Weekend In Busan

Busan is a typical Korean city - massive urban sprawl, with a few small mountains in the middle that haven't been developed yet. A good portion of the population seems to head to these mountains every weekend to hike. This particular weekend I decided to tackle the very busy Geumjeongsan mountain, home of the Beomeosa and Seokbulsa temples. On the way up there was another group of foreigners who started just behind me, and I noticed they were slowly gaining on me. My male ego couldn't let them pass me, so I kept speeding up little by little. Unfortunately they kept narrowing the gap, until under threat of heart attack I finally gave up and stopped for a rest. When they reached my rest point they stopped as well, and I found out during our friendly small talk that they were from Nepal. Really really wish I'd known that before my mini stroke. Also wish I could have figured out a polite way to ask them to be my sherpas.
Standing on the street trying to pick a bar for a drink, you can see I had a number to choose from. Patriotism won out and I decided to forego the sexy ladies and go to the Canadian themed bar. I picked wrong. I still can't figure out what a jack russel terrier sitting on a pillow enjoying second hand smoke has to to with Canada.
Luckily you only have to go about ten feet until you find another bar anywhere in Korea, and as far as I can tell they don't cut anyone off...ever. at about 9 pm I saw my first passed out drunk on the sidewalk (starfished and wearing a suit), at about 2 am I met my first unfriendly Korean - who shoved me and called me "honkey man". Normally I'm not terribly diplomatic, but since 90% of the TV here consist of Korean guys wailing on other Korean guys, I decided to let bygones be bygones.
As some of you may know, I'm not particularly fond of small children which means certain aspects of Korea are what I imagine my own personal hell to be like. Just about every child here takes english lessons and are quite eager to practice on foreigners. It is rare to go anywhere without children striking up a conversation either on their own or at their parent's insistence. Once, an apparently shy child was almost in tears as her parents physically pushed her towards me. Not quite the "don't talk to strangers" atmosphere we have back home. The teenage girls can be particularly irritating. The ones below insisted I take their picture, because the one on the left professed her love for me. Unfortunately for her I liked the one on the right more, because she gave me waffles. A couple at a nearby restaurant keep calling me "handsome boy"...I had hoped I'd left sarcastic teenage girls behind when I finished high school. The apparently blank photo was the view that awaited me as I reached the peak at the same time the clouds did.
Went for the shark dive in the Busan aquarium. I was pretty disappointed, because they cater to beginners and so don't really let you dive. Instead they weight you down and let you shuffle along the bottom. Not quite the experience I had hoped for. considering I can walk half a block and taste just about any creature under the sea, I didn't expect them to be quite so concerned about us bothering the sharks. I had thought something more along the lines of saddling them up and taking one for ride was in store, or at least jumping them in water skiis Fonzie style.