By GI Korea on August 7th, 2010 at 1:00 pm

Picture of the Day: Busan’s Haeundae Beach

Overcrowded beach: Thousands of people cool off in the sea at Haeundae Beach in the southeastern port city of Busan, Sunday. Haeundae is Korea’s most popular and crowded beach. / Korea Times

• LG DACOM Stinks, Roy
  10:34 am on August 7th, 2010 1

  The summertime Haeundae scene annoys the sh1t out of me. It's a bunch of foolishness. If you take a trip to Waikiki, you can see hundreds of Japanese enjoying the place just like everyone else. It's only the Koreans who're dressed up like buffoons, wrapped head-to-toe and wearing gloves.

• K
  3:34 pm on August 7th, 2010 2

  Haeundae has a lot of chicks too actually. But not enough muscly men, true.

• maui
  3:47 pm on August 7th, 2010 3

  Yes the beach scene here, is not like home. I remember the 1st at the beach here tried to swim out to a small isle about 200 yards from shore, only to have the life guard swim after me yelling no! no! He had a float device and swim fins and I still beat him back to shore. Though got good friends with them after they found out I was from Hawaii free beer and party we them the rest of the week. Gave them credit (Korean life guards) having to watch over soo many people.

• ChickenHead
  5:24 pm on August 7th, 2010 4

  Give a small man a whistle and he becomes a big man… a badge and a gun are worse.

  I'm always getting tweeted at whenever I am around water in Korea.

  A couple weeks ago, I wanted to try out a new sea kayak I bought last winter (when the price was $200 instead of $800 in the summer). I threw it up on the car and went to a popular swimming hole on a nearby river.

  Now, keep in mind, there is a road across the river that the water flows over which serves as the dam to make a large pool… so, while it is wide, you can walk all the way across… only a little farther upstream in the center is it over one's head.

  I'm not on the water more than 5 minutes before a van pulls up and the Tweeter starts blasting away at me. It turns out I need a life jacket. Mind you, there are lots of people wading in the water nearby with no life jacket… but, since I'm on a boat, I now need one.

  Well. Come get me, fcuker.

  Tweet… tweet… tweet.

  Now there are a hundred people watching me… and, as the representative whitey, I don't really want to look like the diick that I am feeling inside.

  Tweet… tweet… tweet.

  So, I step out of the boat into the knee-deep water, throw up my hands in mock panic and yell, "Help me, help me!" in Korean.

  A hundred people burst out laughing and the Tweeter got back in his van and drove away.

  Later, I talked to the Sub-Tweeters… the women issued a whistle and a red hat that keep the peacefulness of nature constantly disrupted with any excuse to tweet (although they never tweeted at me).

  As it turns out, several people die there each year so everyone needs babysat… hence, the tweeter mentality. I returned on the following Sunday only to find a guy died the day before… yes… no life jacket was a factor…

  …but his inability to swim and the fact that he and his friend (who held on to their overturned boat) were stumbling drunk on soju might have played a part.

  Who the hell goes on water without a life jacket that can't swim?

  The ones needing tweeted at, obviously.

  But not me.

  My biggest complaint about Korea is the overwatchfulness on every little thing. I understand to some extent… as many Koreans just aren't careful or aware.

  This over-regulation for "safety" is going to be an issue soon as, when my wife replaces her car, I'm going to cut the top off her current car, weld all the holes nicely together, re-paint it and make a factory-looking "open car"… despite assurances from everyone that this is "illegal"… which it no-doubt is.

  But it isn't hurting anyone… so, unless anyone has a suggestion otherwise, it is completely within my morals to break this law.

  Any ideas?

• K
  5:33 pm on August 7th, 2010 5

  Any ideas.

  I'm fine with life jackets in swimming pools, if only men wear them.

• areujoking
  6:10 pm on August 7th, 2010 6

  fun….just a big piss, sh*t and spit hole for fun loving Koreans. Only thing is that they can do the above in the water and not in the streets. Gid I Love Korea! NOT!!!!!!

• Matt
  8:58 pm on August 7th, 2010 7

  Chickenhead, you make me laugh my ass off when you chastise Koreans in hangul for some of the crazy stuff they do. I'll never forget when you made the comment about the kids running amok in some restaurant and how their parents didn't teach them anything. Keep it up my friend, and please, tell us how to say these snappy comebacks, so those of us who only know "dating" hangul can widen our horizons!

• Chris In Dallas
  1:37 am on August 8th, 2010 8

  Hey, where is the tsunami?

• Maui
  6:06 am on August 8th, 2010 9

  ChickenHead.. Man that is just too funny, but yes all too real here.

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