Haeundae Beach, Haedong Yonggung Temple and Spaland

I can't believe that June has already passed us by and I've been in Korea for over 4 months now.  Time has definitely been flying by but I've been doing my best to make the most of each available weekend to travel.  A few weeks ago, Sarah and I made our way down to Busan to check out South Korea's second largest city.

Situated in the southeast part of the country, Busan is known for it's beaches, seaport and hot spring resorts/facilities.  After a short, 2 1/2 hour express train ride from Seoul, we arrived at Busan Terminal around 10am Saturday morning ready to start our next adventure.  We didn't have much time so we made our way to Haeundae Beach to find our hostel and to check out the Haeundae Sand Festival.

Haeundae Beach was only about a 30 minute bus ride from Busan Terminal so after wandering around a bit we found HiKorea Hostel, dropped our packs and made our way to the beach.  The Sand Festival wasn't as large as I was expecting but it still had some impressive sand sculptures situated on about 300 yards of beachfront.  They had some beach sledding, an area for novice sand artists to dabble and the professional works.

Beach Sledding

Make your own sand sculpture

As apart of the Sand Festival, Busan had an air show to help celebrate the occasion.  Korea's equivalent of the Blue Angels twisted, turned and flipped around for about 30 minutes!

After the air show we walked around a bit, tried some of Busan's famous seafood and hit the town for dinner and a few drinks.  Before the night was over, we ended up making friends with a Korean couple who offered to take us to a Buddhist temple the following day.

The next day we headed back down to the Sand Festival but the highlight for me was Haedong Yonggung Temple.  It's definitely a very touristy place...kind of ironic since Buddhist Temples are suppose to be quiet and peaceful places.  I definitely can't do this place justice by just writing about it so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Such a beautiful place that we wouldn't have made it too if not for our new friends.  We only spent an hour or so at the temple before making our way to Spaland.  Not your typically spa but it was definitely an interesting experience.

Jjimjilbangs are everywhere in Korea.  They are large, gender segregated bath houses that have saunas, hot tubs, showers, kiln saunas and massage tables.  Spaland just happens one of the largest Jjimjilbangs in one of the largest department stores in the world.  Figured if we were going to try one of these bathhouses, it might as well be at one of the best in Korea.

To give you an idea, imagine a large room with about 10 different temperature controlled whirl pools, hot tubs, 4 different saunas, a couple of cold water baths and about 500 naked Koreans.  This is how it works...you pay about 10,000 won ($10) and you get a locker for your stuff and a Korean type robe.  After you get undressed, you have to go to the shower and clean up before you can get into any of the hot tubs.  You can sleep at most jjimjilbangs but this one has a 2 hour time limit because it's in a department store.  After you dip into any of the different salt water baths and saunas, you get your robe and head up to the other 20 or so different theme saunas, relaxation room with recliner chairs/personal TVs, massage chairs, foot baths and other massage rooms.

                       

         This can give you an idea of the communal bath room                                                        Relaxation room

I obviously didn't take any pictures inside of the bathhouse but these are a few stock photos of Spaland.  A lot of the people I work with love these things and use them as hotels when traveling.  When you sleep at one, you have to sleep on the floor after you do the shower and hot tub routine but it's cheap and you can find them in any city.

Either way, Busan was a great trip.  We only visited a small portion of what Busan has to offer and if we have the time, it'd be great to go back for another visit.

Did you know Korea... has free WiFi everywhere!  No kidding...they even had an internet zone at the beach in Busan.  Every department store, grocery store and most public areas offer free WiFi.  Even the public busses and trains offer the free connection.  It's extremely convenient and it still amazes me how technologically advanced Korea really is.

WiFi in Busan

Ecological Park/Wetlands, Green Tea Festival, International Garden Expo and Traditional Village...Not bad for a weekend trip!

The whole reason why we decided to take a trip to visit Boseong was because of the Boseong Green Tea Festival.  Surprisingly enough, Korea doesn't really have much green tea (nokcha) so when I heard of this festival, it was a no brainer that I was going to check it out.  I'm embarrassed that it's taken me about a month to post about the trip down to the southern tip of South Korea but here we go...

Boseong is a small city in Jeollanam-do, a small province in the southwest part of the country, that is about 4-5 hours by bus away from Seoul.  This was our first bus trip in Korea and didn't really know what to expect.  Sarah and I were both a little worried when we boarded the bus and there were no bathrooms.  How can you go almost 5 hours without using a toilet?  Luckily, about 2 hours into the trip, we stopped at a rest stop full of Korean fast food, coffee and most importantly toilets.  We made it to Suncheon on time and without any issues.  One of the best things about seeing the different parts of Korea is getting there. ..the mountains alone are endless, lush and impressive.  

Technically we stayed in Suncheon which is about an hour train ride away from Boseong, and arrived around 11am.  At the time, we didn't know what we are going to see, do or experience but that's usually the best way to start a trip anyways right?

First, we set off for the Suncheon Bay Ecological Park which is home of the widest reed bed in Korea.  Pictures are the best way to describe the place, so I'll stop yapping and get to the good stuff:

On our way up the mountain

Suncheon Bay

The view from above

And another

Sarah loves water!

A sunset from our boat tour

The next day, we headed over to Boseong to check out the Green Tea Festival.  After a short 50min train ride from Suncheon to Boseong, we arrived in the green tea capital of South Korea.  There was a smaller festival atmosphere, like the one for the Cherry Blossom Festival in Jinhae with food tents, entertainment and rows of vendor tents.  We quickly walked through the festivities so we could see the fields of green tea.  They did not disappoint!

Beating a drum and making a wish

The green tea fields!

