Hot Hot Heat

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And so Monday morning, I’m at the bustling Seoul Station to catch the 10:00 KTX express train to Busan, and in first class to boot. What you get extra in first class is wider comfier reclining seats, Wi-Fi access, free water, snacks and newspapers. I spent most of the journey posting on Instagram and attempting an initial draft of the first travel blog. To save you from asking, there were no zombies on this train to Busan, sadly…

A little under three hours later I arrive at Busan Station – home of the slowest moving escalators in the world – on Korea’s south east coast. The nation’s second city is its main port and home to its biggest seaside resort. Both were evident on the taxi to my hotel in the Haeundae district, the main beach area. Though having checked into the Libero Hotel – entrance through low-rent shopping centre, reception on the 8^th floor, but decent-sized rooms – I didn’t hit the beach but instead went an hour west by subway train (infrequent, with some carriages women-only during peak hours) to Toseong-dong Station and then a minibus uphill to Gamcheon Culture Village. This mountainside slum got a makeover in 2009 when art students repainted the area, making it a magnet for selfie-snapping tourists. And no wonder, from high above the hills, it resembles a spectacular Lego-town saturated in colour. A wander downhill through the narrow streets and alleyways revealed murals and artworks scattered all over. Gamcheon Culture Village alone was worth the journey to Busan, but it was a mistake to visit here in the early afternoon. The blazing heat and unrelenting humidity was not conducive to slogging up and down hills. And it was most certainly not cooler than Seoul as predicted. It made for a sweat drenched first day,

An evening dinner of dwaeji gukbap (beef and rice soup, a local specialty) by the market followed by huge serving of sulbing (shaved frozen milk topped with soybean powder, also a Busan favourite) later, I’m refreshed enough to have a gander around the Busan night, which has scarcely cooked down any. Firstly, a view of the lit-up Gwangan Bridge (longest suspension bridge in Korea) from the Gwangan Beach. Then a wander up Gunam-Ro, the main drag leading to Haeundae Beach, which at night is as bustling and lively as Myeongdong, with buskers performing outside the bars and restaurants filled to the brim with tourists. Busan was full of visitors, as you’d expect for a seaside town at the height of the summer season. But not just Koreans, there were so many Hong Kongers too (or at least Cantonese-speaking Chinese). Curiously, they all either were families with little kiddies, or groups or girls holidaying together, but there were zero couples. I would have struck up conversation with Hong Kongers the way I would with Irish abroad, but having been burnt by previous experience I gave them all a wide berth…

The next morning, it’s out to the Geumgang Park for the cable car ride up Geumjeong-san, which proffered marvellous panoramic views of Busan. Though that turned out to be the highpoint here. There are hiking trails around Geumjeong-san, but with too thick a woods to have much of a view. I might have considered walking it anyway but for the fact that it’s another murderously hot day. There’s no let up in the humidity either (though to be fair, bad as it was, still isn’t as suffocatingly humid as Hong Kong). It’s a sign of the turgid conditions that the ladies who run the nearby eateries that zealous pursue customers mentioned in the guide book are nowhere to be seen.

Back into town and I finally hit Haeundae Beach. A 2km stretch of sand that accommodates up to 100,000 visitors a day at its peak, it is sometimes referred to as Korea’s national beach and you can see why. An early afternoon stroll finds thousands sheltering beneath parasols that mushroom as far as the eye can see, whilst many more frolic in the sea on inflated tubes propelled shorewards by the waves. Such was the joie de vivre and general gaiety that I couldn’t resist unshoeing and wading into the waters to fully take in the summer at the beach vibe.

That’s was a big mistake.

When it was time to leave the waters, I realised I as trapped. I couldn’t just put my socks and trainers straight back onto wet and sandy feet. So I made for the toilets and changing rooms at the back. But the afternoon sun had scorched the sands, making them impossible to walk on barefoot. I had no choice but to run, screaming internally with every heavy sinking-into-the-sand step. Stopping at every minute shaded cooler area of sand to recover and strategically planning the dash to the next tiny bit of shade. It took about five minutes to do the 50m or so from the waters to the concreted changing rooms. Basically, I will be walking for the rest of this trip on burnt soles.

It probably isn’t a coincidence that the streets around Haeundae Beach have many foot massage establishments. So after lunch I went into one for recovery. Having an hour long foot and leg massage (costing less than half of what it would be in London) was exactly what I needed, doubly so since I had been walking 10km+ a day in Korea. In the evening it was time to head north to the Sajik Stadium for another baseball game. Apparently I wasn’t the only one of that mind. I arrive at the ground half an hour before the first pitch but only made it inside just after the start on account of the queue for tickets being so long. The Sajik Stadium, home of the Lotte Giants, must have the biggest proportion of neutral visitors. Holiday makers who’ve come to Busan for the beaches and decided to take in a ball game.

Tonight, the Hanwha Eagles from Daejeon were the visitors, in a fine game which the Giants won 9-4. But even more interesting were the fans. Lead by energetic cheerleaders, the supporters donned inflated orange carrier bags on their heads (nope, me neither) and unlike the stuck-ups of Seoul, sang and chanted throughout the 3+ hours of the game. The tunes they chose to work into chants was strange choices, like Happy Together (from Technicolour Dreamcoat), or Bring Me Sunshine, or most bizarrely of all, the theme tune from 80’s BBC cop show Juliet Bravo The fact that they also had beers girls wandering the stands selling ice cold draught Kloud (the local brew) might possibly be a factor.

And make no mistake those beers were needed, temperatures were still in the high 20’s when the game was over near 10pm. It was late when I got back to Haeundae. But rather than have fried chicken again, I sought refuge in an air-conditioned all-night Korean diner and hand a vegetable bibimbap. And with that, my stay in Busan was came to an end.

Considering this was a distant second choice to Vladivostok, I had a great time in Busan. But good grief the heat. Weather forecasts that predicted it would be a few degrees below Seoul turned out to be massively wide of the mark. And it won’t get any cooler as I head back north to Suwon in the morning. The purpose of which is to walk along the Hwaseong fortress walls, which I will now do with burnt feet,..

Annyong



Cathal

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