(11) 90 in 90: Into the (Ocean) World

Last week, my girlfriend and I spent a day at Ocean World, a water park a few hours away from Seoul. I've been to Caribbean Bay, another water park located next to Everland, however Ocean World was an entirely different beast. While both were water parks, Ocean World had more of everything. More slides, more pools, a bigger park, more areas to rest and a bigger variety of other attractions to see besides the slides. I may be getting ahead of myself, but in my opinion, Ocean World was a much better experience.

Getting to Ocean World is a fairly painless process. There are several buses that go directly to Ocean World and are free, as in no need to pay bus fare or swipe your travel card. They leave from a few locations in Seoul and Incheon, including places like Bupeyeong and Sinchon at different times.

The Ocean World Entrance

Once you arrive, there is a changing area at the front of the park along with an area to store picnic food and buy your tickets. after that, the rest of the park is pretty straight forward,as you can walk around the entire park with each new pool and slide located one right after the other.

We went on a Thursday, which by normal standards should have been pretty empty but due to it being the summer time and a peak season where most people in Korea are either on vacation or have extra days off work, the entire park was packed.

I didn't mind though, compared to my last visit to Caribbean Bay, which was strangely empty, seeing lots of people swimming and having fun was nice to see.

Another thing that was different (and admittedly a pleasant surprise) was the lack of covering up from many people in the park. I've been to other pools and beaches before in Korea and both guys and girls usually make it a habit of covering themselves with pull overs, big t shirts and hats. Here, i saw very few people covered up and instead swim trunks and bikinis everywhere. For someone from America, this wasn't exactly a foreign sight to see in the summer, but in Korea, this was the first time I ever saw this much on display at once much to my surprise.

The two most memorable parts of the park were the massive wave pool and the tube slide. The wave pool was probably the largest I have ever seen in Korea and America and was at any given moment filled with people. There were more than enough people to fill the entire front section of the deep end, making moving around impossible. I never felt the threat of drowning or being swept away by the waves due to the large number of people. The claustrophobia was worth it though, as the waves the pool sent out were strong and large. If you caught the wave at just the right angle, you could have easily been carried back several feet. There were times where I would struggle to stand up after a massive wave and regain my composure before another one would come crashing down on my sending me back and disorientating me even further.

There was a downside to the waves though, my girlfriend lost her balance to one of the larger waves and scrapped her leg on the bottom of the pool. Since the bottom was rough and oddly, sharp textured, she ended up getting some significant cuts. A trip to the medical ward showed that she was not the only one there as there was a line out the door of people who suffered cuts all over their bodies. Perhaps its time to invest in another material Ocean World.

The slide was also a highlight for good and bad reasons. The good being that the slide was long, the longest I have ever been on with lots of drops and steep inclines to make it feel almost like a roller coaster more than a water slide. The bad was the wait. We had to wait in line for three hours before getting the chance to go down the slide for a few minutes. My advice is to get in line as early as possible because from 12 PM on, the wait will surely stretch to 3 hours.

Towards the end of the day, we ended up relaxing in one of the spa pools filled with pine needles and also discovered by accident another water park located indoors. If I haven't stressed this enough, I'll say it again: this park is massive.

My girlfriend at the DJparty

In the center square of the park, there is a stage that throughout the day features different performers and musical acts to entertain the guests. At the end of the night when the park closed, there was a DJ on stage

complete with booming speakers and a dance area for people to gather around. Judging by the massive amount of people dancing and grinding in the center, they were having a great time even after spending hours in the water.

I had a great time at Ocean World for me and my girlfriend, it was a nice way to send off the summer, to say goodbye to our vacation period and welcome back the 9 to 5 jobs that allow us to travel to places like this in the first place. It was fun, it was wet and exciting. I could not have picked a better way to say goodbye to the summer. It's still not too late, visit Ocean World, you won't regret it.

Link to Ocean World's website 

A trip to Caribbean Bay!

Last week was midterm time at my school. While that meant a hellish exam cycle of studying until the early hours and cramming vast amounts of information to be memorized for students, I got to take a mini vacation and have a spare day off from work. I had known that this day was coming soon and decided to take advantage of it early by planning to take a day trip back to Everland with Hyejin.

Its funny, as most people I know usually make it a habit to make it either a once a year trip or biannual trip to  Everland and here I was, visiting again in a span of a month. In all fairness though, it wasn't the same kind of trip and I wasn't visiting the same exact place again.

Next to Everland, was the water park know as Caribbean Bay, famous in Korea for having both an indoor and outdoor portion of water slides and attractions. I've heard stories of it being packed with people during the hot and humid summer months, with long lines waiting to go down slides and visit the spa area.

I guess I went at the wrong time because aside from a handful of people in the indoor portion, the park was a ghost town.

Maybe it was because of the weather. It was slightly chilly and the skies had a hint of overcast, possibly threatening to rain at any minute. Maybe because it was an afternoon on a Thursday, a day typically spent by most Koreans either in school or working. Whatever the reason, it was a bit odd to be able to walk around the park with no lines or waiting.

While a line free water park sounds like paradise to most people and ideally it would be, it seemed that the staff took the day off as well and most of the water slides and water attractions on the outside were not open. None of the slides were available to slide down with many portions of the park were blocked off and closed.

I was certain at this point that I would end up regretting the time and money spent coming here, however my girlfriend reminded me about the indoor portion of the park. Remaining skeptical but not wanting to waste anymore time, we made our way inside.

I was glad I listened to Hyejin, because as soon as we stepped through the door we were greeted to a brightly lit area of lazy rivers, small pools, water slides and spa areas. It was a light at the end of a chlorine smelling tunnel.

While this was my first time visiting an indoor water park, I was impressed at what was available. The whole place had a cheery and clean atmosphere with the bright colors and themes of a amusement park. Simply walking around the are and finding new places to play in hidden in the corners was a fun time that constantly offered new things to try out. Starting from the bottom and making your way to the top could take a person more than a few hours if they went at a leisurely pace.

One of the things I found most different about the Korean water park experience was the preparation before even stepping foot  in a swimming pool. One of the most striking is the safety concerns and preparations for each person with safety measure going far beyond what I was used to back at home. Where safety concerns generally consisted of "don't run" and "jump in kids!" back at home, the rules were different here, specifically with swim attire.

According to the rules of the park, you are required to wear the following before swimming:

A cap to cover your head.

A life vest (but you can take this off later on)

A t shirt to cover your torso (but we were allowed to remove these)

Luckily, due the the small number of people there, the staff allowed us to slide by the rules a little bit and go without caps and later on remove our vests and t shirts. However we were told that if it was a busier time, these items would be absolutely necessary.

Another difference was the variety of things to do beside go in the water or swim in the pools. Spa and sauna areas were scattered between the slides and pools to offer a quick dip of relaxation along with scented water with rose and other flowers. The indoor area also offered both a beauty section and relaxation section that for a half hour and extra fee, could allow a quiet area to relax and be pampered in. It seemed like an odd idea at first, but after taking small breaks to refresh between swimming and sliding provided a revitalizing burst of energy that was welcomed after a few hours of activity. America needs to get on the idea ASAP.

It was a fun day with my girlfriend who like me, was caught up in her work life leaving places like this a distant priority in the wake of more important and work related manners. At the end of the day, despite being tired and worn out were reminded just important these little breaks are from our daily schedule and how the company of a special person is a key ingredient for a happy time.

Website for Caribbean Bay

http://www.everland.com/web/multi/english/caribbean/main.html

The outside of the Bay!