po-'hang time' episode 2

We get on the bus a couple minutes after it arrives and when we get to our seats we find a Korean woman and her children already comfortably seated. We try to communicate that she's got the wrong spots, but when she takes out her tickets we see they have the same seat numbers as ours. They've clearly been double-booked. This wouldn't be a huge problem, but with the next bus not for another 5 hours, I was moderately worried. We stepped off the bus while they tried to figure out how this happened (everyone speaking in Korean). After deciding it was just good ol' human error, they conclude that it would be easier to kick the foreign non-Korean-speaking passengers without the three small children off the bus (I suppose the decision was clear). The driver indicated for us to take our luggage and thus wait for the next bus (instructions/solution translated via random Korean passerby). Needless to say I wasn't very impressed. I stood with one foot on the stairs of the bus and repeatedly said "NO" in Korean as angrily as I could, as they continually motioned for us to get our luggage. After delaying the bus for ten minutes, the bus driver started getting pretty antsy, so they decided they might be able to squeeze us in. Ali and Alex got to sit in regular seats and I got to sit in the VIP section next to the driver in the jump seat over the stairs. Then, after we made some stops and found that we weren't picking up more passengers, I got to relocate and join the ladies for the remainder of the trip. Possible bus crisis averted!

We're on a Bus

Needless to say, we eventually arrived in Pohang safe and sound. We took a cab to our hotel, quickly changed into our bathing suits and hit the beach, which was steps from our accomodations.

Once on the beach, it was apparent that Koreans have interesting fashion choices in beach attire. Most of them were fully dressed, either under umbrellas or in tents set up on the beach. Now it's odd enough that they wear all their clothes on the beach but they also swim in all their clothes. We saw Koreans swimming in shorts, t-shirts, hoodies, dress shirts, jeans.

Tents, umbrellas and Koreans in full dress

We felt somewhat awkward in our bathing suits, but I was mostly just happy to be relaxing at the beach. We hung out and explored the beach a bit, then went for dinner and hit the sack early.

The next day we decided to do some exploring and visit one of the local mountains which had a bunch of nice waterfalls. We asked the man at front desk how to get there and he said a cab would be too expensive and recommended the bus, as it would be cheaper and pretty easy.
He even drove us to the nearest bus stop (nice!), told us it the bus ride would be "many minutes" and that we would know when we got there.

And, so our second Pohang bus adventure began.

This is my apprehensive pre bus trip face

We boarded the already-packed bus and got on our way. A couple of minutes into our trip we hit some serious traffic. After almost a hour and a half of crawling (and literally being passed by pedestrians) plus several near accidents and an old Korean woman falling headfirst into my chest, we arrived at a random bus stop in the middle of the countryside where the bus driver informed us to get off.

Thinking we'd arrived at our destination, we quickly exited and found ourselves ... at a bus depot in the middle of nowhere. Apparently, we were now supposed to get on another bus, which left in approximately one and a half hours, and left us kickin' it in the Korean countryside for (what we hoped was only) 90 minutes ...

to be continued in part 3

-mark