On our way up the hill

The quintessential Boseong Green Tea Festival picture

Day 3 of our trip to the Suncheon/Boseong area, we visited the Suncheon Bay Garden Expo which featured gardens, flowers and other cultural things from all over the world.  The Expo started in May and will continue all the way through October.  I won't bore you with too many flower pictures but here are a few to give you a little taste. 

After the Garden Expo, we still had about 5 hours before our train back to Seoul so we decided to visit the Naganeupseong Folk Village.  We've already seen one folk village closer to home but we thought why not see another in a more rural part of the country.  The one fascinating thing about this particular village is that there are about 100 residents that call this place their home.  This one was also bit more authentic and aesthetically appealing.

It was extremely enjoyable exploring Boseong and Suncheon.  Thank you Buddha for having your birthday and giving us a three day weekend to see so much cool stuff!

Teacher's Day!

On May 15th, Koreans celebrate Teacher's Day as a way to show appreciation for everything that they (I guess I can say "we") do every day for our students.  I've heard stories from other teachers who have been in Korea for several years about some of the lavish gifts teachers have received from student's parents and was curious to see what this Teacher's Day would bring.

There are 22 teachers (9 English and 13 Korean) at Dayelin Langcon so the potential for a wide variety of presents was imminent.  The students whose parents did not get gifts for their teachers took matters into their own hands and made thank you cards and notes to give to us.  Some of those are actually better than purchased gifts but everything was appreciated and it's a shame there isn't an equivalent holiday, that is taken as serious as it is here, in the states to show teachers how much they are appreciated.  Most of what I got was from my kindergarten class but there are about 400 students at Dayelin Langcon so you can imagine how many presents were given.  Just so you have an idea, here are some of the gifts the we received earlier this month.

- Chanel makeup/lipstick
- $50 gift certificate to the local mall
- a bottle of wine
- green tea hand lotion
- cake, cake and more cake
- donuts
- pecan pies
- a cellphone case
- some more cake
- cookies
- flowers...lots of flowers
- ice cream
- designer shampoo, conditioner and body lotions
- a few more cakes and cookies
- chocolate
- sun block
- vitamin C tablets

Aside from all of the gifts we received, the ones our kids made were the best.  I couldn't find any of the ones Sarah's students made but here are a few from my kindergarten class.

Did you know Korea... is about 70% covered by mountains.  No joke, everywhere you look, you can see mountain peaks.  It's pretty amazing that there can be more than 50 million people living in a country the size of Indiana or Kentucky.  Kentucky might be a better comparison though because of it's mountains but to give you an idea, Kentucky's population is only about 4 million people.  People and mountains as far as the eyes can see...that's South Korea for you.

My Daily Walk to School

I meant to post this a bit ago but forgot.  I took these pictures about a month ago though when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom.  It only really takes about 10-15 minutes from the apartment to school and when the weather is nice, it's a pretty enjoyable walk.  You'll see a lot of cherry blossoms in these pictures but now the streets are lined with azaleas.  Spring in Korea is pretty amazing..

Out in front of the apartment.  You can't see it but there's a
plot of land out front that has a small garden planted on it.  On
the weekends, there's usually an older lady and man that tend to it.

From the top of the hill looking away from our apartment

And, the descent begins..

                         

                                    Some cherry blossoms that were
                                  out in front of the apartment

Almost to the bottom of the hill.. (I didn't take a picture of the intersection up here but we take our lives into our own hands whenever we cross the street to go to the convenient store.  It's pretty busy  and only has flashing yellow lights to direct traffic).

        

       At the bottom of the hill and about to cross Suji-ro.  After I cross,
       I hang a right and head towards that green mesh stuff on the bridge

Passing a gas station
after crossing the bridge

A little further down Suji-ro.
There's been construction here
ever  since we've arrived but
I'm still not sure what they're doing.

A little further down the street and
making a slight left onto Seongbok2ro

Some more cherry blossoms across the street.  The buildingyou see over there is
 actually another hogwan (private English school).  Hogwans are everywhere in
Korea though.  There are about 10 of them on the same block as the school I work at.

There is a little farm on the way to school.  It's kind of random but actually pretty
common. You  can see these farms all over the place, nestled between the high rises.

Still walking down Suji-ro though.

An overpass for Route 43 that will take you north or south of Suji.

A look back at the farm.

Under the overpass, there are some pretty cool murals
painted on both sides.  Here is the fall and winter.

Spring and summer are on the other side.

Through the overpass and now on SangHyeol-ro...almost there!

This is getting closer to a more commercial area.   There are plenty of restaurants
and shops around here.  Up at the building straight ahead, I'll make a left.

Making the left turn onto Manhyeol-ro

And then making a quick right turn onto the street where the school is.
You can see the blue and white Dayelin Langcon school busses ahead.

And here we are!

I've posted this picture before but here it is again.  Dayelin is the kindergarten on the 1st floor and
Langcon is the elementary school that's on the 2nd floor.  Our offices are up on the 2nd floor too.

As you can see it's really not that bad of a walk.  If it happens to be raining, there is a bus that I can hop on at the bottom of my hill that will take me to school in about 5 minutes.  There's not much night life near the school but  there are a lot of restaurants, shops, several grocery stores and some bars.  Almost 3 months in and I can't complain much about the school, living situation or everything we've gotten to do since moving to Korea.  I'll do my best to get into a more regular routine of posting at least once a week but I hope you're enjoying what I've posted so far.

Did You Know Korea... has legal prostitution?  I was pretty surprised myself, but should've expected it given how common it is in other parts of Southeast Asia.  I'm still not sure if it's 100% legal or if the police just look the other way though but Seoul has a few red light districts.  Another city about 20 minutes from my house has a pretty big red light district too.  It's right around the corner from a Baskins Robbins so you can get your 31 flavors of ice cream and then buy a hooker in the same night..