Busan (Pusan)

Trip Start Dec 26, 2007

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of Korea Rep. Busan, Korea Rep.
Friday, February 1, 2008

Since my last blog, we had a break between our 3rd and 4th camps for Chinese New Year which the Korean's also celebrate. I took this opportunity to travel to the south of Korea to Busan . My fellow colleague and I, Jan, went to Seoul station in the hopes of being able to purchase a train ticket to Busan . However, with it being a public holiday, a couple of thousand Koreans also had the same bright idea. They informed us that there were no more seats available but said we could buy a ticket for "standing room only" on the slower train. The faster train only takes about 3 hours to go from Seoul to Busan but the slower one takes twice as long. Our other options were pretty much non existent so we got the standing room tickets which wasn't such a bad deal as we only had to pay 20,000 won ($20) and the fast train would have cost us more than three times as much. We got on the train and after moving through several of the box cars, we ended up settling down between two of the cars where they are connected. Korea is cold in the winter and even colder when riding in the drafty section between two train cars

Fish anyone?

. At one of stops, I had enough time to jump off of the train and procure a couple of pieces of cardboard that we were able to sit on to keep from freezing our arses off.

We arrived in Busan around 5 in the morning. Through a great website called Couchsurfing.com (a cool website created by travelers who offer up their couches for people to crash on when they're not traveling) we had already lined up a place to stay for our time there. However, since we didn't want to show up at our host's house so early we instead looked for a jimjilbang (Korean sauna where you can shower, sleep, and relax in hot tubs) until later on in the day. Little did we know, the area where the train dropped us off at Busan station is a pretty seedy place full of nothing but Filipina and Russian prostitutes. We weren't really looking for a "good time" at 5 in the morning and couldn't find a sauna that would accept foreigners so we just dropped in an internet cafe to waste a couple of hours. God knows that the internet is always there for you when you want to sit down, go in to a daze, and snap out of it 3 hours later thinking, "What in the hell have I been doing the last 3 hours of my life? That was completely pointless and I have accomplished nothing." We finally showed up at our hosts house to find out that he had already left the day before and left the key to his room outside the door in a guitar case. We cleaned up and then crashed for a couple of hours.

When we finally came to, we decided to go check out one of the sites in Busan , Beomeosa, a Buddhist temple in the mountains nearby

Beomeosa

. We got halfway there on the subway and ended up having to turn back because I was feeling pretty rough and felt like passing out. The rest of that day we spent hanging out in the apartment while Jan watched "Harry Potter" while I kept the bathroom heavily occupied . The next day, I was feeling a bit better and we made our second attempt at the temple. We made it all the way to our destination this time and I was introduced to my first taste of Korean architecture. I was really impressed with the designs and structure of the temple although I still wouldn't be able to tell you the visible difference between a Korean, Chinese, or Japanese temple. I guess it's almost as bad as saying, "All Asians look alike". "Oh no he didn't! I can't believe he just said that!" lol

After the temple we went to the more modern part of town and checked out the trendy university areas where we came across hundreds of designer clothes and a good number of cell phone stores. A great example of the western consumerism that has driven Korea's economy to one of the strongest in the world. This is where we also stumbled across Kenny Roger's music house. A little out of place but humurous nonetheless. (Later on that night they were actually showing a 2 hour documentary on TV about Kenny Rogers. Not sure if it was just a coincidence or they just have some weird sort of infatuation with him and are wanting to learn to "Know when to hold 'em" in Korea). We ended up fiding our way in to a couple of the bars in down town that night and had a few drinks

Drinkin' that holy water

. Jan commenced to "talk trash" about how could I let a girl outdrink me. To make a long humorous story short, the night ended with us having to jump off of the subway before we even got to our destination, catch a cab, and Jan getting her head rolled up in the back seat of the taxi. Like I said, it's a long story, but if you're really interested ask me about it the next time we hang out.

Unfortunately, we were already running out of time because we had to make it back to Seoul for the next camp to start. Getting back to Seoul was just as hectic as getting down to Busan because now we were fighting all of the same people on their way back home as well. This time however, we were prepared and knew exactly where to sit on our thrifty train travel adventure.