More Korea - Summer 2009

A relaxing (note the sarcasm) day at Haeundae beach. I really don't get the appeal of going to a packed beach that is covered in umbrellas to the point that the sun barely reaches the sand, and whose swimming area is restricted to a shallow 20' strip of water (strictly patrolled by boat cops to make sure you don't swim out of bounds). On the bright side, Korean beaches are the only place outside of porn where high heals and bikinis are an acceptable outfit.
View of the port from the Busan tower.
Beomosa temple, Jagalchi fish market, and the Busan LED district (not as impressive as Seoul's).
Daytime and nighttime 360 degree views from NSeoul tower. Although I have no problem with getting your picture taken with the carboard cutout of the scantily clad skanky NSeoul tower girl, I do wonder who decided to set it up in front of the teddy bear museum.
Spending the day seeing some of Seoul's sights before our flight to China the next day. It can be a pretty unpleasantly hot city in the summer, which explains why every source of water is filled with Koreans. The fountains in the median between the two directions of one of the busiest roads was particularly busy ...and entertaining.
If you are a fan of buying crap you don't need (or or married to someone who is), Seoul is definitely the place for you. Susan is such an obvious sucker foreign shopper than one person filled and covered their van with crap to follow her around.
One small part of the not too pretty Ulsan port. If you look closely at the large version of the panoramic shot you can see on the left the cars from the Hyundai factory waiting to be loaded on ships. They stretch for miles from the left all the way past the two big ships and keep right on going. I find it odd that people would choose this place to fish, particularly since the pier is directly next to where they unload the coal. Luckily they leave the heads behind for everyone to enjoy.
Continuing my "Things in Korea I find weird" collection of pictures. First up, and mentioned before, matching t-shirts for couples and families. We also found out that this extends to China as well. As seen in stores and in commercials it also extends to underwear sets for couples. Skanky dancing girls advertising sales at stores. Greeters at gas stations and parking lots. Whiteness is beautiful Love motels for cheating Giant department stores...world's largest as a mater of fact (according to Guiness)
Late night adult cartoon shorts. I turned on the TV to see cartoon girls doing unusual things to unusual cartoon "mushrooms". By the time I got my camera it had moved on to vampires getting handjobs, followed by half man half tiger having quite agile relations with a lady ninja. It only got weirder. As far as I can tell the last picture is of a super hero with a third leg that enables him to run quite fast. In fight situations his sidekick merely has to flash her breasts at him and it becomes strategicallly erect to kick their enemies in the head. Still, all-in-all, I think there is less sexual innuendo than the whole batman and robin situation.