Beachy Busan

---

Busan. Beautiful beachy bustling-with-activity Busan. Or, as it has previously been called, Pusan.

Our Chuseok Busan adventure began with an early 3.5hr Mugunghwa train ride. As we were chugging along towards the southeast coast of South Korea at 6:20am Friday morning, Chantelle and I were pretty much out of it. Since we both only got a couple hours of sleep the night before, we attempted to catch some shut-eye on the train despite the rising bright sun, stuffiness, and yes, a freakin lady standing RIGHT in front of us, creating an unsightly view of her derriere. Chantelle dared me to take a picture so...I did. We were jerks thinking that maybe she had snuck onto the train without a ticket but later found out (on our way home from Busan) that there ARE such things as "standing tickets".

After that excruciatingly painful ride (yes, we were cranky), we arrived at the train station, and once spotting our first Busan sign, just HAD to take a corny picture next to it to officially kick off our trip. As we headed out of the station in search of the subway, we spotted...Busan's Chinatown! I felt incredibly excited, thinking to myself, maybe I'll finally find some real Chinese food besides that crap back in Daejeon. Unfortunately, we were soon to be disappointed as we later found out that Busan's Chinatown is...crap as well. It didn't even look like a Chinatown and I don't think I even saw one Chinese person as I only saw Russians and Europeans walking about. Frackentots.

We moved on, found the subway, and headed to our place of accommodation for the weekend: Forjuneteller's Zen Backpackers hostel. We arrived to the hostel and discovered it was pretty much just one big apartment on the 15F of a ~25F building in the Seomyeon district. It was clean, stylishly decorated with enormous floor pillows and Bob Marley posters, and best of all, had a guest wall, where many previous hostel guests had artistically left their thanks. In my opinion, June (the owner), reminded me of the Korean version of Bob Marley: hair, attitude, and swagger. I appreciated how he took the time after a tour of the hostel to sit down and show us on a map where we should go, what we should see, and what we should eat. After dropping our stuff off in the room, we left the hostel with a map in hand graffiti'd with June's circling & starring, ready to capitalize on our weekend.

Our first stop: Jagalchi fish market.
Jagalchi fish market is in the neighbourhood of Nampo-dong in Jung-gu and Chungmu-dong in Seo-gu. It was bustling with activity, with ahjummas and ahjussis busy selling their fresh seafood both indoors and outdoors by Nampo Port. Apparently Jagalchi is Korea's biggest seafood market, where people can enjoy fresh and live fish at an affordable price. After perusing the market, we headed to the edge of Nampo port, breathing in the fresh sea air and reveling in the beauty of the harbour.

Busan Tower
The weather was beautiful with the sun shining bright...a little too bright as the two of us soon felt fatigued and needed a bit of a rest (geez, like old ahjummas). However, the timing was perfect as we came upon Yongdusan Park, which encompasses Busan Tower. We paid 4000W to head up to the top of the tower and after walking around the observatory, ended up sitting comfortably at the top enjoying the view for the next 3hrs. It was a grand time as the two of us talked, laughed, and shared stories of our past and of our families (since both of them will be coming to visit during Christmas). I loved how we found out just how alike we were and how much we had in common. I am definitely grateful to have a traveling companion like Chantelle during my time here in South Korea.

Re-energized from our break, we headed down the tower and back onto the streets of Busan, walking towards the ferry cruise terminal to confirm a piece on tomorrow's agenda. After wandering around the area for a few more hours, we wearily trudged back to the hostel, ready to turn in early since we were knackered as hell from the lack of sleep the night before.

On an interesting note though, before we fell asleep, we met an Australian fellow who was staying in our hostel. Why interesting? Well, I thought he was quite the storyteller, claiming he had brain damage from a mosquite bite to the head many years ago...the first case ever in Australia...lost some long-term memories...broke up with his girlfriend of many years because he couldn't remember her...was so extremely smart before that during his 2nd year as an undergraduate, he wrote exams for 1st year undergrad courses...that he taught his own profs about their subjects...etc. I mean this guy just went on and ON...and the one word that pops into my mind when I think of him is: incredulous. (well, I've got other words but I don't want to be too mean) So apparently the Australian govt just gives him money every year to travel or whatever because "traveling is supposed to help make new memories for the ones he lost". Right. Call me pessimistic or cynical but I just didn't believe a word he said.

Ferry Cruise
Anyway, the next day Chantelle and I embarked on a ferry cruise for only 9000W, a 1.5hr ride taking us from Nampo Port all the way to Haeundae Beach. Along the way, we passed Taejongdae, a couple lighthouses, Dongbaek Island, as well as the Oryuk Islets. There were also a couple of times when we looked into the water and saw huge jellyfish swimming alongside the ferry boat! However, we could get shots as they were too quick for us and would quickly disappear into the sea depth.

After arriving at Haeundae Beach, we disembarked from the ferry boat and made our way to Dongbaek Island, noting all the beautiful hotels as we walked alongside the beach. We also noticed that many other foreigners decided to spend their Chuseok holiday in Busan as there were more foreigners than locals occupying the beach area. Everywhere you turned, there seemed to be clusters of foreigners together, and even foreign families with their kids. There was also activity going on in preparation for the following weekend's Pusan International Film Festival, one of the most influential movie events in all of Asia. It would've been heaven to be in Busan during that time...but the timing just wasn't right for us.

DongBaek Island
Dongbaek Island was probably my most favourite part of Busan. Starting from the Westin Chosun Hotel, there were wooden staircases and paths that made exploring the island easy as pie for the next couple hours. The view was beautiful as we would stop every once in a while to take pictures. The path eventually led us up to the Nurimaru APEC House. People claimed that it was the most beautiful place among the meeting places during the APEC Leaders' Meeting on Dongbaek Island back in 2005. And indeed it was! It was free to go in and we spent more time inside, exploring the meeting area, and picking out Canada and Brunei Darussalam's desks!

Afterwards we hung out at Haeundae Beach, watching the sunset before slowly heading back to the hostel. Sitting on the rocks and watching the sun go down, I felt content within...truly savouring the moment of natural beauty all around me. As it was also Chuseok that day, we managed to spot the full moon peaking from the sky, soon to make its grand entrance once the sky went black.

Sunday was spent shopping and milling about the markets until it was time to once again slowly Mugunghwa our butts back to reality: Daejeon.

What happened that I never thought would've crossed our minds while in Busan was how both of us wished we had researched just a bit more before choosing a city in South Korea to teach in. While in Busan, we became quite envious of those who HAD chosen Busan as a city to make their temporary home in...comparing it to little Daejeon where learning survival Korean is pretty much as must. However in the end, we both decided that living in Busan might just be a little bit too easy...you would never have to learn Korean (seeing as we never had to use our Korean while in Busan as everyone from the young to the old knew basic English) or ever have to attempt to live the Korean way (ie food, culture, etc) because there is just so much foreignness around you there! Almost 80% of all signs had English on them, and probably about the same percentage of people knew English...foreign restaurants and stores were everywhere to be found as well. You just wouldn't need to try. On the flipside, living in Daejeon forces you to learn what Koreans are all about...I've discovered that you need to learn the culture, the ways, the language to get about...and although sometimes its a struggle...it is why I came here in the first place.

All in all a quite productive trip to Busan....leaving us wanting to go back again someday to continue our explorations of the lovely city. Till next time Busan!

---