Gwangjang Hotel Busan

Today is a sad but exciting day. I start my backpacking journey but leave my mother along with Korea. This morning started off on the wrong foot. In Korea when parking lots are full, people park right in front of your vehicle but leave their car in neutral so that you can move it. So at 5 this morning we go to push the car that is parked in front of us and his dumbass left his car in neutral but pulled up his emergency brake. So after 30 minutes of tracking him down we finally ...

... 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 ...

... of the district we *re trying to go to from P*t's friend over the phone with some difficulty. She h*s to spell the tr*nsliter*tion for me *s I write it out in the *ir *nd sound it out. "NAM PO DONG". N*mpo-Dong. Gre*t. All we got to do is find * c*b *nd tell him/her "N*mpo-Dong". When I s*y, "district", think of Queens, or the Bronx, etc... Except the number of districts here in Bus*n is prob*bly on the order of like 300-400. There were 5 ...

... is the location of the most famous beach in Korea, and thus the location of many tourists, fancy hotels, and nice restaurants. I was surprised to arrive at a hotel called, "Glory Condos." Our dinner was on the top floor (the 18th), with a beautiful view of the sunset and the beach. I didn't realize it was so fancy!! We had a buffet that was mainly seafood (nothing alive, thank goodness), but there was a ...

... had food remnants on it). Mexican food.....



Side Note: I saw on CNN the other day that L.A. County Office of Waste Disposal (or whatever the name is) is trying to implement a food disposal plan. They're giving people buckets, and people should put all perishables in there, and then the food waste will be taken away on a given day. ALL Koreans do that. That's right, ALL 49,044,790 + 1 for me. If that many ...

... job too.

Last thing I had to do at this temple was make a lotus flower lantern. The monks were so cute teaching all the people and children how to make these things. The monk who took me under his wing was pretty funny. When he asked, I told him I was from California. He then proceeded to serenade me and all those with in ear-shot to "Hotel California." He wasn't always a monk I guess. :) Everyone was very impressed with my lantern making skills, but alas, the ...

... exams, they throw themselves out a window or in front of a subway....because they didn't get a 100%, and their dad beat the **** out of them. It's happened since I've been here. I know it happens in the states too, but it's not entirey unusual here....and that's not ok. It just makes me sad.

Anyway, I got a new camera. I got to play with it for the first time today, but the battery died. I'll put some of the pictures up soon. :)

... it. We could hardly believe it when we were sitting on the boat, that was the closest encounter yet! The end of Japan though, it was a fast 2 weeks but porbably the most rewarding country to travel in. The people here are its best quality, they are so helpful and nice. WOW! we have alot to learn from there attitude towards each other. You see business men bowing to each other on the street, they have huge respect for other people.

... to the train station where we a got a room for good bargain.The centre was lively with the street vendors and all the hustle bustle around them. I'd love to buy loads of nice items they sold there but we decided to leave the shopping for Seoul as we ship some of our clothes etc. to home from there. The next day we checked out the famous Haendae-beach which is also known as Waikiki beach of Korea. Well the beach was long and the sand lightbrown ...

... to put as much distance between us and that place as possible. Was our horror hypocritical? None of us are vegetarians and so the answer would seem to be yes. However, in my defence I would argue that a) when I buy a nice piece of steak from the supermarket there isn't a cage of cows next to it, mooing and b) dogs are almost human, aren't they? Mix ups with accommodation, a **** tour, a twisted market and unbearable heat. So far Busan wasn't selling itself to us ...