Busan - vol 1

We arrived in Busan this morning. The very first thing we saw was a massive banner - Busan, the city of Tomorrow! Our eyes started to spark with hope for more English conversations and much better understanding - especially with directions, buses and food ordering (finger pointing and hoping for something moderate in spices got too risky!). Busan hasn't disappointed yet.

The lady at the information centre - check. Hotel reception - check. Restaurants - check. Surely not everyone is fluent or comfortable in communicating wth us, but it's much better than so far!

Our decision on what to sightsee was mostly affected by the weather. The threat of upcoming rains, made us decide to see the Haeundae district and Haeundae Beach first of all. My friend really wanted to swim in the see and got all ready for what was meant to be 'a representative tourist attraction in Korea'. Instead we found beach like any other, with ridiculously overpriced sunbeds/deckchairs. The sea water was rather cold with majority of people wearing wetsuits rather than swimsuits! But we did spot a few really good looking guys;)

The beach left a lot ti be wished for, but the Dongbaek Park and Dongbaek Island  quickly made up for it! The view from the Island was magnificent. We could see across the bay and even spot few islands in the far distance of the sea! The walk around the Dongbaek was really peaceful and relaxing - we noticed that if there is one thing, we will really remember from South Korea is in fact it's peacefulness! It's not the first time we walked somewhere and it was so chilled and relaxing. Definitely a great country to take time out (we're to see if we say the same after Seoul)!

View from the Dongbaek Park and Island:

We started to get peckish and decided to stop for a quick bite in the local market. We walked through stalls with fresh fresh fish, especially eel, getting slightly more hungry every step in the way. Eventually I've settled for fish tempura - probably bit the most Korean food out there, but how nice and extremly cheap! For four pieces of tempura (octopus, prawn, vegetables and something I still don't know what it was) I paid W2000 that is £1,20! 

Next thing in the list was the Moontan Road and Dalmaji-gil Road, a beautiful walk in the moonlight and a famous driving course. Both selected as one of the eight magnificent views of Korea since old times!

Moontan Road was rather disappointing if not scary! Still not sure if we took the right turn, but we ended up in the think forest with hardly any lamps or lights on the way. If time allows we will try ti return there and find out if it really was the Moontan Road really is the path we took, but for now I would recommend going there during a day rather than night!

Dalmaji-gil Road in the other side was great! We haven't walkes the entire 5km, but views on the way were amazing. 

Busan is definitely a city that starts living after dark. It was buzzing by night with so many people on the streets, majoity staying till late at night. The amount of restaurants left us shocked! We couldn't decide where to eat - we walked good half an hour around and everything looked appealing and full of people. It's definitely a place to be by night!

At the end if a day, we were exhausted - it seemed like we didn't see that much, but in fact we spent over 9hr outside the hostel, constantly on our feet! We finished the day with a local Hite beer in bed and by the time we realised we were fast asleep!

Gyeong'ju - vol 2

After seeing majority of tourist attractions the day before, we decided to get lost (explore) the norther part of Gyeong'ju. We took a morning stroll up the river - it was very peaceful and calming. There were a lot of older people passing us by, all smiling at us and saying 'hi' or wanting to help us with directions (even though we weren't lost!).

We walked all the way up to the Gyeong'ju Arts Centre and Gyeong'ju Gymnasium (which we convenient skipped and headed straight to the Hwangseong Park. What amazed me were the amount of outdoor gym equipment (you could literally work on every muscle in your body simply walking from one end of the park to the other) and all the elderly people doing exactly that! It's amazing how much pressure South Korea puts on well-being and staying fit. It is definitely something I would introduce back in Europe - parks full of gym equipment so we can stay in shape and live longer! 

We then headed towards North East of Gyeong'ju. Needless to say, we did get lost (which was part of the plan) and we got lost quite badly! Thanks to this, we discovered Gulbulsa Temple. It's not in any travel guides or on the map, but honestly it was way better than the Bulguksa Temple we saw the day before.There was something about Gulbulsa that appealed to us. It was quiet, we were the only tourists there (naturally, cause hardly anyone attempts to get lost with purpose) and most of all it was very well maintained! I would strongly recommend a visit there to anyone who's traveling in Gyeong'ju. It was even more appealing when we found out that monks had their own pomegranates growing on trees;) 

We then found our way to the Stone Buddha, which forms a part of the above Temple (although is a good hundreds of meters away) - Buddha and bodhisattvas were carved on each side of the stone making it quite a remarkable site to visit.

