Busan for Chusok!
So, I'm sure you are all getting a little tired of me going on about the amount of vacation we get here... If you said "Hell yeah!" to that, then you should stop reading right now.
Chusok is South Korea's Thanksgiving... the only difference is that it runs for almost an entire week! We, of course, took full advantage of this and took a 5 hour bus ride to Busan (
35° 9'37.18"N 129° 9'34.64"E) with our awesome friends; Hugh and Anoushka. The Motel Hugh had so daftly chosen was in Haeundae beach, right across from the Busan Aquarium, and a block from a complex that housed all the western food you could think of. That guy is a lot smarter than he looks!
Unlike the concrete jungle that is Seoul, Busan definitely has an international, dare I say, "liveable" flavour to it. With 8 million people and a port that is vying to be the new hub for north Asia, Busan blends Western ammenities with parks, beaches, tourist attractions and comparably interesting architecture, all in a seemingly reasonably sized city. Many of these things aren't readily found in the vast barracks' that encompass Seoul's 21 million people. They do both have amazing shopping, though, because, like we've noticed in the rest of Asia, Koreans LOVE to shop.
In our 4 day trip (2 of those were travel days - 4.5 hour bus trips), we visited the Busan Aquarium, walked Haeundae beach 3 times, took pictures of the Gwangan Bridge from the 2005 APEC conference site, toured the Beomeosa Budist Temple, walked the fish market, moseyed the "40 steps" heritige site, and gorged every night at western style restaurants (The Outback!!!).
One of the highlights of the trip for Hugh and I, was an unexpected hibrid greeting from a middle-aged Korean: "Have a nice day-hamnida". The charm and unexpected warmth of his smooth blend of the two greetings made us both do a double take. Our excessive "Thank you"s and "Kamsamnida"s couldn't have done it justice... But I guess you have to be a foreigner in Korea to appreciate how rare this comment was.
We got home late Sunday night, again happy and tired! Here are our pictures from the fantastic week!
Chusok is South Korea's Thanksgiving... the only difference is that it runs for almost an entire week! We, of course, took full advantage of this and took a 5 hour bus ride to Busan (
35° 9'37.18"N 129° 9'34.64"E) with our awesome friends; Hugh and Anoushka. The Motel Hugh had so daftly chosen was in Haeundae beach, right across from the Busan Aquarium, and a block from a complex that housed all the western food you could think of. That guy is a lot smarter than he looks!Unlike the concrete jungle that is Seoul, Busan definitely has an international, dare I say, "liveable" flavour to it. With 8 million people and a port that is vying to be the new hub for north Asia, Busan blends Western ammenities with parks, beaches, tourist attractions and comparably interesting architecture, all in a seemingly reasonably sized city. Many of these things aren't readily found in the vast barracks' that encompass Seoul's 21 million people. They do both have amazing shopping, though, because, like we've noticed in the rest of Asia, Koreans LOVE to shop.In our 4 day trip (2 of those were travel days - 4.5 hour bus trips), we visited the Busan Aquarium, walked Haeundae beach 3 times, took pictures of the Gwangan Bridge from the 2005 APEC conference site, toured the Beomeosa Budist Temple, walked the fish market, moseyed the "40 steps" heritige site, and gorged every night at western style restaurants (The Outback!!!).One of the highlights of the trip for Hugh and I, was an unexpected hibrid greeting from a middle-aged Korean: "Have a nice day-hamnida". The charm and unexpected warmth of his smooth blend of the two greetings made us both do a double take. Our excessive "Thank you"s and "Kamsamnida"s couldn't have done it justice... But I guess you have to be a foreigner in Korea to appreciate how rare this comment was.
We got home late Sunday night, again happy and tired! Here are our pictures from the fantastic week!
Labels: Aquarium, Busan, ESL, Gwangan Bridge, Haeundae Beach, Pusan, Seoul, South Korea
posted by Brent at 5:49 p.m.
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