Busan Fireworks Festival, Part Two... (Sunday 26th Oct 2014)

Dear Sal,

After my initial resentment for Busan earlier in the day, the firework spectacular had completely won me over. It was well worth the two hour wait on a cold hard pavement, the horrendous crowds and the occasional woft of sewage. It was such a nice evening, filled with a wonderful show, good food and good company. I was happy we had decided to come. However, the events that would come to follow were about to change my mind.

After the skies fell silent, we waited patiently on our little blanket for the crowds to disperse. We ate the remainder of our food and finished the last of our drinks. My throat had started to go dry, and I felt secure in the knowledge that everyone was leaving and finding a toilet wouldn't be a challenge now. We assumed we would be waiting quite a while for the crowds to clear, but these Koreans don't hang about. Within less then twenty minutes over half the people had left the beach. The sand was visible once again, but so was a sea of litter that they had carelessly drop on the ground as they left. Welcome to Korea, where the floor is you dustbin. 

We decided to meet up with some friends in the same area, who had witnessed the fireworks from the comfort of a restaurant that over looked the beach. They had a wonderful view from a second floor restaurant, with all the chicken and beer they could eat or drink, for a price of course. Three-hundred thousand won. Seems a little steep, but split six ways it wasn't so bad for them. What ever way you choose to watch the fireworks, you will still have a great night. 

We stayed there for about an hour before making our way down the beach to another bar, to find yet more friends who where in Busan for the weekend. And I am so glad we did, as the festival finished the sales started. All the food stands along the beach where slashing their prices in a bid to off load the excess goods they clearly over stocked for the evening. I got a foot long sausage on a stick for two thousand won, and a whole fried chicken for five. Me and Jason sat on the beach and devoured half of it and enjoyed a laser show that was being projected on to the water. 

For a while, the evening seemed to be going along swimmingly. That was until we made it in to the first bar. It was so busy, understandably. Waiting, for what seemed like a lifetime, to buy a drink is nothing new to be but this was out of hand. People pushing in front of each other, obnoxious drunk people arguing over nothing. In the end I gave up, I'd get one later when it's died down a bit. But it didn't die down, it only got worse.

As the even wore on the group descended in different levels of inebriation and disappearing into the night. We where dropping members like flies. It seemed everyone was heading from Gwangalli beach over to Haeundae, which was fine with me. That was the place me and Jason would be staying that night, or at least hoping to. We rallied the troops and made our way to our next location. 

We waiting over an hour and a half to get a taxi. An hour and a half, can you believe that? We walked from the beach well in to the city to the main road that runs the length a Busan, with no luck. We attempted to hail down countless taxis, raced people to them only to be turned away or have them drive away from us. The Koreans didn't seem to have any such trouble, funny that. We were told to get out of two taxis because they didn't want to have turn around to get to Haeundae. I was livid, and I wasn't the only one. I don't know how many cigarettes I smoked by the time we made it to our destination, but we did and our night could finally continue. 

But the damage was done. The buzz had worn off and I was feeling exhausted from the evenings escaped. At this point it was about three in the morning and no one else was showing signs of slowing down. With Jason saying his final goodbyes to some of his closest friends, a joint birthday celebration and no where to go, I was stuck there. By the time five rolled around me and Jason discussed our plans for traveling back the next day. We would have to leave at ten, which meant getting up at the like eight thirty, which meant even if we left now for the jinjanbang we would only get a little over two hours sleep, if we were lucky. Reluctantly, we made the decision to stay up a little bit longer and get the first KTX back to Deagu. 

I was running on a little over three hours of sleep when I said my farewell to Jason at the bus station later that day, our second goodbye in as many months. I will be seeing him again next month in Malaysia, but until then we shall have only the means of Facebook and Skype to communicate. We should probably think about doing that, all this letter writing gets a little tiring at times and its so out dated. 

Love, Hugs and why won't any bloody cars stop!?

Samuel James.