Relaxing in Busan after hectic Beijing !!

---

Day 32 (Sun 7^thOct)



So my time has come to leave behind Beijing and China, a place that I have enjoyed very much. Next on the agenda is South Korea, and firstly Busan.

The day started with a 5:30am start after getting in at half 1 so I was slightly tired. I tried to make as little noise as possible leaving the hostel room. Seems there’s 3 Siberians in 2 beds which means they’re multiplying as there were 2 the previous day.

Made it to the airport and went through the usual procedures. Boarded the flight and away from China. The flight lasted around 2 hours to Busan Gimhae airport. Off the plane and through the painful customs processes, filling in questionnaires for health and illness, reason of visit and so on. This all takes longer than it should and there’s only ever 2/3 pens for an entire plane load of people, simply not enough!! I got the bus into town and the subway to my stop and straight to check in. Get the news that breakfast is included when I checked in and a free beer each night in the bar, so overall a good start, simply can’t complain with that.

Logged onto facebook for the first time in 3 weeks, and nothing has changed, which doesn’t surprise me. Had a brief walk around Busan centre but I was that tired bed had my name on it so had a kip until 8/9, can’t remember which then headed downstairs for my free beverage, ended up having 4, paying for 2 and spending £1.12 to be precise, can definitely deal with that. Good end to the day.


Day 33 (Mon 8^th Oct)



As I only have 2 full days in Busan before moving on I decided to use Trip Advisor to simply tell me the best places here to go as I hadn’t really planned much for South Korea bar Seoul, so I reviewed a few options and chose the Taejongdae Resort Park. After getting my complimentary breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast and strangely some soup I got ready and headed for the bus.

Always an experience using public transport when you cannot speak the language. I feel the bus is always hardest to get as 1. You don’t always know the price 2. You have no idea where to get off and 3. Everyone knows that but doesn’t bother to help, I can understand they don’t all speak English but I’m sure some can. Anyways I got on the bus, tried to pay and the bus driver just squawked something so I jumped on and didn’t bother paying. Luckily I knew that where I wanted to go was the last stop so no such problems with this trip, although you’re still always anxious until you actually arrive or see something you recognise.

Taejongdae Park is basically a road with path looping around an offshoot of the coastline in Busan. I figured it’d be a nice place to spend a few hours taking in the scenery and the coastline, as well as being able to look at some of the Japanese islands in the distance. The walk itself around the complex is maybe 2.5 miles, but there is a like small tram that pulls a couple carriages for those too lazy to walk. I say too lazy as all those on it were young yet everyone I saw on foot around the place was probably collecting a pension, seemed a little back to front for me.

There were various viewing spots looking back towards different inlets into the Busan coastline as well as out to see. The views were impressive and the cliffs and coastline very nice. It reminded me a little bit of home, probably the first place that has done so, so far. Maybe because it was also very windy and the waves were battering the cliffs. There was various wildlife knocking about including loads of birds, spiders and a squirrel which I think I woke up and took it by surprise as it legged it away from me.

I finished the park and got the bus back into town. Popped onto the top of the Passenger Ferry terminal as I saw it had a viewing deck, gives a good look at Busan port, which is huge, I’ve never seen anything like it, slightly bigger than I’m used to seeing.

I took in one last park for the day, well not so much a park, more a monument in a green area, dedicated to the fallen Busan people during the Korean War. It’s quite a monument and sits highly on one of the highest points of central Busan, which again required a stupid amount of stairs, worth it though. Bit of Skype in the evening to my Dad and Nana finished off the day, early night for me. Temple tomorrow!!


Day 34 (Tues 9^th Oct)



Didn’t really have a lot planned for today. Busan is a huge industrial area and a port so there isn’t massive amounts to do. One of the main things is a temple bout 90 mins from here but as I’m seeing a more impressive one in Gyeong-ju in 2 days or so I decided I couldn’t be bothered. So I went to look at the nicest local beach, Haeundae. It’s quite a nice beach with plenty going on, even on a Tuesday. Seems South Korea’s film festival is on here soon, well named BIFF and this has taken over the beach as well as Busan city centre.

I walked to both ends of the beach, although not actually on the beach. It isn’t the warmest here at the moment so no one was risking swimming in the sea although it was very clear. Watched a few local fisherman fish for a bit. They were catching the smallest fish, around 2-3 inches at maximum. At the time I wasn’t sure what they’d do with that but I found out later. One the way back across the promenade I was approached by a couple school girls asking me to take their picture. They didn’t have much English but they knew ‘photo’ ‘thank you’ and ‘I love you,’ which was a very odd way to thank someone taking their picture. Anyways walked back to the station and headed back into town.

I went to the fish markets when I got back, one being the dried fish and the other the actual live fish market, called Jagulchi market, quite popular and famous in Korea. The dried fish looked like the ones I saw the fisherman catching. Pretty standard market. The Jagulchi market had all sorts, fish, squid, octopus and various other sea creatures. I saw a woman kill 2 octopuses, just picked them out the bowl, ripped their face back and drag out the brains all over the floor. Then put them in a bag and sold them to a woman, it was brutal and pretty horrible. No wonder further along I saw an octopus escape from its bowl and do a runner, only to be caught 5 yards down the road. Gutted!! Back to the hostel to do some washing, only the second time in 5 weeks so thought it was due and a night in with tv or a film I think. Off in the morning after breakfast so we shall see what Gyeong-ju has in store.

---

Photos

Taejongdae Park
Quite a moving statue

Taejongdae Park
The description of the previous statue

Haeundae Beach
Local Fisherman

Taejongdae Park
Quality housing, i certainly wouldn't want to live there, wild as anything !!

Yongdusan Park
Statue for fallen soldiers

Yongdusan Park
Statue for fallen soldiers