So following my trip to Seoul, Ian and I decided on a whirlwind tour of Busan ( coastal city in Southern Korea, second largest city in the country), and what a delightful cultural insight it proved to be. First insight was the presence of a condom vending machine in our hotel room. Yes, IN our hotel room. All you had to do was insert 1,000 won and out popped a pre-boxed condom. Being the inquisitve person that I am I of course had to insert my two coins and unravel that little number with the speed of ….well.. a person with a great need for speed. Now, the box was a little on the small side and the contents of the box weren’t too far behind. To say that it was a “tight” looking number was an understatement. Ian stared at it in horror, recoiling from its cling film consistency and earthworm sized girth. Still though an innovative way to earn more money. I was surprised by the owner having such items in her hotel rooms, seeing as she was a little old lady that had all the hallmarks of being the two time winner of “Iron Mammy”, such was the level of care being shown to her residents.

Seeing as our room wasn’t really of a 5 star standard, never mind 1 star, we decided to amble around the beach known as Haeundae. Imagine a beach half the size of Tramore beach. Yes? Then pack 800,000 people at least into that confined area and that is life at a Korean beach at peak holiday season. And oddly enough, despite the place being more mobbed than Penney’s on Christmas Eve, it was a strangely enjoyable experience. Ian and I joined in with the “gang” and bought a beach mat, that looked oddly like that tin foil stuff that you put over a person when they are in shock. Neh, kill two birds with one stone and all that. We found a spot on the sand and set up camp with a few beers and indulged in some people gazing. And there was where we learned cultural insight number two. People. In Korea. When at the beach. Go swimming. With all their clothes on. So there I was sitting on my little mat, when I noticed that someone had fallen into the sea and had gotten himself and his clothes and shoes all wet. But, as I started to scan the sea/ sand line, I noticed that at least a few others had suffered this mishap. How careless, I thought, until Ian pointed that the whole 800,000 were doing the same thing. How bizarre! Remember as kids, when your Mum or Dad would kill you for getting into the sea with clothes on, seeing as you could possibly drown to the excess weight. Evidently not a problem in Korea. People here are made of flotable materials. Duh.

I also discovered here that Ian is anal about sand. Well, he is Canadian. I am worn out telling him that a “beach” on the edge of Lake Ontario does not qualify for “beach on the Atlantic” status. At Haeundae, I wasn’t too pushed about the state of our mat, but if I got shouted at once, I got shouted at a hundred times by Ian for getting sand on the mat. It was brilliantly obvious that Ian was oblivious to the fact that we were sitting on SAND. Mind you though, it was rather funny to watch Ian loose his temper every time the Koreans trampled over our mat/shock defense system dragging the better part of the beach over aforementioned mat. Titter.

Also the national obsession with looking perfect and a camera has spread to the beach. A trio of girls sat next to us at about 9pm and spent a good hour or so taking pictures of themselves with the three cell phones, two digital cameras and one Polaroid number they had in their possession. Each picture was determined to be unsuitable as after examining each picture they would all immediately start rectifying the part of their person that was a little camera shy. Hair was brushed, make was reapplied and those all important pouty lips and sulky expressions were perfected. Hilarious.

At about 1am, Haeundae beach was completely thronged. There was barely any moving room. People ranging from those in nappies to those back in nappies were out and about shakin’their thang on the beach. Music was playing from a huge stage at one end of the beach with a spectacular fireworks display in the night sky. It put the Cork Culture Thingy to shame ( even though Cork did set a ship on fire….). I oohed and aawwed with the best of them, staring at the show with child like wonder. And then to bed I went.

The next day we hit the Busan Aquarium. The aquarium was really impressive as it houses so many varities of tropical fish. My personal favourites, apart from the really cute penguins, were the angel fish. These little critters are about the size of a baby’s finger nail. They are transparent with a little coloured blob in their chest cavity and to top it all off, they really do have angel wings! And they swim like angels floating to heaven. My Catholic upbringing fell in love with those little guys. The mock turtles and sharks had me fascinated as well as the eerie looking crabs. We were allowed to hold starfish…. Genuinely like holding a little coloured rock. However, it was not just the fish that amused me. It was interesting to see a stunning 6ft lady with little or no English on the arm of a most unfortunate looking gentleman at the aquarium. A case of Russian prostitute and guy who has no shame. Believe me, Russian Prostitutes stand out a mile here. Although I have been repeatedly questioned regarding my “Russian” nationality……………………