Not your typical day at the beach

Monday morning we woke up bright and early and made our way to Haendai Beach. There just happened to be a Starbucks on the way, so we stopped and got coffee first. Have I ever mentioned that I have an affinity for Starbucks?





Haendai beach is by far the most crowded beach I've ever seen. There were at least 300,000 umbrellas on this beach, and close to a million people. We got there good and early, so we secured an umbrella in a decent spot. Despite the multitudes of Koreans, the swimming was pretty good. Koreans are generally poor swimmers, and the water is deep at this beach. All the way down the coast, one can see where the water ceases to be shallow. I could look all the way down and there would be less than 10 people total past this point. Therefore, the swimming experience was an isolated one.
The deep end of the pool, so to speak, was the only place to get away from the crowd. I rented a tube and floated away down the coast, never bumping into anyone. When I went back to the umbrella, however, it was a completely different story. From underneath, all I could see in either direction was a endless row of umbrellas, like a giant canopy. All day long there were Koreans ducking underneath this umbrellas, selling fried chicken and beer while tiptoing around people's mats. We spent the entire day at this place, breaking for lunch at a truly excellent buffet. Jason has a real knack for finding good restaurants. While it may seem as if the crowd was overwhelming, a day at the beach is still a day at the beach. It was relaxing and fun. I especially enjoyed watching the Koreans freak out when the waves came in, later that afternoon. They would collectively scream when each dinky wave broke five feet from the shore. It was the kind of screaming you would hear on a roller coaster. Even though most of them can't swim, the Koreans really enjoy the water.

Later that evening, we found a hotel and took nice long showers. For me, there is never a better shower than one taken after a day on a beach. After washing off the sand and getting pretty, we went to the Russian district. This area is full of Russian and Phillipino restaurants and bars, and is a quite different atmosphere from what I've grown accustomed to. I had wanted to get out of Korea, and in this particular place, I felt like I had. Pictured are the delicious lamb skewers we had for dinner. The chest on the right belongs to the nice lady at the restaurant, who grilled our meat for us. After dinner, we hung around the district, hopping from one place to another. We didn't settle on any place for long, but rather skipped around all evening. Throughout the course of the evening, I expressed a new found indecision on my plans for the rest of the week. While I had originally planned to go to Japan, I was beginning to waffle. I wouldn't make a decision that evening, but I went to bed thinking about where I would go the next day.