Messing About in Masan and Breathing in Busan.

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PP:
Saturday 24th January.
Our second day in Masan - a very pretty port and town, which is nestled around the long inlet from the sea. High mountains around means that the city hugs the shore and we are parked (berthed) over the inlet from the city. It is the best view and outlook of any we have had since our voyage started. Yesterday we went into Masan city and found it very neat and tidy. Not much English spoken anywhere, but bits seemed to happen enough to keep us out of trouble. We walked a tidy amount of the business and shopping areas. There is not nearly the amount of McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Subway, Starbucks, Dominos, etc that we saw in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and around Xingang and Beijing. That was nice. There are a few of “the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf”, “Tous Les Jours (bread, pastry & coffee)” and “Paris Boulangerie” around - a bit of a change of franchises. While in Masan, the temperature suddenly dropped and then we were snowed upon. The snow melted when it hit the ground, and later the sun came out and made it (relatively) balmy again.

Today we went about 40 km to Busan (seems to be the preferred way here to spell “Pusan”) - the second largest city in South Korea, and (I’m told) the only major settlement that didn’t change hands several times between the communist forces and the South during the Korean conflict. A huge city, but, in common with Masan, different from Chinese cities (that we have seen) in that it is cleaner, less condensed and concentrated, and quite interesting for that reason to see. We walked a lot around the central district (or “Dong”), had some nice Korean noodles for lunch, found a large coffee shop and bar - very large upstairs from a narrow door at street level.

One of the differences we saw between China and here is the traffic: in China, the driving seems extremely chaotic (sitting in the front passenger seat watching the lane hopping and “merging” (bluffing) of traffic is a bit fraught), and red lights are clearly optional (you only stop at them if something bigger is in the way). Sometimes the road itself is optional, as at least once, we left the road and went onto the pedestrian part to go around a block at an intersection - it worked!!?? One driver seemed really irked at Cruisin’ Susan when she walked in front of him on a pedestrian crossing with the lights and stopped him going against a red light to go through the crossing. In Korea, the traffic is very orderly and there are actually rules that are like ours and drivers seem to follow them!!

One of the other major differences is the clear air!! From Singapore until we arrived in Korea, there has continuously been a dense smoky atmosphere and smog everywhere. It shrouds the horizon at sea and reduces visibility significantly in ports and the cities. Here it was good to breathe properly again. Today (as for yesterday) the temperature dropped noticeably this afternoon, but as the sky was blue, no snow fell. We were told that water on the deck froze at that time on the ship, so it is definitely winter here. Interesting for me to experience this kind of weather - I’ve been in snow before, but zero degrees without snow is something else!

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Photos

Busan City
PP and Heroes!

View from Our Window
Masan City from the Dock

Backhoes as well as cars
Loading at Masan

CS in the Office
Free Internet included - out of the window