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Monday, September 5, 2011

Surf, Lotte, Beach... Busan!

View from Busan Tower Park
I did a silly thing, I booked my ticket from Jeju as a return somehow and it locked me into flying back to Seoul. So from Seoul I had to travel back to Busan, past the point I had flown past... so stupid of me and waste of time and money.  Lesson learned its easier to book at the airport than via internet on sites that seem to revert to korean sometimes...
Busan is the 3rd largest city in Korea, on the southern part of the main land. Its a shipping port town, but also had a rich history and mountain range. The City also boasts the "best" beaches in Korea.

I stayed at a very nice guesthouse in Busan, the manager was very friendly and loved to get everyone in the guesthouse active and engaging.

A Dragon in Busan Tower Park
My first night in Busan, I met a fellow Australian traveller and got talking about the destinations we had travelled, he had don't the opposite to me. Started in Thailand and moved up Asia, where I started in Japan and worked down.
We went out to grab bite to eat and ordered the largest jug of beer i have ever seen, a 3 Litter. Korean beer is extremely week so us 2 Ozzie's finished it off with little trouble.

The BEACH!
The Next day I went to Business fish markets and Busan tower park, with a fellow traveller from the guesthouse. It took a good part of the day but we were back at 2pm, so I hit up the local beach.
Baseball game
I think, I have mentioned this before but in korea they put buoy lines out in the water and you were not permitted to swim past them. This makes body surfing, swimming in the waves or anything "dangerous" impossible and boring. I only spent 2 hours at the beach before the fun was over and I headed back.

The Hostel Group
The hostel manger had organised the bulk of the hostel guest that night to go see a baseball game. It was between Lotte and Samsung, (Lotte being a Westfields shopping centre type company over here) Lotte was the home team in Busan and everyone was cheering for them. It was interesting and funny to see and experience.  Rather than running around with chips as the snacks, the 7Eleven Staff were running around with beer and a full dried Squid. The home team ended up losing 13/3 sadly. We left the game early to avoid the rush. Finished the night with a roof top party at the guest house, was nice.

The South Gate
The next morning I decide to get away from the city and go mountain hiking to find a special temple hidden in the hills around Busan. 
I took a train, then a bus and arrived at what i thought was the south gate to a fortress, but turned out it was 4km away and what i passed was just a wall... so I set off for the south gate the first land mark in my pencil notes of "where the hell to go".
It was a lovely 25-30oC day and sunny so perfect to hike in and i cleared the 4Km in no time at all arriving at the South Gate to a 1100BC Fort. The next land mark was a "town", but as all the signs were in korean, all the signs didn't have a "you are here" marker... I went with the obvious way to work out where to go... Eni Meni Minie Mo... That way!
Soo Lost!

The top finally.
The path I picked was almost immediately the wrong one.. but i didn't really care, i hiked up the path and new that others had used it before by the foot print in the dirt. After about 45 min i came to a cliff face and a massive stone. The view was breath taking. I was high up in the hills and could see Busan in the far distance. I was completely lost at this stage, but i new that the south gate was to the north east of me and I was on a cliff face so i back tracked a bit and within a few minutes i hit the trail and stairs.

Guardians of Buddha.
I climbed up and over the hill side and found a old man drinking away under a tree, after a bit of mixed words he pointed me in the correct way and i was off again. Within 2 hours i was at the Temple. 

The Small carvings.
The Temple was so pretty, it had carvings in the wall of Buddha and his guardians and 20+ smaller carvings. Also small caves with shrines in them as well, definitely worth the effort.

The way down the mountain was as exciting at the way up, I got once again completely lost, I had no map and the ones i did come across were in korean and no you are here markers... so give me a break!.

Snack food in Pub in Korea
I managed to stumble down to some village and then find a cab and spend 15 minutes trying to describe the subway to a guy who didn't speak english at all.. "choo choo" as in the train sound apparently doesn't translate either... sigh. But it worked out and he delivered me to the train no problems.


The Guesthouse crew.
That evening the entire guesthouse all went to the pub as a group after dinner, and socialised.. some had a bit more to drink than others but it was all fun. We "practiced" the korean song "Rolly Polly" dance and played a few drinking games. Was a really fun night out which finished at the guesthouse at 2am or so.

APEC 2005 Members
The next following day was relatively uneventful, i did go to the APEC 2005 building and spent some time at the beach but nothing special till the evening.

Fun at the Beach at night
The night before I made some friends from the guesthouse and we went to the beach at sunset, we were not permitted in the water higher then hip hight, which for me is further then others.

Had some fun there and took some pictures then we all headed out to dinner.
We had Eel... Live Eel... It was so cool! and tasted great. I was a bit hesitant at first when i was asked if I like if I like hot food. But when me and one of the other guys started playing rock, paper, scissors for who would each the chillies that all went out the window. It was a fun and yummy dinner evening.
Eel!
Back at the guesthouse the party from the night before was still alive and well in everyones heads so we continued on from the night before and made some great friends.

The following day, I left for Gyeongju with 3 friends from the guesthouse, we were all heading in the same direction so might as well see the sights and travel together.

The guesthouse and staff were definitely what made Busan a enjoyable place to be and a memory.



Next up is Gyeongju,
Steffen



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