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| south korea |
| busan |
| Busan is South Korea's second largest city and principal seaport. It's about a six and a half hour by bus from Gangneung city. I went during my school's summer vacation, from July 29 to August 1, 2004. |
| Jagalchi Fish Market |
| I arrived early in the morning to try and see some of the action that goes on while the city is still sleeping. Boats pulling up to dock and haggling with the restaurant owners over fish prices and all the ajummahs at their stalls with freshly caught seafood. I saw everything ranging from squid, octopus, eel and tuna to sea urchins, sea weed, conches and crab. It was really an amazing place to be and probably my favourite out of the whole trip. Surprisingly, many of the ajummahs did not want their photo taken, so a few of these shots I had to sneak in. I was yelled at numerous times. |
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| Dry fish for sale at the Dry Fish Market next door. |
| Not only fish for sale! |
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| Taejongdae Park |
| Next stop was Taejongdae park at the southern edge of the city. This is a massive park, completely surrounded by water except for a small spit of land that allows you to drive on. There were many beaches and well tended gardens throughout. The park is famous for its Camelia trees. |
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| Pebble Rock Beach |
| The area surrounding the park. |
| There is a lighthouse on one side of the park. They were constructing a path to the lighthouse and had put up this huge red and blue sculpture just weeks before. At the foot of the lighthouse were a bunch of tents where you could eat fresh seafood by the water. There was also a tour boat that you could take around the park. Above is a photo of one of the many drinking fountains placed along the road. |
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| Tongdosa Temple |
| After Taejongdae, I boarded a bus for the 40 minute trip to Gajisan Provincial Park and Tongdosa Temple. The temple is located halfway between the cities of Busan and Kyeongju. It's the most famous Buddhist Temple in all of Korea and was founded in AD 646. A portion of Buddha's ashes are enshrined here along with 400 cases of the Tripitaka (Buddhist Holy Scriptures).There are also usually around 200 Zen Buddhist monks in residence here at any one time. |
| The path to the temple complex follows a mountain stream and there are several ancient rock carvings along the way. There were also hundreds of insects incessantly shrilling in the trees, I've never heard anything like it. I still have no idea what they were, but the noise they made was loud enough to force me to cover my ears as I passed each tree. The buildings are beautiful. I found it especially nice that many of them hadn't yet been fully restored and were in their original states (at least since their last restoration several hundred years ago). It gave them a very ancient and mystical feeling that is very different from many of the other restored temples I've visited in Korea before. They usually feel too new and don't have that sense of age that can make you really get a grasp of where you are and feel like you are looking at history. |
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| Beomeosa Temple and Geumjeongsanseong Fortress |
| After arriving back in Busan, I went straight to the Beomeosa Temple Complex. This temple was founded in AD 678 by one of Korea's first Buddhist Scholars and most enlightened rulers of the Shilla Dynasty. It was set in a peaceful deciduous forest and surrounded by lush green bamboo. There is a Buddhist nunnery here that houses about 200 women and one male monk. Many of the buildings were destroyed by the Japanese and those that were left have been fully restored. It was beautiful, but I was really getting tired by this point in the day and didn't explore it too much. |
| On the right side of the temple complex is a river bed trail that leads up Mount Geumjeong. I was not planning on doing the 50 minute hike up the mountain until I ran into some Buddhist nuns resting on some large rocks at the base of the trail. Some of them were tending a small garden near the river's edge. They stopped me and told me to wait for a few minutes. I must've looked a sorry sight as my shirt and shorts were soaked in sweat, my feet were filthy and sweat was dripping off my face onto the ground. One of them ran off across a small bridge into their housing area and came back with three cobs of corn for me. Then they pointed up the hill and said "oship boon" or fifty minutes. I couldn't say no, so I started off, arriving at the top just in time for sunset. It was grueling along the way, mostly because of the heat. Thank Buddha for the corn though, I don't think I couldn've made it without eating. At the top of the trail was the Bukmun, the North gate, to Geumseongsanjeong Fortress. There were also remnants of the wall trailing off into the distance and a monk, silent and meditating on a rock up the trail a bit. To see the other two gates would've meant another 4 or 5 hours of hiking and I couldn't do it. After the sun set, I headed back down. |
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| Haeundae Beach |
| Haeundae Beach is probably one of the most popular and well-known beaches in all of Korea. I arrived around noon and made it through the thronging masses and sea of beach umbrellas to the waters edge. Fortunately, I found a vacant umbrella right in the front row about five down from the mane lifeguard tower. It was a bit big for just myself. After a few minutes, I noticed an ajummah and ajeoshi and their grandchild looking for an umbrella. I clamoured together all my Korean skills and offered to share mine with them. They were overjoyed and spent the day trying to speak with me and feeding me gimbap, hard-boiled eggs and juice. The beach itself was nice, though there were way too many people. The swimming was difficult because of all the inner tubes and the heat was intense. |
| Several jets sped by overhead and created this Korean version of the yin and yang in the sky. On the right is a photo of my adoptive Haeundae Beach Korean family. |
| A funny picture from the area around Busan National University. At first, I thought that somehow they had spelled McDonald's wrong, as they often mispell English words here in Korea. But after closer inspection, it really was Dakdonalds. "Dak" means chicken in Korean. On the right is a picture of the gas mask and escape suits they have in the subway stations in case of attack from North Korea or natural disaster. |
| Heoshimcheong Sauna |
| My last stop on the trip was the sauna Heoshimcheong. It was located just a few blocks from my hotel. I had never done the Korean sauna thing before and was a bit nervous at the whole thought of it...me, naked, in front of a hundred Koreans. A few beers quelled my fears and I decided it was now or never. Heoshimcheong is apparently the largest sauna complex in all of Asia. It was very hi-tech, with an electornic key on which you can purchase food items at the snack bar within the sauna and pay later when you come out. As soon, as I walked through the entrance to the lockers, I was surrounded by naked Koreans of all ages. Little children, teenagers, adults, old men with canes...yep, all naked. In the end, it was a really great experience and one I'll definitely do again. The sauna was amazing and after a few minutes, you no longer really notice that you have no clothes on, just a little electornic key dangling from your wrist. There were about 30 or so pools within a giant tiled room with huge mosaics. The ceiling was a gigantic glass dome. There were pools with Champagne, Green Tea, Jasmine Mint Tea, Black Salt, Herbal Infusions, Yellow Soil Exfoliators, as well as several steam and dry sauna rooms. There was a Longevity pool and Immortality pool as well as pools where you could play Baduk right from the water. There were also several cave tunnels, with pebbles on the ground for acupressure on your feet, that you walk through while water cascades down from above. They also have massage waterfalls, giant jets of water that give you a pummeling massage while you sit on a stone column and stick out various parts of your body. The pools ranged in temperature from 5C to 45C. There was even an outdoor area where you could, according to the sign "Return to primitive times of no clothing and enjoy nakedness like early man in the comfort and relaxation of hot sauna pools underneath a blue sky to relax and rest in away from this buy life." I had a great time...sorry no photos! |