Blogs from Busan, South Korea, Asia - page 9

I didn't know what to expect from Korean food when I arrived, but it's been a delight! My school lunches in particular are amazing and I have tried so many different things with them. First I had to get used to only using chopsticks and a spoon, which took some time. My school uses flat metal chopsticks, and the first time I had lunch it took me 30mins to eat everything! However I quickly got used to them and can tackle most things now apart from de-boning fish which is still a messy process! School provides lunch for the teachers for about w63,000 per month, which breaks down as roughly w3150 per meal or e2.42. Amazing! And they always serve fresh vegetables mostly cold or raw; fish, tofu or meat; and often fruit as well as ... read more

A differenza del vicino Giappone, ben poco si sa della piccola ed appartata penisola coreana, se non che e' stata da tempo divisa in un Nord estremamente comunista (povero) ed in un Sud decisamente capitalista (ricco). Proprio in concomitanza con il lancio dell'ennesimo missile nordcoreano travestito da innocuo satellite per le telecomunicazioni, il Mercante approda nel preoccupato Sud dopo un tranquillo viaggio via nave tra le agitate acque dei mari orientali. Busan mi accoglie con la scintillante spiaggia di Heundae, una grande mezzaluna di sabbia dorata su cui si affacciano una lunga serie di sfavillanti grattacieli e colossali hotel, pronti ad accogliere le orde di turisti che durante la stagione estiva si riversano da queste parti per godere delle sue invitanti acque e degli innumerevoli divertimenti notturni; durante l'inverno tutto e' decisamente piu' tranquill... read more

Saturday, November 24th, 2012 Having arrived late Friday night in Busan Jen and I woke in our modestly priced Love Motel, a place where young couples escape their parents watchful eyes for some heaving petting and business men meet their mistress' after a night out wheeling and dealing in the whiskey bars. Us, we just wanted a cheap place to stay for the weekend. We rose early and I went down to meet Jon, Christina and Phil, the three friends that had made the three and a half hour train ride from Seoul, they're journey started sometime around 5:30 am but they'd been up since 4:30 and I seriously wondered how they would do through the day and well into the night. As 11:30 rolled around we made our way to the aquarium to meet our ... read more

So my friend Jennifer (Scottish who I met in Cadiz but now teaches in Tokyo) came to stay for a week, and we decided to make the most of all the hiking around Busan. We headed out for a hike we started once before but deliberately wandered off course! Our aim was Seokbulsa temple - apparantly one of the more beautiful and unique Buddhist temples in the Busan area. After cheating and getting the cable car halfway up Geumjung mountain (for views!) we started our walk. The autumn (had to stop myself from typing fall there) leaves were beautiful, they had changed colour completely to all shades of yellow and red, and they were mostly incredibly vibrant. We followed the trail to the old fortress gate, newly renovated of course, and then wisely continued on in ... read more

So Busan has an annual firework festival which is reportedly the biggest in Korea. After a night on the town for Hallowe'en, we claimed our spaces on Gwangalli beach at 3pm - prime seats right at the front for the 9pm show! DSLR camera's and tripods lined the streets , everyone moving around for the best view. The theme for the festival was love - Busan wants Gwangalli to be the number one proposal spot in Korea. And love was certainly all around - as it got dark there were two proposals shown live on giant screens on the firework barges. The firework and lazer light show was all set to music and it certainly was a fantastic spectacle; the bay lit up, colourful smoke hung over the water, small burning fireworks were seen bobbing on ... read more