Busan - the trip South

One of the places in Korea that I vowed to visit when I came was Busan, but until last weekend I still hadn't made the venture.  Many, if not most, of my friends in Korea already made the trip south to Korea's second largest city earlier this year.  For one reason or the other, I was never able to tag along.  So with my weekends in Korea dwindling away, I decided it was time to go, companions be damned.

The result was a great weekend of introspection, hiking and relaxation, all despite an inappropriately little amount of sleep.

After the finish of the spring semester (joyous occasion!) on Friday, I swung home, picked up my bag and boarded the subway for Suwon, where I would catch the KTX (the fast train) to Suwon.  Unbeknownst to me, school was scheduled to end early on Friday.  That information would have come in handy before I booked my ticket, as I could have caught an earlier train than the 7:30 one.  Oh, well.

The three hour ride put me in Busan around 10:30, but I still had to venture across the city on the subway.  I finally made it to my hostel - Indy House (I would definitely recommend it) - about 11:40.  Tired, I tried to crash soon after my arrival, but that didn't work so well.  Then one of my roommates got up to leave at 3:45.  My night of sleep was officially shot.  I woke up at 5 and drifted in and out until 7ish before finally succumbing to the day.

My first stop was the famous Haeundae Beach.  It is Korea's most famous beach and it's absolutely packed with parasols and beachgoers all summer long.  I wanted to get there before the crowds, just to check it out, and getting there before 9 a.m. certainly accomplished that.

After my quick stop at the beach it was off to one of the jewels of my trip - Yonggungsa (Yonggung Temple).  The Buddhist temple sits on the ocean's edge, looking down at the water from a considerable distance.  It was beautiful, and I greatly enjoyed an hour there, wandering around, snapping photos and just taking it all in.  I had a little detour first as I didn't trust my gut and missed my stop on the bus, adding a good mile or two walk to my trek.  It wasn't so bad.  I did get to see a quiet little bay that was pretty cool.

Eventually I made it to the temple.  Here's what I saw:

No, it's not a swastika - it was a Buddhist symbol long before the Nazis.

Then after a painfully long wait for the bus I finally made it back to Haeundae.  I grabbed an overdue breakfast for lunch.  Unfortunately it was pretty terrible.  The only way to ruin bacon is quite possibly to microwave it into rubbery oblivion, which Wolfhound managed to do.  Don't even get me started on the rest of the meal.  Anyway, I stopped by the beach again, thinking maybe I'd stay for a while, maybe catch sun rays, check out the water, but I was overtired and just didn't want to deal with the crowds.

Back at the hostel I laid down for a couple hours to recharge my batteries and then started pondering a new plan of attack.  I could go check out the markets and do some browsing/sightseeing.  Jagalchi fish market is a monstrous center of fishmongering that is a popular place to check out.  I also could check out Spa Land - a high end spa and jimjilbang in the Shinsegae department store; something I didn't want to miss out on.

The spa just sounded too good, and I didn't want to go to the market and then feel too tired to venture over to Spa Land, so I decided to just go there.  The department store in which the spa lies claims to be the largest in the world.  I know that's disputed by some, but it's good enough for Guiness.  Let's just say it's not your average department store.

For 14,000 won (about $13) I enjoyed three hours of relaxing bliss in the hot tubs, saunas and steam rooms.  The spa boasts 13 different themed rooms or atmospheres where you can submit your body to different stimuli, including a Turkish style steam room (my favorite), a hard wood charcoal room and maybe most bizarrely, a room that used radiating electrons to apparently help your metabolism.  I tried all but two.  The normal spa pools and saunas of varying temperatures were great too.  It was nice to just kick back without a care in the world and focus on relaxation.  The only negative was not having a pen and paper.  I had a clear mind and so many good ideas running through my head.

Fully relaxed, I headed back to Indy House, checked in with the world on the computer and met my new roommate, a Danish student on holiday for a month (damn, America needs to adopt European vacation ideals), before hitting the hay.

Again I was up frustratingly early, finally getting up at 6 and beginning on my way to the big hike I had planned.  I had wanted to check out the markets on Sunday, but when I got back from the spa on Saturday I thought I'd make sure they were open on Sunday.  To my chagrin only the fish market was open on Sunday, as the general market is closed the first and third Sundays of every month.  Oh, well.  That just made me revert back to a crazy plan I had hatched up a few weeks earlier.

When looking into things to do in Busan I found this highly recommended temple that was a little remote.  I decided I had to go there.  It sports really neat carvings into the walls of a mountain, which the temple is built into.  But in my planning it seemed that if I headed to Seokbulsa that meant I wouldn't be able to get to Beomeosa (an active monastery), which is probably the more popular, and definitely more accessible, temple.  Well, with my market plan out of the way and an early start behind me I decided to take on Seokbulsa and then hike my way around Geumjeongsan, along the fortress wall, to Beomeosa.

I took the cable car to the top of the mountain to start my hike to cut 90 minutes off my trek, but it still took me an hour to wind my way to Seokbulsa.  The directions I found online definitely helped, but I felt on multiple occasions that I had already passed a point described, only to run into it later.  I made it though, so I guess that's all that matters.  The final climb to the temple is not for the faint of heart.  It's a 600-meter curving path that seemed to be at a nearly 45 degree angle.  I was quite glad to get to the top and have some time to rest.  Here's a little of what I saw:

Then it was down and back up to Namman Village, just outside of which is the aptly named South Gate (Nammun Gate).  That was the beginning of part two of the hike.  I have to admit on one of my short water breaks on the way back up to Namman I considered going back down the mountain and taking the subway and bus to Beomeosa, but then I snapped out of it, sucked it up and kept moving.  I'm glad I did.

The hike along the fortress wall was pretty up and down, which is generally not the style of hiking I prefer, but it offered some good views as I made my way to the East gate and onward to the North.

I ended up just a tad sweaty!

The top!

The so-called "Sea of Rocks" that stretched down from the North Gate to Beomeosa.

Nice place to cool the feet outside the Beomeosa hermitage.

Beomeosa itself was a little underwhelming, but that's probably unfair considering the two temples I had visited over the previous day and a half.  I'm sure it would be interesting to do a temple stay and learn a little more about life as a Buddhist monk, but I definitely didn't have time for a stay, and I wasn't really up for any of the different art and crafts that were available.  Plus, I was just ready to be done because it all I think I hiked more than 10 kilometers.

Call it what you will, Neevel impatience maybe, but on my way down the mountain I didn't see exactly where the bus stop was and I was hungry and not interested in waiting for a ride.  So I started walking down.  Part way down a couple of adjummas (older women) flagged me down, offering pajeon.  To there surprised I quickly agreed.  I was hankering for some delicious Korean-style pancake filled with seafood, green onion and egg.  It was fantastic.  One of the ladies cracked me up.  Seeing my exhausted and reddened state, she used one of the little wet towels that are are ubiquitous at Korean restaurants to wipe my hands and my face.  I just sat there and laughed at how ridiculous the situation was, but she was enjoying herself and I didn't really mind.  It was fun to try to talk to her.  She had a very kind heart.

With my stomach full I headed the rest of the way down the mountain and somehow stumbled upon the subway station, only to miss the stop where I started six hours previous and had left half my possessions in a locker.  Disgustedly, I headed back four stops, grabbed my stuff and re-boarded the subway to the train station to catch my 5 p.m. ride home.  Unfortunately for my fellow passengers, my little snafu with the locker cost me the time to find a shower, so I only got to clean a fraction of the filth from my jaunt up and across the mountain in the heat.  Sorry!