A Tale of Two Minks': Busan

We had a great time in Seoul and would have loved to have stayed longer. But with only one week set aside in Korea and another whole city to explore, we had to cut our visit to Seoul to only a few days. Luckily, the bullet train to Busan is only about two and a half hours, so we didn’t have to dedicate an entire day to the trip south. We did our hike up Namsan Mountain to Seoul Tower on Tuesday morning, then headed to the train station that afternoon. The train between Seoul and Busan runs every 10-15 minutes so we didn’t have to wait at all to get on board and be on our way. And although considerably more expensive than the fast trains in China, the lack of wait time, simpler ticket purchasing and check-in process, and free onboard Wi-Fi (albeit only 30MB worth) were the benefits of Korean rail travel.

Located on the southern coast of Korea, Busan is the heart of the Korean shipping industry and is also home to the largest fish market in the country (top 5 in Asia if memory serves me well, but don’t look that up). Busan Station is located in the center of this industry and needless to say isn’t the most scenic part of the city. It was, however, very interesting to witness the massive shipping yards with huge freighter ships, cranes, and trucks working in harmony with all the imports and exports to and from the country. We would pass by this area several times during our stay in the South and it was always cool to see.

Our hostel was located more to the north of the city and was in a very trendy area called Haeundae. Haeundae Beach is one of the more popular beaches in the city and was only about two blocks from our hostel. The beach stretched for nearly a mile and was dotted with hundreds of umbrellas and beach chairs that could be rented for only about $15 for the entire day. Since the majority of the week called for scattered showers and Wednesday was the only day with a sunny forecast, we decided our first full day in Busan would be dedicated to just relaxing at the beach. We were among the first people to get there in the morning and were able to secure primo seats right near the water. As the day went on, the beach slowly got more and more crowded with families, college students, tourists, and dozens of vendors walking up and down the rows of umbrellas selling box lunches of beer and chicken. We relaxed for several hours, had a box lunch from one of the vendors, and I even braved getting in the chilly water for a few minutes. Being the middle of summer, it was easy to forget how far north we actually were. And despite the hot outside temperature, the water was still quite cold.

By mid-afternoon we had had our fill of relaxing and decided to check out more of Haeundae. We went for a walk around the area, got some street snacks and drinks, and soon discovered we were in the middle of the Busan Sea Festival. An entire section of street had been blocked off for a stage with various bands and announcers, all in Korean, of course, so we weren’t exactly sure what was going on. One thing that was certain was the giant water fight happening between participants of the festival. Festival goers young and old alike wielded their best super-soakers and sprayed each other crazy, while automatic mounted hoses sprayed everyone from above. It was quite a site to see, but without our own water guns, we were unfortunately unable to join in. We watched the festivities from the patio of a street side bar and eventually went for dinner at a local restaurant, then headed back to the hostel for the evening.

The following day was a busy one, as we planned multiple activities all across the city. Our first stop was at the fish market I mentioned earlier. It was a huge market with hundreds of vendors ranging from private fisherman with their days catch on the side of the road, to larger organizations who had more official booths, to restaurants that would cook up fresh fish you picked from their tanks yourself. Octopus, squid, oysters, shark, and every kind of fish you can imagine were available in the market for one to buy. I was really hoping I could buy a fish from one of the vendors in the market and have the restaurant cook it up for me, but as far as we could understand from the lady at the restaurant, that wasn’t an option. We could only get fish from their tanks at the restaurant. After the fish market we took a taxi to Gamcheon Culture village, a vibrant community made up of colorful homes, narrow streets full of vendors and street food, and creative art decorating the entire village. We walked around for a few hours then headed to our last stop of the day, the 4D theatre.

Apparently 4D is a concept that is available in select countries all over the world (including the US), but has become most popular in Korea. Neither of us had heard of the concept before we started researching things to do on vacation, but we decided it was something we should try. In addition to the 3D glasses, we sat in seats that rocked, twisted and vibrated at appropriate times during the movie. There were also fans in the head rests of our seats and the back of the seats in front of us that blew wind and occasional bursts of mist in our faces. It was a very unique was to view a movie.

The next day we went on a city tour of Busan. Although the tour guide spoke entirely in Korean and we missed out on a lot of the history and details of the sites we traveled to, we still saw some cool sights in the city. The two main stops were at Oryukdo Island and the top of Hwangnyeong Mountain. Both offered some great sights to see and made for great photo opportunities. And while at the island, we discovered a hiking trail that ran all the way along the coast of the city, which we decided we would come back to the next day for hiking. The hike was our final day in Korea and ended up being my favorite. It was a beautiful 6 kilometer trail that started at Oryukdo and ended at the famous Diamond Bridge, which is a better sight to see lit up at night but also beautiful during the day. After the hike, we grabbed a late lunch and headed to Busan Station for the trip back to Seoul and our flight the next morning.

Overall we had a great trip in Korea. There was much more we would have liked to see but we felt we made the most of our week there. We are back in China now, getting settled into our new apartment in Hangzhou and trying to get back into school mode before classes start next week. Really, we’re already looking forward to our next trips later this year!

Haeundae Beach and the water fight:

This little guy had the best outfit by far. He was ready for battle!

Some cool pics from the fish market:

Some of the bigger octopus' would try to make a break for it if they could get over the edge of their containers. The vendors had to frequently throw them back into the water.