Busan (Haeundae Beach and Yonggun-sa Temple)

The first trip of possibly many. While Ulsan is a relatively big city, it isn't very cosmopolitan. Sure, there are lots of foreigners here due to Ulsan being the seat of the Hyundai monster (everything here, by the way, is Hyundai this and Hyundai that, pretty much) and also because of the English teachers that are recruted by both EPIK (English Program in Korea) and the UMOE (Ulsan Ministry of Education), but Ulsan isn't very... how shall I say... well I just say that I don't judge Ulsan by its cover. It isn't that it's ugly -- in fact I live in a newly developed neighbourhood so I'm fairly lucky on that front -- but it's like the Koreans here don't care about their shop fronts or the streets themselves. The sidewalks are dangerous for both high heels and flat shoes. Trash lies pretty much everywhere (more on that later). Shop fronts are dirty -- you may walk into what looks like a dodgy place to find that, inside, it's actually quite lovely.

But I digress. A couple weeks ago a bunch of friends and I headed south to Busan to discover Haeundae Beach and the Yonggun-sa Temple next to the sea. As the video shows, it was very windy that day, and despite the fact that we walked barefoot on the beach, the water wasn't super cold, but not very warm either. We might end up in Busan more often this summer, although quite frankly we've got a very nice beach and friends living in Ilsan, so... more trips to Ilsan Beach than Haeundae this summer. It's also less popular than Haeundae so I expect less people. Woohoo.

Haeundae Beach!

Modern art at the "entrance" of the beach

"Hiking" near the beach. That statue is of a mermaid. No idea what she's doing there.

Mini Buddha village at the Yonggun-sa Temple.

Lucky pigs at the Yonggun-sa Temple.

Buddha!

I was born in 1987, the year of the Rabbit. This is my dude. Does not look like a rabbit.

Trash problem: I've actually linked it to the trash bag regulation in Korea. It goes like this: every dong (neighbourhood) in Korea has its own special coloured bag that you as a resident are obligated to use to put your trash. You can put your other coloured bags inside, as long as the one colour to rule them all (my dong's is purple) is outside. It kind of defeats the purpose of "ooh we don't want you to use other trash bags they're bad for the environment you're killing the Earth etc". The trashmen will literally not pick up trash bags of any other colour. That said, some still do it, and as a result stray animals (there are a lot of those) and rodents end up littering that trash all over the streets. Also defeats the purpose of trying to cut back on pollution -- that, plus putting several bags inside the regulatory one also defeats the purpose of cutting back on plastic bags. Back home we use rigid trash cans with a flip top and put our trash bags inside regardless of the colour: no littering, no unnecessary pollution. But ah well. Korea will be Korea.