Day 6 Korea
Slept in til 10am! Lazy piece of shit! I haven't been sleeping very well in the dorm rooms so I guess I needed it. I feel like the older I get the worse I sleep. Treacherous body.
I spent a little while this morning planing out what I was going to do for the next couple of days. One of the downsides to this travelling flexibly thing is that I do have to keep on top of this planning. It's hard (and boring) to plan 6 months worth of activities so I'm just planning as I go. I just find it a tedious activity.
So today's plan is:
1. Start at BIFF Square to have a look around.
2. Go to the Jagalchi fish market (biggest one in Korea)
3. Check out some big department store
4. Go to a national park and look at a lighthouse
And off I went.
BIFF square was basically just an area they setup to host the Busan International Film Festival a few years ago. There really wasn't much there that was any different to anywhere else. A few sculptures and other artworks celebrating filmmaking but otherwise just a shopping district.
While I was here I did try a small bit of street food that is apparently specific to this region. It was basically a donut that they slice open and fill with a honey and seed mix. There were a couple of street vendors selling them but one had a line of people and the others had nobody. So obviously I went for the line.
Despite the lack of order almost anywhere else Asian cultures seem to like queuing for food. All these stores selling the same thing will be doing nothing but as soon as 1 person goes to one a queue starts to form and so everyone goes there. Nobody really knows what is good so they queue up in case they are missing THE BEST THING. Similar to home I guess ... not many people seem to want to be the first people sitting down at a restaurant.
Anyway. The donut thing was really delicious. Hot, bready and sweet with a nice crunchy texture. Definitely recommend.
Conveniently the fish market was across the road. The place was pretty big! It'll be interesting to see how it is compared to the fish market in Tokyo when I get there.
Basically there was a combination of fixed buildings and market stalls that make up the fish market. In the big buildings there are a bunch of tanks with live seafood waiting for punters to come by and buy it. Seemed to be split up into sections based on type of seafood or service offered.
If you want you can buy the stuff and then someone will come by to grab your bucket and they will cook the food for you upstairs right away. Can't get fresher than that!
I had intended to do this but I've been eating so much since I got to Korea I just couldn't fit a whole meal in. Maybe I should take up an eating disorder ... only while I'm travelling of course! Well a different one. I'm pretty sure you could classify my chronic overeating as a disorder :) I found out afterwards that two of the guys in my hostel dorm room had done this very thing the day before I went and taken a video of the whole process. I regret not doing it now (fresh abalone!) but I'm hoping I'll be able to do this in Japan.
The other part of the market was the outside stalls. This was mostly the dead fish area. Everyone had their best fish out on their baskets or benches and we're constantly dousing them with seawater to keep them fresh. It did not smell anywhere near as bad as I was expecting. There were a bunch of restaurants along here as well trying to get people to come in and eat. There were some pretty interesting and/or beautiful looking fish here that tempted me to gorge myself again but I just couldn't do it.
Fun place to wander around if you ever go to Busan. Looks like I forgot to take photos. Google it if you care.
So then I wandered down the road to the Lotte Department Store which was supposed to be quite large and impressive. Turns out it's closed on Mondays which was annoying. #planningfail
Instead I jumped on a bus across the road that would take me out to the Tae-something national park. I like riding public transport when I'm being a tourist. Makes me feel like I'm living in the area and you often get a chance to see small but cool stuff along the way.
Bus ride was about 40 minutes and I got to the park.
Again it was a god damn hill. So I steeled myself and prepared to hike around and sweat my balls off in the humidity.
At the bottom of the hill there's a nice memorial to medical units from Scandinavia who assisted in the Korean War.
I started tramping up the hill with a few other Korean tourists when suddenly a wild tourist loop bus appears!
For the bargain price of 3000 Korean Won ($2 maybe?) I was able to ride this bus as much as I wanted to check the place out AND not have to walk up the hill. Woo!
I was really only interested in the lighthouse but I got off at a couple of the stops to have a look around. Mostly scenic viewpoints though there was a Buddhist temple that I decided to skip.
The lighthouse itself was pretty cool. Couldn't go inside it as it's still in active service but it was a nice basic lighthouse with some nice artworks and sculptures surrounding it and a good view of a couple of small islands and container ships around the place.
Finished up my touristing, caught the bus back to civilisation and ducked into a supermarket to get some toiletries. I didn't get exactly what I wanted (struggling to find spray deodorant and small bottles of liquid soap for travel purposes) but I found something that will do.
Back to the hostel to freshen up and I got chatting with some of the other guys in the dorm. An Englishman and 2 Frenchmen. Nice guys though I never did get any of their names. A bit like fight club ... Single Service Friends or whatever the quote is.
We chatted for a while and I didn't end up going out to do any more sightseeing that night. I did head out later for some food though I confess I wasn't really hungry. I mostly just wanted to eat some more amazing Korean food. Ended up at some small restaurant where I had mackerel stew with what felt like a million side dishes. The stew was in a metal container and it was placed on a burner on my table to cook away while I was eating. I was so full but when I had eaten all I cared to of the stew the lady came out with some dry noodles, turned the burner back on and indicated I should now cook the noodles in the leftover soup and eat those.
It tasted amazing. So I forced myself to gorge myself one last time (yeah right). It would be rude not to at least have a go at it right? And the great Flying Spaghetti Monster knows I'm never rude to anybody if I can at all help it.
Time to sleep off all this food. That works right?
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