Dynamic Busan

We arrived in Busan on Monday afternoon with enough time to check-in to our motel and do some hiking. We're staying at the Elysee Motel, another love motel. It has a fantastic location, right near a subway stop and just steps from Busan Tower, the Jigalchi fish market, and numerous bars, restaurants, and shops. Our room is clean, big, cheap, and has a ceiling painted with planets and stars that glows with black lights.

Funky!

Busan itself is an interesting city.  It's the 2nd largest city in Korea, and definitely feels big...but lacks the glitz and glamor of Seoul.  People here aren't as well dressed and the city isn't as clean as Seoul.  The subway system is still great and very comprehensive.  Despite that, Busan has a very beautiful natural setting.  It's located in a series of valleys pressed against the sea.  There are huge skyscrapers all over the city that jut up hillsides towards the mountains.  In a way, it reminds us of a more dense version of Atlanta...you can be in a forest and then in the city almost instantly.  As Lonely Planet puts it, the food in Busan is salty, spicy and raw, just like the people...and so far, we agree! 

Busan set against the mountains

After checking in to the hotel we took a bus to Taejongdae Park, which is situated at the end of an island on the south side of Busan. It had fantastic views of the sea in a natural forested environment.  On the way up, David got a "hot dog-u" from a vendor.

Paul enjoying the sea and sun at Taejongdae Park

Modern Art at Taejongdae.  David thinks it's a weapon pointed at Japan.

Commerce is alive and well in Busan

On the way back to our motel we swung by the International Market and did some shopping and sightseeing in Nampodong.  This area of Busan has tons of shops, street vendors, restaurants and bars.  It's the most lively place we've seen since Seoul.  We ate street food for dinner.  We had a pajeon (onion and meat pancake) with a fried egg, a skewer of grilled chicken and some dumplings, all for around $8 total.  Afterwards, we went to the top of Busan Tower for a panoramic view of the city at night.

Mmmm....Korean street food

Gukje Market

The view from Busan Tower at night

On Tuesday we took the subway to the North side of Busan, and walked to Geumgang Park, where we took a cable car up to the top of the mountain heading for a temple called Seokbulsa.  Getting on the cable car we ran into a documentary crew filming about fall foods in Korean mountain areas.  They interviewed us briefly on the way up about the view and we parted ways...for now.  We continued on our way to Seokbulsa Temple. 

This guy was super animated and spoke with the cadence of a Japanese game show host

Seokbulsa isn't easy to find.  After reaching the top cable car station we walked for about an hour past an old fortress wall gate and through a small town.  The terrain was pretty hilly and we had to ask for directions on more than one occasion.  The trek was worth the effort when we finally reached the temple.  Seokbulsa is made up of a series of reliefs carved directly into the mountainside.  The reliefs are around a thousand years old (so we were told), and the entire temple site was very beautiful.

Seokbulsa Temple

Reliefs

Big reliefs

Seokbulsa

As we were getting ready to leave Seokbulsa, we ran into the documentary crew again. They took some shots of us looking at the temple, then invited us to lunch! We didn't really have any plans for the rest of the afternoon, so we went with them on a search for local foods. It actually saved us a lot of walking, since they had a van and we were so far up the mountain (and not really sure how to get back to the subway from the temple without backtracking up the mountain). We went to a small village area within the old fortress that we had seen one of the gates of earlier in our hike. After wandering around for a while with the film crew asking the locals where to find a specific type of food, we settled in for some ori bulgogi, which is spiced pieces of roasted duck. It's not a very common food in Korea, but apparently it's either popular in the specific area we were in, or in the autumn... we're not really sure because we didn't understand much of what was going on! It was kind of a bizarre and unique experience!



The food itself was some of the best we've had in Korea.  There were about a dozen side dishes and the duck was incredibly succulent and well prepared.  There was also a goat marrow soup and some hot peppers that the documentary crew wanted us to eat raw.  David lost a game of paper rock scissors to the show host and had to eat them on film first.  He handled it like a pro, much to the Korean's surprise.  After filming, the crew also commented on their surprise at how well we used chopsticks.  Two points to the Americans for out-pepper-eating the Koreans and being able to use chopsticks.  Maybe we'll help shatter some stereotypes about Westerners.

Us with the film crew

Lots of food at lunch, and with a view!

After lunch they dropped us back off at the subway so we could ride back into town. We'll be on the lookout to try to find ourselves on KNN so we can see how they edited it all into a documentary about autumn foods in Korea.  Edit: Here are the two videos!  Video 2 is best.

Back at the hotel we met up with Paul's friend Emiko and went for dinner. We had some Korean fried chicken, which is a really popular dish. We've had it in Atlanta before, where they fry it in olive oil then coat it in a spicy sauce. The place we found in Busan was actually a bit healthier because they oven bake the chicken instead of frying it. It was still pretty good.

Korean Oven Baked Chicken

Finally we went to the huge Lotte department store near our hotel, which has the world's largest indoor fountain show, called "Aquatique." It was pretty impressive, with synchronized colored fountains shooting from both the floor and the ceiling. They even spelled out words!

Spirals of water falling from the ceiling

Tomorrow is our last full day in South Korea, then it's off to Japan!