Busan Trip

For Buddha's Birthday, (or, literally translated, "The Day Buddha Came") we had a three day weekend.  We decided to head to one of the largest cities in Korea, and a very popular coastal destination, Busan.  We went with two friends, Christina and Clint, and we had an awesome time!

We arrived Thursday night, and stayed in a hotel directly across from Diamond Beach, with it's beautiful bridge.  It was so nice to be close to the ocean!  Here is a view from our hotel:

Here is around our hotel, Diamond Beach Area

On Friday, it was Buddha's Birthday, and we knew there would be a lot going on at the local temples.  One of the most beautiful temples near Busan is Haedong Yonggung Temple.  When we arrived, it was bustling with people and vendors set up for the Lotus Festival.  The temple is situated on the cliffs overlooking the ocean, and it was decorated with lanterns for the occasion.  Even though it was crowded, we still had a great time wandering the grounds.

Bradley, with his Chinese Zodiac sign (Rat)

Carrie, Year of the Ox

Rub this Buddha for a son . . .

Bradley said a little prayer for when he goes back to school!

Peek-a-boo!

Goddess of Mercy

Main Prayer Hall 

View from above, the beautiful lantern covered courtyard

Trying (and failing) to do the cliche "hold famous landmark in your hand" shot 

Ahh, ocean breezes

Saturday, we woke early and headed to the U.N. Memorial Cemetery.  Here, servicemen from the  all over the world are interred who served and died in the Korean War.  It was a very peaceful and beautiful place, and had a nice exhibit room where there were some artifacts from the war displayed.  One Canadian woman donated the telegraph she received from the government on the news of her son's death in Korea, another family donated letters home from a soldier, and there were many pictures of the men who died there.  There was also a very nice tribute wall with the names of all the soldiers killed during the war (though not all were buried here) and a long waterway called the Daunt Waterway, dedicated to the youngest person buried in the cemetery, an Australian soldier who was only 17 years old.  It was all very nicely done and the grounds were beautiful.

Korean soldier/guard

Eleven flags for the countries that sent soldiers to fight when North Korea invaded South  Korea, and the U.N. Flag

Magpies are everywhere in Korea

Greece's monument 

Philippine's Monument

New Zealand Monument

This was so moving; in the area dedicated to Turkey, Turkish people had sent gifts of soil from Turkey to rest with the soldiers.

French Monument

Daunt Waterway

The Memorial Wall

Memorial Wall

Exhibition Hall

For the Unknown Soldier's path, there are eleven steps and eleven fountains for each country

Flag raising ceremony

Next, we headed to Busan Tower, and took a ride to the top for panoramic views of the city and some nice shopping afterwards!  Found some beautiful Korean pottery to take home :).  Later that night, Christina and I headed to the World's Largest Department Store, Shinsaegae, home to a very large bathhouse, and we indulged for several hours.  It was SO relaxing . . . I am SERIOUSLY going to have to find one in Koreatown when I get home!

Admiral Lee Sun Shin, famous leader from the Imjin Wars, Japanese invasion of Korea in 1500s

"Toy" setting on camera

 Sunday, we headed to the Aquarium, which was nice, but VERY crowded and so a bit hectic.  When we finished there, we headed out to Haeundae Beach, perhaps the most famous beach in Korea.  While the weather was a bit overcast, it was still nice to enjoy the smell of the ocean and the crash of the waves before we hopped back on a bus to Gwangju.

Nice pose!

Busan made Bradley and I VERY excited to come home, because it reminded us so much of Long Beach.  We recently bought our tickets to California, but we will be stopping in Malaysia, Cambodia, and Vietnam before we head home (woohooo!!).  This trip to Busan reminded us of all the beauty we have waiting for us at home.  It was a great trip in a wonderful city, with great friends!

Everland

May was a very eventful month for us.  We had lots of adventures and it all started with a great trip to Everland with our friends Lizzy and Mitchell.

Our friends, Lizzy and Mitchell

Carrie and I have wanted to go to Everland since we came to Korea, but we didn't have the time until now.  When we went, we found a cute little motel called the Q Motel.  It wasn't the best place we have stayed in, but it wasn't the worst.  The best part was our shuttle to Everland from the motel.  It was the owner of the motel driving the four of us in his sedan up to the front gate.  He didn't shuttle us back, but it was still something we did not expect. 

So our day started off with a delicious meal inside the gates of Everland.  We were the only people eating at this time because Koreans love to picnic.  Since we didn't have a kitchen or any groceries to make a picnic we had to eat at the restaurants in the park.  The food was as expected, theme park food. 

Our first ride of the day was a safari type bus ride.  We rode in a school bus with extremely large windows through open areas where the animals roamed freely (they were enclosed so the couldn't escape but they didn't have same cages around them, rather the cage was around us).  As the bus drove around the animals would come directly up to the bus (generally toward the driver’s window) and the bus would stop so the passengers could see the animals.  But then the bus driver pulls out some kind of food for the animal and throws it toward their mouths.  The bears were very good at catching the food bits in their mouths and then were ready for more in seconds.  It was an amazing sight.  I know I would never want to be in the path of a grizzly bear without a bus. 

The Liger stretching

The bear catching some tasty snacks

Yum!

Our Safari Bus

Our next attraction at Everland was the petting zoo (which was more of a look at from behind a fence zoo).   There were sheep, chickensand some other animals but the most surprising animal that we saw in the petting zoo was guinea pigs.  Interesting what other cultures think of as exotic

The ugly chicken

A lamb with a hat on it's neck

The guinea pigs

 We also saw some other animals while we walked around Everland. Such as penguins, polar bears, some small foxes with large ears, Ligers, some chillaxing ring tailed lemurs, and last but not least there were dogs. That is right just some dogs.  They were being groomed at the time we saw them, it was pretty funny and they were very cute dogs.  (Photos below)

He was enormous

My favorite bird

The Ligers resting

To jump or not to jump that is the question

More Ligers resting

Chillaxing lemurs 

The Doggies

being groomed

After our safari and animal tour we got on another ride.  We went on the Amazon Express.  It was a ride just like Grizzly River Rapids, except there was a cover for you put over your body so you don’t get so wet.  Mitchell decided that using the cover took all the fun away from the ride and didn't wear his for most of the ride.  Thankfully the man sitting next to me got it the worst and the four of us came out mostly dry (Sorry, no photos here didn't want to break the camera).

It says Amazon Express

After that we went on another safari type ride but this time our bus was like a duck boat in Boston and it went into a river so we could get a close up look at the elephants. Both Carrie and I said to ourselves that this is not even close since there was a river and some big rocks between us and the elephants.  Then after our river dip we were back on dry land (still in the bus/boat) and we stopped in the giraffe area, where the tour guide on the bus brought out some delicious leaves for the animals to eat.  They were so close that we could touch them but were told not to, but we did get some awesome photos of the giraffes. 

That was an adult and we've been closer to elephants

They had a baby giraffe

Still not close

This was close!!!

In the afternoon we went on a few more rides but the most important thing that Carrie did was went on the steepest wooden roller coaster in the world with Lizzy (Mitchell and I passed).

Carrie and Lizzy made it out alive

A distant view of the roller coaster

They had fun

As the day continued we walked around and enjoyed the theme park.  During our time there we had a chance to see two parades.

There were a lot of Westerners in the parades . . . maybe our next job?

Korea's version of the Electric Light Parade

Turtle, turtle, turtle

Here are some pictures of the scenery around Everland.

 

There was a big garden full of blooming flower near the back of Everland where people could picnic and take a rest

They even had Disney type sweepers

Overall it was a great experience and we checked it off our Korean Bucket List.