Marriott Busan

Busan(Pusan), South Korea. Today we disembarked at 0800. We took a shuttle to downtown about 0930, and it became very obvious that Japan, by comparison, was immaculate. The International Market had about 1400 vendors selling everything you can imagine, and it kind of reminded us of the Mercado in Mexico (including the sewer odors). We did get some good deals, but not as good as Cub remembers 30 ...

we decided to get away and celebrate labor day with a trip to the coastal city of busan. it's the second largest city in south korea but it has a completely different vibe than seoul...very laid back like all beach towns. d said it reminded him of rio or barcelona because of how the city skyline flows right into the beach. we stayed in haeundae. it's the most famous beach in korea and tyipcally really crowded. peak ...

... expensive. In fact it's just as expensive as at home. What did we expect?<br><br>In a word: this was llike a standard European department Store.<br>And that is the thing with Korea, which I had not realized before coming: it is a first-world country, it has the same development level than Europe, nothing is cheaper, the services are the same, it's just that the people look different and you can't read half of the things cause they translate in Chinese rather than in English.<br ...

... I *lso tell him wh*t room I *m in *nd invite him to c*ll on me the following *fternoon. He does, *nd I show him *round the b*se on th*t Frid*y for *bout *n hour. He is *nxious to get his "juicy" experience, *nd I tell him it's re*lly not worth it. Th*t most of them *re dumb *nd m*ke you buy them lots of drinks. But he insists. So I tell him, "fine, we'll go to A-town *fter I get off work tonight." He *grees *nd I rele*se him to his own devices so ...

... kimchi bibimbop. A kimchi, rice and egg dish. The damage was 4,000 WON. After dinner we walked the beach and grabbed a cab and headed to Star Face, a bar that had all you can drink for 15,000 WON. We got there at 10pm and found the place empty aside from a few locals so we headed for a tour of the neighbourhood which as situated atop a hill over looking the ocean. After having a beer at a local corner store and discussing politics we headed back ...

... weekend for an orientation. We're pretty bummed because we had planned for weeks to attend the Busan Beer Olympic Games. Basically, you'd pay $15 to enter, be put on a team of your country, and play in a bunch of drinking games, a la the movie "Beerfest." The cool thing about this event is that all the proceeds are going to orphanages in South Korea. We were going to drink for the orphans man!!! Well, I wasn't going to be able to ...

... for a warmer, drier, cleaner, friendlier place to call my own. I have met with extraordinary warmth and friendliness everywhere I have been, but for now I continue to be restless and unable to stay put for a weekend. The winter will be different though, as the country begins its hibernation and it becomes to cold to traverse the surface, a new phase of life here will have to begin. But until then the roadshow continues ever onwards, back and forth across this country..

... chatting to us and managed to convince us to give the caves a skip ("only good for dark days") and instead head to the nearby seaside resort of Chu'am Beach. He even hailed a cab for us and gave the driver instructions to find accommodation once we arrived there. His parting shot to us was "if you have any problems, just call the station". And so, 20 minutes later, we found ourselves checking into a Minbak - a very basic room, with no beds and shared facilities. We ...