swim freely, provided that we stayed inside the buoys. This was not the case in Busan. At Haeundae the waters were pretty rough, with large waves crashing into shore, but any time you ventured out past your knees, the whistles of angry lifeguards descended upon you from all around. I was able to wade all of about five yards offshore before being whistled. Some of bigger waves splashed my chest, but that was about all I could hope for. Koreans are not known for their swimming prowess, so that combined with mildly rough waters combined for a disappointing swimming experience. Here are some photos of the beach:

After being disappointed with Haeundae, we decided to try our luck with Seongjong Beach. This beach was much calmer and much shallower, so you could venture out farther than at Haeundae. Unfortunately, being farther out didn't matter much because of the shallow nature of the beach. Before I could wade out to my knees, I was whistled once more. This experience was comparable to swimming in a kiddie pool where someone is splashing. Notice that many Koreans don't go shirtless at the beach. The vast majority of Koreans swim in T shirts and shorts. Songjeong Beach:

After a frustrating Saturday of swimming, on Sunday we headed to Gwangalli Beach. Gwangalli is known for the cafes and nightlife surrounding it, so when we went just after lunch time, it was not crowded at all. After an overpriced but decent pizza in a beachside cafe, we headed to the beach. The beach looks out at the "Diamond Bridge," which is supposedly very beautiful at night. The waters at Gwangalli dropped off quickly, so if I ventured 5-10 yards off shore I was up to my chest. This was the swimming experience I wanted and had missed out on all summer. It was also a much nicer day on Sunday, so we spent a good chunk of time alternating between swimming and reading in the sand.

Yonggungsa

Despite being beach bums for most of the weekend, we did make time to visit one temple on Saturday: Yonggungsa, or in English, the Dragon Palace Temple. Despite being a pretty standard Korean temple in terms of scale and architecture, Yonggungsa is set apart from other temples due to its seaside location in the cliffs. I didn't pick up on as much of the history of the temple as I wanted to though. There were no broshures and the English sign about the temple was in such broken English that it was hard to follow. What I did gather is that the temple was originally built in the 14th Century, but the main hall was rebuilt in 1970. Also, most Korean temples are built in the mountains, but this temple was built seaside because of its emphasis on dragons. In European culture, dragons are typically associated with fire, but in Asian cultures they are typically associated with water. The dragon motif was all over the temple. Statues, carvings, pictures. Here are a couple examples:

Here are some shots of the temple itself. One is from a cliff jutting out right next to it, and one is from the top of the cliff looking out along the Pacific coast.

It was also a lot of fun watching the water smash into the rocky cliffs. This video doesn't do it justice, but it gives you an idea of what it was like:

Aerial View of Busan

Before heading back to Soeul, we stopped by a mountaintop park, right up the hill from our hotel. Atop the mountain was the Busan Tower, a great point from which to view the sea ports and mountains enveloped in clouds.

All in all it was a fun trip, despite some disappoiting beaches. I am also excited that Michigan football season has started. I pulled an all-nighter to watch the first game online with Antonio last night. We looked good, but I am tempering my expectations after what happened last year.