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  Busan, Busan, Korea Rep.
Thursday, August 27, 2009

After a late start I packed up my rucksack and headed to Seoul station to catch a train to Busan, about 3 hours away by high speed train, in the East of the country. The journey was lovels as the views out of the window showed green covered mountains and lush agricultural fields, dotted with little villages and towns... and then I reached Busan and the stunning views stopped. Busan is the second largest city in Korean after Seoul, but by also being the 5th largest container port in the world, it somewhat lacks the big city charm. Everything is sea salt rusty and industrial looking and basically stinks of fish, mostly due to it's famous raw fish market. Ariving in the evening I mistakenly took the Rough Guide book's advice about bedding down in 'budget' accommodation which led me to the ropiest accomodation I have stayed in in a long time... Without going into too much detail, let's just say that I though I was going mad when I was convinced that there was a scratchy rustling coming from the picture rail above the bed, on futher investigation it turned out I was not going mad and it was just one of many cockroaches trying to escape from behind the peeling wallpaper - urgh!

I know that I am in a Budhist country and that the traditon is to take your shoes off and leave them at the door to the room, but I will admit that my trainers stayed with me that night, partly to avoid any surpises in my shoes in the morning and partly as a handy wepon to distroy the invading cockroach army that had failed to die when I tried to drown them in 50% proof Deet bugspray - seriously those things are invincible and nothing short of a size 6 wack will even dent them. After a trying nights sleep with my pyjamas tucked into my socks and one eye open, jumping to attention everytime I heard a scratchy rustle anywhere near me, I emerged from my room in the morning with a less than great impression of Busan so far!

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