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Asia » South Korea » Busan
May 12th 2005
Published: May 16th 2005
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yoon-suh and pokimonyoon-suh and pokimonyoon-suh and pokimon

my cousin's daughter, who's 3 year's old, on children's day with that yellow thing....korean's have a day to celebrate children and everyone gets the day off to participate. pretty clever kid who came up with this idea, as it is better than christmas for most children :)
hmmm....yes, i am here in the home country, finally out of seoul for the first time! i just came down to busan for a couple of days to have a look-see what the southern part of korea looks like. despite my inability to understand the korean down here- it's the southern twang!- it's been fun to explore a bit and challenge my brain a bit with figuring out what these people are saying to me 😊

this morning i went up mt. bae, which was a former fortress site before the shilla dynasty, turned into an outdoor gym! probably because these people eat a lot! i've never seen food consumed in such large quantities by a vast majority of the population as here. and much of it is very red- spicy and pickled. there is food everywhere. every where. i feel like one of those people who haven't seen food in a long time and hoards food like it's going to disappear or eats to the point of almost vomiting at each meal. ok, that's an exaggeration, but i really did feel that way at first! haha 😉

here in busan, seafood is the majority of what's being sold.
dragon helping celebrate buddah's birthdaydragon helping celebrate buddah's birthdaydragon helping celebrate buddah's birthday

this is the practice round before the actual lotus lanturn parade, a week before buddah's birthday (15/5/05)
there's a couple of different outdoor markets where live fish, octopus, crabs, lobsters, shrimp, mussles, clams, eels, sea slugs, etc... can be found. and then of course all of the above can be found pickled and mixed with hot peppers.

tomorrow, i'm off to gyeongju and then back to seoul for a couple more days. seoul has been a bit quiet. no great adventures except for on the subway a couple of times. once the train i was on got hit by the train on the other side. thankfully no one got hurt and apparently the train was fine and we left soon after. a couple of days later, an ahjuhshee had a heart attack and collapsed on the subway floor. thankfully he revived soon after and someone called an ambulance at the next stop.

the following pictures are from this past month in korea. i hope you enjoy. it may be the last of pictures for a bit....i'm off to canada soon and then it will be the termination of my 6 months off (alrighty, so i can't count. what ever the number may be, i'm sad to report the longterm travels are coming to a close...however,
after dinner with our lovely red polka-dotted aprons donnedafter dinner with our lovely red polka-dotted aprons donnedafter dinner with our lovely red polka-dotted aprons donned

this is dinner in chong-gak with jooch and laura at my uncle's restaurant. didn't even know he had one! it was delish! actually, come to think of it... i haven't really had bad korean food yet. i guess that's no surprise as people here love to eat!
who knows? every day brings new possibilities!). no worries though, still have one more country to explore. according to captn cook (whom i've apparently have been following more or less in an erratic fashion), canada has nothing to behold that wasn't seen elsewhere (namely new zealand). i guess i'll have to be the judge of that! ciao til next time...


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me with monks in the parademe with monks in the parade
me with monks in the parade

don't i look like i belong? heehee...
who's this crazy dude?who's this crazy dude?
who's this crazy dude?

haha...jooch actually looks like he could be a part of the parade....where he picked up the stick, i dunno...
at the top of mt. baeat the top of mt. bae
at the top of mt. bae

i reached the top of mt bae near the center of busan to find an outdoor gym with ahjumas and ahjuhshees actively getting fit with hula hoops and weight machines completely outfitted in hiking gear and sun visors...
sampling something pickled and spiced up...sampling something pickled and spiced up...
sampling something pickled and spiced up...

this vendor has all the things you can get pickled and peppered for sale at an open air market in busan
herbsherbs
herbs

parts of the jungang market have oriental medical herbs for sale
see-food! lots and lots of food from the sea.see-food! lots and lots of food from the sea.
see-food! lots and lots of food from the sea.

this is jagalchi market in busan where you can find pretty much everything edible in the ocean for sale...
north gate of mt. geum-jeong fortressnorth gate of mt. geum-jeong fortress
north gate of mt. geum-jeong fortress

the peak you see on the left is go-dang-bong from where one can see all of busan and the rest of the geumjeong gates. this is just north of busan near the bom-oh temple.
bul-guk temple in gyeung-jubul-guk temple in gyeung-ju
bul-guk temple in gyeung-ju

probably the most famous temple in korea, bul-guk sa is in gyeung-ju, the heart of the silla dynasty, during which buddhism began to flourish
min-jaemin-jae
min-jae

my other cousin's baby...she just turned 1 y.o. and is infamous for being like gum- always stuck to her mother!


17th May 2005

wow
our cousins are adorable. and big, tall, however you would describe them. For 3 y.o, she's half the height of that yellow thing. Crazy! you know, i keep thinking, what happened to you and me. how come we got stuck with the short end of the stick, literally speaking. lol And i didn't know samchon owned a restaurant either. what kinda food? Loks like you had fun with jooch. =P The Buddha parade looks cool. anyways, gotta get ready for class, but awesome pix! - pi2

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