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Published: April 8th 2013
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From Gyeongju I took the train with my new Korean friends I met at the hostel. We arrived just past noontime in Busan and straight out of the train station is my hostel, New Day, it is brand spanking new and its on the 7th floor of this building nest to the subway line, the easisest hostel to find! I sorted myself out, I was the only one in the dorm room at the time when I checked in and then we headed to see Busan, starting at Jagalchi market, seafood galore. My new friends wanted me to try the Busan delicacy so we excitedly entered the first restaurant that dragged us to their establishment. The side orders started to appear in our table, then a stove and a wok, then comes the main meal, slithering, cut up sea eels! Omg it's gross, it still wiggles and wriggles about as we cook it, i thould be dead already! I forced myself to eat it, it's not bad, a bit chewy but just the thought that it was still slithering moments ago made me gag! Then after the meat is finished comes the rice! Odd serving..
A walk around the market
then to some area where the Busan Film festival is held, we saw lots of street food vendors selling squid snacks, and tofu and other yummy food. Not long after they said goodbye to me and they left for Seoul while I went back to the hostel. The good thing about Busan is the train is so efficient, though a bit far from the centre, Haeundai beach wher I am staying at is nice area, beautiful beach, clean and calm, no sunbathers though as it is grossly cold. There is a side street full of small restaurants a couple blocks from the hostel, but since it was a bit late only a few are open one of them serves some pork soup thing. It was delicious, and have some rice in it, I finished my bowl and was satisfied.
Back at the hostel, a young Korean dude is my roommate, he barely spoke Ebglish but was very friendly, he invited me to go out with him but I declined as I was tired and full, he did not come back until the wee hours of the morning, meanwhile I spent the night fiddling with the thermostat, it is awfullly
cold and the floor heating system is hard to get accustomed to, I got some help from the receptionist and slept like a baby. The next morning I decided to see some temples and maybe do some hikes as the brochures I got from the hostel says there are hiking trails along the ruins, so I made my way, one of the connecting trains is out of service due to an accident, so I have to go the long way, but eventually found myself at the train stop headed to Beomeosa temple complex. A walk uphill from the train station to get to a bus shuttling pilgrims and hikers to the temples, it was nice and picturesque, I enjoyed my time walking around, a semi hike.
I then came back to the train station area and got some lunch at a small cafe, I ordered some noodle thing, cold. It came with a bowl of hot soup, so I thought just like in Japan, the ramen noodles, you were supposed to eat them together! I poured the hot broth into the noodle and the woman who served me, gasped in disbelief, I wonder what is wrong?? She, in sign
language explained to me the soup is a side dish, the noodles are to be eaten cold and handed me a pair of scissors to cut the long strands of noodles. She was watching me as I eat, geez, I neded to scratch my nose.. I paid when I finished and left quickly..Next stop is Geumjeonsanseong, an old fort on top of a hill, I did some good hikes here, really nice, with the autumn colors but I have not much time as it was early afternoon when I got there. I opted to take the gondola lift for a ride down the slope to town. Great view of Busan.
Back at the hostel, the receptionist helped me booked a flight for Jeju, as the website is in Korean, she sorted everything out for me, a bit more expensive but I decided to leave in 2 days. Then I did my laundry at the top floor where the hostel has the 9th floor all to themselves. Laundry is free but dryer is not so I put the clothes to dry in the drying rack. Then off to bed, the next day I visited the Yonggunsa temple near the sea.
I took the bus as instructed by my CS friend, Bumjun, the bus driver afetr a few stops saw me standing in the aisle and said something in Korean, I ignored him thinking he wasn't speaking to me as I don't speak Korean anyway! At the next set of lights while at a dead stop, he left the wheel, stood up and approached me, pointing to the map next to the door, he was explaining something in Korean, somehow I got it! He was saying my stop is still a long way, it would be better for me to take a seat, pointing to an empty slot at the back of the bus! So I relented, and when I reached my stop he told me in sign language and made it to the temple without getting lost.
It was an ok place, next to the sea, but many tourists, I took my time, having a look around, this is my friend BumJUn's favorite place but to me it's just another tourist trap. I left soon after and headed to Jagalchi market one last time to have a big lunch, I picked on restaurant with fried fish, and as usual,
the side dishes are somr than enough to make you full! Barely $10 lunch I left with a big grin in my face. Now back to the hostel, like I said it's brand new, the owner and staff are super friendly, well kept if not too clean! The showers are common locker room shower types no partitions or privacy, 3 open shower stalls in a medium sized room, so be ready to be butt naked sharing the shower with other naked Koreans! oh I visited a spa called Day Spa, the most popular here in Busan, they have pools of varying temperatures, really good to soak your weary muscles and get away from the freezing cold outside. I look like an idiot the 1st few minutes of my getting here, 1st up I can't even figure out how to get through the turnstiles to enter, turns out I have to use the key they gave me! Then I have to find my shoe locker which corresponds to the key number, after that I settled in, clothes off in the men's only section, it is huge!! the pool were great and soothing, you can try varying temperatures, there's a dry and
wet sauna as well.
When you get tired of seeing naked men, then you can put your clothes on and walk out of the locker and try the other features, they have maybe a dozen different rooms of varying themes, you can bathe in uv light, or some soak in the salt room, pyramid room, it sounds and looks like a new age cult spa! I felt weirded out, and walking around in a prescribed uniform made us look like we belong to a religious cult colony. They even have an oxygen chamber room! ala Michael Jackson! It got old quickly for me, went back to the locker and got naked again and sat in the pools for a time, and it seems oddly enough but this seems more normal than the outside offerings.
Busan was great, trully enjoyed the cuisine, and warm friendly people, next time I hope to come back when it's warm to enjoy sunning at Haeundai beach.
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