A Day at the Beachie

Greetings

Since arriving in Korea the most common question we are asked from people back home is “aside from our friends and family what do we miss the most”. To be honest, the answer to this question changes on a daily basis. Sometimes it's as simple as BC’s fresh air and sometimes it's as complicated as a Lebanese Donair made with just the right amount of sesame sauce and pepper. So far we have been too busy enjoying Korea to really miss the Canadian culture but one thing that is constantly on our minds are the beaches and the water back home.

If you know us, and I’m sure you do if you are bothering to read this, then you know how much we love to swim and snorkel. Since we live in an industrial city we had all but abandoned hope of finding a decent beach. About five weeks ago we tried to find one and instead found a stretch of land that was more like a setting in a Stephen King novel than a beach. After that we decided that snorkeling in the bathtub would have to fill the void and that if we wanted to find a nice beach we would have to travel down the coast to Busan.

But, thankfully dear reader, suddenly there was hope on the horizon. Our new friends Tim and Emily informed us that there were nice beaches in Ulsan but that you had to leave our neighborhood to find them. So with slight trepidation, we loaded up our bags with the requisite sunscreen, towels, and Kimchi, and made our way across town to the beach.

Arriving at the beach I felt like Popeye after he eats a can of Spinach. Some people need drugs, some people need oxygen, but all I need to survive is a nice beach (and yeah ok, oxygen too, and I guess water as well, sure, hmmm, maybe some food too, ok, ok, let me get back to the story).

We arrived to find long beaches of white sand surrounded by palm trees and luxurious landscaping and only the occasional Korean who rode by on a horse every few hours or so. It was like an advertisement for the Caribbean Club med; beautiful, quiet, romantic, and of course hardly anyone else around for miles.

Yeah right, if you believed that then this must be the first blog that you have read of ours.



In reality the beaches were pretty crowded. But to be honest it was actually pretty cool. Although different than the Canadian beaches it was still a pretty decent beach with sand ( at least in some places) and clean, crisp water.

By crisp I mean cold enough to force you to make your peace with God and hope for a quick death. I did a polar bear dip when I was younger but the Sea of Japan made that seem like a hotub in comparison. In fact, I'm still trying to find a certain body part that fought the cold and lost.


Here is the obligatory photo of Jo and I. I guess I should comment on the tents. At first they seemed strange but now it will be hard to relax on a beach without a sea of brightly coloured nylon in front of me for as far as the eyes can see. A lot of Koreans hate tans and try hard to avoid the sun. I figure that this is an extension of that effort. Some are just canvas sun covers, but a lot are actual tents. I can't even imagine how hot one of those must be.

But I also can't imagine people wearing suits at the beach or swimming in a button up shirt either (both were witnessed yesterday). Jo and Emily were also the only women to swim without a t shirt on as well. I'm sure a year from now there will be a video of Jo in Koreans Gone Wild wearing her one piece black roots swimsuit.

Another shot of the beach and some tents.

At first I was wondering why these kids were sitting in a puddle when there was an ocean right beside them. Of course, after jumping into said ocean, and feeling the freezing sensation of death creep into me I could understand. I would like to note the girl wearing the inflatable safety ring. It seems that water safety is important no matter what the body of water is, Canadian children please take note.

Here's a shot of Tim, Emily and Joanna. We have been pretty lucky with the friends we have made so far and these two have been really helpful and fun to hang out with. He's an engineer and she's a physiotherapist but she teaches part time at our academy as well. They are from Australia and are much more weathered at international traveling than ourselves. They are also brave enough to drive in Korea, something I'm not sure we will ever attempt.

Although I have poked a little fun at the beach it was a fantastic experience. It was great to be back in the water and although it was really cold it was the first time that I haven't been a sweaty mess in over 5 weeks. It definitely filled the void left from missing BC's lakes and I'm sure we will be heading back shortly.

After swimming for a few hours we were pretty hungry so we made our way to a small restaurant that Tim and Emily discovered through a friend from work. The meal was one of the best that we have had in Korea and although we didn't manage to get a photo of the main dish we did get a couple of the side dishes.


Hmm, not sure what to say about a lot of these as I hadn't tried many of them before. Overall most were delicious and definitely worthy of eating again.

However, some went to war against the old IBS and as usual poor Shayne was the true victim of that battle.


Of note in this picture is the black egg in the upper right corner. Even though we put off eating it at first due to its odd colour, once Tim gave us the thumbs up both Jo and I tried it and loved it. So far most of the food we have eaten in Korea has been great and now we can add strange black eggs to that list as well.

Anyway, after the swimming and the BBQ Kalbi we drove downtown and loaded up on ice cream. Well Jo got two scoops but I made the healthy choice and loaded up on Pine nuts and water (Jo's note - actually no note needed, none of you would ever be foolish to believe that Shayne passed up an ice cream cone).

It was the perfect way to end a great day and on that note I will bid you farewell.

Cheers

Shayne