I went down to Busan with friends to spend the day at Haeundae Beach. I rarely leave Daegu, so I was looking forward to being out of the city. It’s only an hour train ride so it’s perfect for a day trip. We took cabs to the beach and grabbed lunch at a bar called Fuzzy Navel that serves Mexican food(!). Finally God has decided to bless me with a decent burrito here in S.K.
God – “I know you've been craving food from Atlanta, so I’m going to give you a preview of home. . . . starting. . . NOW!” (Cue choir singing the hallelujah chorus while lights shine on the burrito as a cute waitress brings me what will be a glorious meal.)
Ok, I’m finished drooling over the burrito. Where was I? Oh yeah, the beach.
First of all, I’m a southern boy. Second, I’m a city boy. I’ve only been to the beach a couple of times in life. I get excited about the idea of the beach because the ocean is a foreign thing in my eyes. What really stuck out to me is how different Koreans are at the beach vs. other groups of people there. The majority of the Koreans were on one side of the beach, mostly clustered together under umbrellas. Most of the women were covered up as much as possible and many shirts over their swimsuits. In fact, I didn’t see a single bikini on a Korean girl. It’s fairly well known that Koreans view white skin as a sign of beauty, so they protect themselves fiercely from getting tans. I’m honestly surprised that they would go to the beach much. It was so odd from what you might see in Florida or California. Just another difference in culture I suppose.
Foreigners were on the more open side of the beach and you would see a random mix of people out there. Russians, Tai, Philippine, Vietnamese. . . and each group seemed to be in a spot. I think the funniest thing we saw was the group of guys in man-kinis. The glorious neon colored evil thongs were on display and you could not get away from them. It was just awkward and glorious all at the same time.
Now as much as we people watched, people watched us. . . especially me. At one point, there was this group of about ten guys who just stood by and watched me. I believe they were Vietnamese, but they kept pointing and whispering from about six feet away.
Some group of Russians asked to take a picture with me which I thought was insane. Some random Korean people did and I caught a few kids trying to sneak pictures with camera phones. Then there was this group of people on the street who stopped me. Just before we left the beach, some kids walked up to me asking for pictures. At that point, I just shook my head and played it up. Apparently some of them thought I was a rapper (seriously).
I after leaving the beach, we were all sore. The guys (minus me – I didn’t want to spend the money) went to get massages and the girls wanted to shop. I tired some Vietnamese food and was pleasantly surprised. I usually have problems with new food, but I’m glad I tried it.
Every time I go to Busan I’m impressed by it. I really am tempted to look for a job down there if I stay a third year here. I’ve never lived on a coast and I think I could get used to spending time on the beach.
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