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Saturday, December 11, 2010

Hyundai Beach and Shark Diving

December 4th

This past Saturday Ryan and I headed down to Busan to Hyundai Beach for a change instead of up to Seoul.  It was a much needed break I think we both enjoyed.  Going down to Busan is quite simple we just take the train from the Pyeongtaek Station an hour or so over to Daejeon where we transfer to a KTX Train and ride for a little over an hour and a half the rest of the way to Busan.  Essentially we go from the top of the country to the bottom in a little under 3 hours including the transfer time.  It is quite a wonderful way to travel and makes me wonder how much simpler it would travel if the sates had nationwide train system.   Yes I know S. Korea is maybe only the size of Indiana making it much more attainable for them to do things like this; however I am just thinking Obama wants to create jobs why not build a major railway for transportation outside of the already existing one that is a joke compared to what other countries have.
The trip stared with a bright an early 5 am wake up to ensure we didn’t forget anything, all the trash was taken out, the dishes were done, the laundry was drying and most importantly that we didn’t miss our 7:09 train.  We headed out to catch the bus at 6:15 and got a bus driver that may of been the craziest drivers we have had yet; however he did get us there in record time making it so we arrived at 6:30 giving us ample of time to wait.  In hopes of getting some coffee I was quite shocked to see that Dunkin Doughnuts doesn’t open till 7 making me wonder what people in Korea seem to think the point of coffee is.  As we sat and waited we talked about what all is going on over here between North and South Korea, classes, things we need to get done before heading back to the states for Christmas,  and just about everything in between all the way down to what we were going to cook this week for lunch and dinner. 
Once on the train it was a short ride over to our transfer.  Once arriving in Daejeon we had about 20 minutes to kill so we headed up to use the bathrooms and grab a snack.  They had a small Lion Sub shop so with about 10 minutes to go till our train left we tried to get one to go.  There was no one ahead of us so as we ordered a Lion Club to split we figured we had plenty of time because we were right by our track; however as the boy behind the counter asked what bread we wanted to then tell us they only had wheat we started to worry.  He then preceded to take 8 minutes to make the sub when Ryan finally told him we would just take it as is and handed him the money as the boy seemed confused and upset we didn’t want him to cut the sub in half or put it in a bag.  I know Korean’s are very smart, take pride in what they do and don’t like to vary from what they have been told to do so I am sure we just messed up this poor kids whole day; however it was a sub and I could of made and eaten it in the time it took him to make it look all pretty and just like the picture. 
On the train headed for Busan we had about an hour and a half ride left so we sat back and enjoyed our sub, to the boy’s credit it was a good sub. Once done we pulled out our laptops to try to kill some time.  Ryan played Risk as I tried to hook up to the internet.  I had hoped to email my parents or maybe even catch them on messenger, blog a bit, and listen to Christmas music; however the KTX advertises that they have WiFi if you’re willing to pay for it just like in airports.  So instead I spent my time blogging in Windows and hope to transfer everything over later. 
We arrived in Busan at 10:00 and caught a taxi over to the Novotel in Hyundai Beach.   The taxi got us to the hotel at about 10:30.  We didn't have to be over at the aquarium to meet with Ryan’s shark diving group until 11:30 so we headed in to see if they would hold our bags till we could check in later and were happy to find out that they just happened to have a room open and we could check in early.   The beach view from the room was a great one making me wish I could of just gone out and sat on the beach all weekend with a good book and a beer; however we had more exciting things to do. 


We meet up with the dive group out in front of the aquarium at 11:30 and headed in to do the briefing and training.  I joined in on the briefing even though I was not diving because it is always funny and very entertaining.  Ryan was in the first group and only had one noncertified diver that needed training.  I watched from above the tank as everyone got ready before heading down to the main viewing area to try to catch some cool pictures.  Ryan found a few sharks teeth, he was cute as he found them he would hold them up and look at me though the glass then point to the tooth than to me and then make a heart with his hands.  All the Koreans went crazy as they saw this saying it was cute and sweet in broken English.  Ryan had a great time and I couldn’t help but smile as I followed the group around the tank trying to take pictures.  I loved getting to watch Ryan do something he loves to do and be a part of it even though I wasn’t in the water. 

Few pictures of the dive:




























The group was down at the bottom of the tank for about 30 minutes before heading back up to the training tank.   As Ryan showered I watched the new hammer head sharks and baby rays swim around and laughed as one of the rays would swim up to where the water was being recycled back in to the tank and get to the top then just float back out into the middle of the tank only to do it again. 

Just a few pictures from around the aquarium.





They even have rain for their Rainforest

Feeding the penguins





Why yes those are stuffed mooses in a fish tank.




Different color jellyfish.

Shark feeding time

Grouper

More shark feeding
Once all showered and spiffy Ryan and I headed off to check out the rest of the aquarium.  It is a small aquarium but they do a really good job of making the exhibits stand out and even decorated some of the fish thanks for Christmas; they take a lot of pride in what they do there and it shows.  We took a short walk on the beach as we headed back to the hotel to clean up for drinks and snacks in the lounge as we watched the sun set.  We then headed back down the beach over to the Weston to get nachos and drinks at O’Kims Irish Pub. 

Few beach pictures:









After dinner we headed back towards the Paradise Casino in the hotel next door. It was a nice quite walk back down the beach and Ryan got to enjoyed a cigar. Sadly Diamond Gem didn't have any luck this trip to the casino however it was still fun as always. I think Ryan thinks I am a dork because I would only play the 100 Won (less than 10 cents in U.S. Dollars) slots with the pull bar (something about getting to pull the bar is what makes it fun for me). As always we set ourselves a limit and once we reached it we headed back to our hotel to crash after an amazing but very long day.





1 comment:

Chas said...

The beach looks GORGEOUS! I'm glad you guys had a good time!! Ha ha! Its funny how the fishtanks were decorated. Guess they wanted to be in the Christmas spirit too!