Monday, August 6, 2007

So I've been in Pusan for a couple of days and it's raining.. a lot. It's like non stop here. I think it may be some off shoots of the storm that went by Japan.

Speaking of Japan, I just bought my tickets to Fukuoka, Japan today. I'll be leaving Pusan (Busan and a bunch of other cities switch their spelling alllll the time) on August 10th to hit the ferry to Japan and coming back on August 15th.


Today and yesterday I've been hard set on trying to find a place that rents windsurfing gear. I've been all over the coast and beaches. What really blew my mind was that yesterday I found out that one particular beach (which was only 3 miles from the beach I was at) was doing a whole free windsurfing clinic. They had all their gear out on the water and everyone could try it for free.

It was part of the Busan Summer Festival deal. When I found out about that, I was sooo pissed. I was so close to it, but it was blocked by that stupid bridge and marina so I couldn't see the windsurfers out on the water.

But today, after 2 days of searching, I found a windsurfing shop and asked them about their rates. They rent for 40,000 won (~44 usd) for a whole day.

Oh did I tell you, the first day I got here it was blowing a constant 25mph?? I really wish I would have known where this shop was that day, you know? Since it was only blowing 6 mph SSW today, and I found the shop at 3 pm, I figured I'd just hang out for the day.

So I rented a tube (that's what everyone does over here at the beach) and went out into the water. Brittany asked how cold it was and yeah, it's really cold. About as cold as when I went to Panama City Beach FL in mid March. I still didn't want to get all the way in, I'd save that for when I went out windsurfing.

Oh, something interesting. All the beaches everywhere so far are buoyed off about 50 feet from the shore. They always have boats and lifeguards waiting and watching to yell at you when you get too close to the buoy. I'm not sure if it's because they don't want people being sucked out to a rip tide (which was weak at most at every beach i've been to so far) or what.

They just don't want you going far off from the shore.


Well in Busan, I'm staying on Shanghai street (it's the awesome red pillar thing in my picture). It is also right beside Texas street (this is where the american soldiers hung out during one of the Korean Japanese wars). This area is heavy heavy duty russian. Tons and tons of russians and tons and tons of russian call girls. Like every fourth building is a bar full of call girls.

I did meet an american guy here named dennis. He was pretty cool, we hung out for the day and he showed me a place where they have korean barbecue. And mannn is korean barbecue gooooood. It's a whole bunch of meat that you get to grill right in front of you, then you add kimchi to the grill and mushrooms and vegetables, and everything else they put on your table.

Then you take one of the leaves they give you (a plate with like 10 leaves) and put all the meat and vegetables into the leaf, roll it up like a burrito and take a bite! That stuff is soooooo good. Best food I've eaten in Korea so far.

Dennis also knew Russian and told me all his stories. One of which was when he worked for the US Embassy in Russia. One day he was approached by the KGB(Russian mafia/police but they have a new name now) and they wanted him to spy on the US Embassy, he said no, and they threatened to never let him get a VISA in Russia again. So lo and behold, his VISA expired and he is now forever blacklisted to get a VISA into Russia.

He also told me a pretty good joke.

Russians think that everyone around them are spies
Americans think that everyone around them are criminals.

That day I also went over and got my information for my Japan tickets.

All my clothes are dirty so it's time to throw them in the sink and pour washing machine soup all over the place.

That bathroom is going to be a mess.

But I am soooo glad I have an air conditioner!!! wooooooooooooooooooooooo!! It's a LOT better than the hostel where I slept on the floor with no pillow and only sometimes had water pressure and consistent water temperature.


I really stoked that I can go windsurfing in Busan. I also am getting a friend to tell me where in Jeju-do I can windsurf at since they said that there are rental places there too!



I think that if I get to sleep around 9pm tonite or around that time, I'm going to try to wake up before sunrise. There is a fish market here in Busan that's really famous for it's sunrise shipments.

You see, all the fishing boats come back into harbor around the time of sunrise. When they come in, they plop all their fish onto the docks and the bidding wars begin. People from all around the city come to the port and bid on the fresh fish. Not just ordinary people, but also really rich companies like the ones that run the 5* hotels.

Supposedly it's really a sight to see when all that fish comes in and people pour around trying to bid on the best price.

Oh haha, in front of the train station in this city is a stock ticker. I noticed it displayed Dow, Nasdaq overall +- gains losses for the day, as well as individual stocks (but they didn't stand out as much as NASDAQ and DOW in big english alphabet letters.


Today for dinner I ate from the street vendors. I had a hot dog for my first meal of the night. I went up to her cart and she had a big boiler/fryer in the middle of the cart. She would take what looked like big jalapenos and coat them in this wet flour sauce, then drop them in the fryer. She'd let them fry for a little bit, take them out and put them up to be sold. I was thinking to myself that as hot as the last jalapeno I had was (it was a baby one that I could barely take one bite out of before I drank the entire container of water they had at my table), there could be nooooo way I'd survive something like that.

Also I got a breast and a thigh for ~2 usd that the guy grilled right in front of me. What he would do is have the chicken cooked about 85%. Once someone comes up and wants some, he'd take it and grill it until it was done right in front of you. He added these awesome spices to it and it was awesome! My hands still smell like chicken haha.


And there is this pizza place here,, ooooo man it's goooood!~ Just as good as any pizza place here on in new york. it was AWESOME!

Oh, in the videos below you'll see a stage with some people preforming. Today on the beach I was at, Ganwalli Beach, they had a bunch of stuff set up for the Busan Summer Festival.

On the stage, they'd have a bunch of different people. This one band went up there and they were really good. They were a punk band that sounded a lot like HomeGrown and had a lead singer that sang in a fun ska style like Goldfinger.

They had a tight set. Each act was able to play/do two songs. The next act (I didn't tape the punk band since they went off set before I could unlock my bag to get my camera) was cool since they had some cheography, but the last act was the best.

It was this korean girl that looked russian (wearing red and black) and she had 3 backup dancers (maybe 4 in the beginning, you'll see). They kicked ass!! Everyone must have been there to see them, since the crowed moved up to the 2nd and 3rd rows once she came on.

But still, since it's korea, no on was making a pit or dancing, they would all just sit and claps along to the music.

It was really fun. I probably would have had trouble with the cops if I got there sooner. I really wanted to jump on stage and mosh during the punk band's set. Only until everything was over did I see all the police they had around the area....phew. haha.


51 (stage music)



4b



4c



4d (24 x 7 starcraft tv, only for the nerdiest of nerds)



4e

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