One Night in Busan


This past weekend I took a trip to Busan, the second largest city in Korea.  Busan is located along the southeastern coast of the Korean peninsula (Seoul is in the northwest of the country).  It is definitely a smaller city than Seoul, but the metro area has probably close to 5 million people.

Busan is basically on the opposite side of South Korea
from Seoul, but the country isn't very large - not much
bigger than Ohio!
Central Busan with Gwangan Bridge

A friend of mine from Seoul is a musician and was planning to travel to Busan for a music show.  Several other artists from the Seoul area were also performing, so they decided to rent a bus and drive down together.  All told there were about 45 of us on the bus.  We were scheduled to leave Seoul at 10 am, and the trip was supposed to take 5 hours.  We left a good half an hour late, and due to traffic didn’t arrive until 5pm.  The ride was quite fun though.  The organizers brought along alcohol and made it into a party bus.

Upon arriving in Busan we split up into smaller groups and looked for places to stay for Saturday night.  My group consisted of the couple guys I had known before the trip and some of their Korean friends.  After a bit of hesitation on where to stay we finally decided to look for a spot next to the beach.  Luckily we found a pretty cheap motel that was literally ten yards from the sand.  One couple got their own place, and the rest of us split into two rooms of four.

The Busan waterfront; our hotel was just opposite the
beach across the road on the left

By the time we found the place and then got a bite to eat it was nearly time for Sammy to head over to the club, a place called Fabric.  The show started at 10, but he wasn’t scheduled to be on until close to midnight.  We had a few quick drinks back at the apartment and then taxied over to Fabric.  It was early when we got there, so the place was pretty quiet.  I hoped that it would be busy but wasn’t sure.

Like Sammy, most of the other artists had day jobs and were either in it for fun or trying to get their music career started.  Later on more people showed up, but it was never super packed.  It actually was better that way.  At popular clubs in Korea there is often not even enough room to dance.  At one place in Seoul it took me a good 15 minutes to make my way through the crowd from the dance floor to the entrance (I hope there is never a fire at that place).

a promo for the event
My friend Sammy was performing

I volunteered to video Sammy performance, which went well.  He is mostly into hip hop, but two of the songs he played were a blend with dance/electro music.  I think the video turned out well, but after drinking on the bus and a bunch of rum and cokes at the club it may have been a bit shaky!  When the performances were over we left Fabric and headed to another club area closer to the beach.  Before hitting the dance floor a few of us stopped at Family Mart for a quick bottle of Soju.  After the Soju I was definitely in a dancing mood.

Everyone seemed to have a good time at the club.  Someone suggested a late night trip to the beach, and it sounded like a good idea.  Even though it was cold for a May night, three of us went for a quick swim.  Then we took a walk along the beach.  Before long it was daybreak.  We stayed for the sunrise –although we couldn’t see past the clouds.  I got a few hours of sleep, but was up by 10 the next day.  We were leaving at 3, so time was limited.  We had breakfast on the beach and went in the water again.  After checking out of our hotel and walking through the local seafood market it was almost time to go.

Again the bus left late, and didn’t make it back to Seoul until 10:30.  I caught a little shut eye and chatted with Sammy and a few of our new Korean friends.  By the time I got back to my apartment, I was ready for a good night sleep.  But I guess that is a sign of a good weekend trip!

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