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Published: March 10th 2024
Busan Skyline
From the War MemorialOur third and final South Korea blog comes to you from the southern coastal town of Busan and the Island of Jeju. If you missed our two previous blogs, they are here for you to take a look.
Seoul Searching in South Korea Savoring Seoul, Music and the Spa After the fantastic experience that was Seoul, we left that amazing city riding in the first-class cabin of the train out of Seoul Station. No surprise that it is very comfortable and provides a lot of room for luggage. Koreans seem to know how to do public transport well. We enjoyed our two-and-a-half-hour ride along the interior of the country. In South Korea, they do not allow you to eat or drink in most of the train but in first class we discovered it was allowed. You can bring food on with you which in retrospect is what we should have done. They did provide bottled water and a tiny snack package… that was not enough.
Upon arrival, we took the escalator up to the main level and headed for the taxi stand. Jumping in, we gave the address to the driver, who put it in and immediately realized something was amiss…turns out that our hotel was
Tandori chicken wings
Local Indian food in Busan. right across the street from the station! We consider ourselves experienced travelers, but this gave us a really good laugh, as neither of us bothered to check where our hotel was located in relation to the train station. We just assumed that we needed transport in thirty something-degree weather. We then jumped out of the cab, gave him some money, collected our luggage and headed across the street…..still chuckling. After checking in to our hotel we headed out in search of an early dinner as the snack on the train was less than generous.
Busan is a port town of 3 million on the southeastern coast of the country known for its scenic boardwalks and shopping. After spending time in Seoul, it felt like a village. Our hotel was located near the section of town called “Chinatown”. So of course, we enjoyed some Indian food for dinner. It was delightful. It sounds crazy eating Indian food in Chinatown in Busan, Korea, but we arrived at an odd afternoon hour when most restaurants had completed lunch service. After our meal we enjoyed wandering Chinatown, enjoying the architecture and the surrounding area. On our first evening, we straightened and repacked our
Orchids Abound
at the airport bags to ease the next few days. On our longer trips, you need to reset your packing once in a while.
As we left Seoul, our friend Denise was getting a cold and sadly to say, MJ was starting to get a stuffy head. She took some meds, a hot shower and hit the bed early. The next day we were up early and took the hop on hop off bus around the city enjoying the sights. We stopped and spent a good bit of time at the Korean War Memorial Cemetery. Well worth the time to stop and honor the fallen as this was well done and offered lovely views of the city of Busan. We continued our hop on hop off bus the rest of the day enjoying the city sights and beaches. Busan is a well-appointed town.
Even with MJ’s head cold we enjoyed our time in Busan and after the hop on hop off bus felt we’d seen all that we really wanted to see. She’s hasn’t had a cold in a couple of years but was hit hard with this one. When you get older, those darn viruses can be tough to deal
Train to Busan
Seoul to Busan with.
Our next day found us flying to Jeju Island on Tiger Air. Our hotel was centrally located in JeJu City with a great view of the airport runways. Our perch provided us entertainment during our stay. We had read that the Seoul to Jeju City air route was one of the busiest in the world. All we can say is that for a smaller island off the coast of South Korean, there was quite a bit of air traffic.
With guidance from the front desk of our hotel we had a list of local restaurants worth trying and found ourselves with a platter full of chicken and chips. It was a good meal in a cozy little shop, but not nearly as good as the one we had in Seoul with Denise and Galen…. It did not compare. Our hotel was situated in a cute area with lots of restaurants and convenience stores.
The next day we were up early and navigating the coastal road that takes you around Jeju Island. We had rented a car as public transportation on the island would not have allowed us to explore like we would like. We had read
about the Woodstock Café in a beach town with good view and set out in search. We found it without difficulty, but were disappointed it was closed for the season, at least that is the way it looked. We enjoyed the beach and taking a few photos. The entire town was pretty much shut down – which was what we discovered in a couple of other beach towns we visited. There are occasional disadvantages to traveling off season, and this is one of them.
The roads on Jeju are in good shape and our rental car came with an English-speaking navigation so we were all set. Jeju is much warmer and greener than the other locations we’ve been visiting due to its southern location. It was nice to enjoy temperatures in the mid 50’s. Jeju is known for its stunning volcanic landscape, waterfalls, white sand beaches and abundant citrus fruit and other produce.
Jeju is also known for its women clam divers, and we were disappointed they were not diving the days we were on the island. They have been free diving for centuries and thought it would be fascinating to see. We were able to find the
location where they dive and that will have to suffice as we are unlikely to go back to Jeju Island. We spent a fair amount of time just trying to locate where they dive, but it’s not like there’s a sign that says, “Here are the famous Woman Divers of Jeju.” We stopped more than a few times and talked (well, sort of) with locals before we realized that in February on colder days, they were not diving….disappointing, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.
The next day we had planned a day trip to the interior of the island to enjoy the citrus trees and check out the volcano. Late in the day MJ’s cold had intensified on this day, so we headed back to the hotel to provide her with some much-needed rest. She’s a real trooper, but the day’s activities had worn her out. Dave went out and picked up some supplies for an in-room dinner and we called it an evening. She slept the next 26 hours. It is silly that we wanted to see the citrus growing as we live in Florida and can see it any time but on Jeju the oranges are
Jeju City View
Amazing clouds ripe in February and we were intrigued by the photos of the fruit with snow on them. Dave was kind enough to run to the market and buy a few tangerines or we could sample the local fruit.
The next day, we returned our rental and hopped on a plane to our next destination….Taipei.
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Ed Hotchkiss
non-member comment
Great Korean trip.
Did you consider renting a car and driving around the mainland? On our recent trip, Khadija picked up a sinus infection & couldn’t shake it. She had to have antibiotics prescribed when we returned.