You say Pusan, I say Busan
Trip Start
Nov 18, 2011
1
10
42
Trip End
Mar 02, 2013
Where I stayed
Story Guest House
What I did
Jagalchi Fish Market, Shinsegae Centrum City, Busan Aquarium, Haeundae Beach, Taejongdae Park
Busan, Korea Rep.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
At Taejondae Park, we took the kiddie train up the mountain to see the lighthouse, the rugged coastline and the ships heading out to sea. The cliffs were infamous for suicides in the 1970s and you can see the "Suicide Rock" which looks red in colour. A statue of a mother and two children was errected by the edge of the cliffs to discourage future suicides. At the top of the cliffs is an small art gallery and a lighthouse. Looking down from the lighthouse you can see some outdoor restaurants which give a whole new meaning to the term 'seaside dining'. The 'restaurant' is located on the rocks just overlooking the water and patrons sit on mats on the rocks eating fresh seafood as they get sprinkled with the water droplets from the crashing waves.
Next on the tour list was to see downtown Busan. This looks much likea smaller version of the crowded streets in Seoul, with street food vendors and shops lining the alleys. We made a brief stop at the Jagalachi Fish Market which is the largest fish market in Korea before heading off for the region of Haeundae Beach where we would staying for the night. The beach gets so crowded in the summer that you are lucky to find a spot to sit down and soak up the sunshine. In March, it is less crowded as tourists and locals walk along the sand picking up shells and running away from the incoming waves. We arrived at the beach just as the tide was coming in and had a beautiful view of the city at night in the moonlight. Dinner was the fabulous samgapysol - also known as Korean bbq where you barbeque your fatty pork, garlic, mushrooms and kimchi at your table and then wrap it in lettuce and sesame leaves, dipped in flavourful sauces. I also tried Korean plum tea which is really not tea at all, but still very delicious. There are a lot of Korean "teas" that don't actually contain any tea leaves but are more an infusion of plant matter, each promising to relieve you of a particular pain or illness. Jujube "tea", sweet potato "tea", barley "tea", corn flake "tea", citron "tea"... I'm supposed to be in the tea lands, so where's all the real tea?!?
On Sunday morning, we visited the beach again and then went to the Busan aquarium which is full of ocean oddities. Tanks of jellyfish, octopus, colourful fish, and eels line the walls. The shark tank is the most impressive. You can even go diving with the sharks, sting rays and finless dolphins, however we were content to view them from the safety of the viewing platform. It's a very relaxing experience to watch the sea turtles drifting through the water - it's almost like they are flying.
For lunch, we made our way to Shinsegae, the world's largest department store. It`s 5.5 million square feet of stores, movie theatres, restaurants, spas, ice rinks, rooftop gardens and drivign ranges. This food court has some of the most diverse food selections and beats the food court offerings in any shopping mall I`ve ever visited. I think what is the most impressive is the presentation of the meals. One of the things I love about Korea and Japan are the plastic food models in the windows of all the restaurants. You may not always know what you`ve just ordered, but at least you know what it looks like.
We eventually bid our goodbyes to Sungho and hopped on the train back home. This time we took the longer train to get back to Suwon and were ready for the five hour nap ahead after such a busy weekend. Another one of the great things about visiting a small country like Korea is that you can travel from north to south in about six hours and that`s just on the slow train. It`s great that you can go so far in such little time and you can see a lot of the country in just a weekend.