In the evening, we made our way to the Anapji Pond - beautifully lightened pagodas around the pond and an amazing atmosphere! It should definitely be on top of things worth seeing in Gyeong'ju! It was stunning and we definitely didn't regret paying for the entry! 

We are now heading to Busan! Goodbye Gyeong'ju.

Gyeong'ju - vol 1

We started the day with an extremely spicy breakfast. Not that it looked spicy (and we have specifically asked for mild option), but it was so hot that I could hardly finish it with my mouth burning inside and my lips going crazy red! Welcome to South Korea, I guess;)

Egg ramen - our spicy breakfast:

After calming down a little (and a few bottles of water later), we left to see the town of Gyeong'ju. We started our walk with so called Tumuli, or Royal Tomb from the Silla era. Gyeong'ju is full of these Tumuli, Tumuli here and Tumuli there! All of them look exactly the same (some are taller some smaller), but bottom line they are hill like constructions build as a form of a tomb for rulers and influential individuals in history of Gyeong'ju.

We then walked to Gyochon Hanok Village - replica of Gyoneg'ju in the Silla ear. Or otherwise, a really nice take on how people used to live thousands of years ago. A lot of these houses were rebuild and adjusted to modern standards of life (although the outside still resembles traditional housing) with people running their businesses like pottery, quilt knitting, glass artefacts etc. It was definitely an interesting experience and it was great to stroll through quiet streets of the village thinking of how people used to live then and now.

We then headed to Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple, both UNESCO World Heritage sites. 

We started with the Seokguram Grotto and sitting Buddha carved in harsh granite. Sadly the Buddha was behind the glass wall and no photos were allowed. We had more luck with Bolguksa Temple. It was well preserved and we were allowed to walk freely around the Temple grounds. I'm sure that anyone who hasn't traveled much around East Asia would enjoy both sides a lot! Nevertheless, after visiting both Japan and China, these two sides haven't really inpressed me much. They are definitely lacking to Giant Sitting Buddha in Japan or some of the amazing Temples I've seen before. However, I had snapped few photos, especially of dragons guarding the Temple. I don't know what it is, but I definitely have a small asian obsession with dragons - possibly coming from the chinese astrology and my chinese astrological sign;)

We finished the day with delisious pork stew in the local restaurant. I definitely can take more spice in the evenings rather than mornings;) 

Food is definitely amazing!

First impressions.

Finally we've arrived in South Korea - Incheon International Airport. We haven't  spent much time in the area (not counting 1.5hr at the airport and another hour in the transit bus from the airport to the Incheon Bus Terminal) and we've left on the intercity bus to Gyeongju. Therefore this post is all about first impressions! 

Impression 1:

Samsung everywhere! Wherever I look, people are holding a Samsung device - and not the usual ones (widely available in UK), these ones are massive and it seems like they can do so much more than the traditional Samsung I know!

Although tunes and ringtones are definitely the same! Always 'titirititi' - how do they even know it's their phone ringing?! O_o

Impression 2:

South Koreans don't speak English very well - in fact, at all! You can sporadically have a half decent conversation with younger population but even simple food order, asking for directions or buying stuff in the store takes a miracle to get what you really want! I'm still waiting to be proved wrong on that one!

Impression 3:

Despite a massive language barrier, South Koreans are the nicest people on earth (quite like Japanese in fact)! So friendly and willing to help that even if it take horrendous hand gestures and akward misunderstandings, they will always go an extra mile to be as helpful as possible.

Impression 4:

ATM machines! They are bloody scary! Poor me wanted to withdraw some money and the ATM machine (bear in mind located in the middle of the airport terminal) started screams at me with an annoyingly repetitive sirens! Of course that attracted huge attention to myself - not what you really want after 10hour flight looking more like a monster than your great self! Poor machine had a point (silly me couldn't locate a receipt for the transaction) but made me look extremly foolish, which I had to swallow with pride!

Impression 5:

Foreigners definitely don't ride for free! We boarded an odd looking bus (transit to Incheon Bus Terminal) and the bus driver seemed to let us go free of charge! No money, or a mention if money, was exchanged. Poor naive foreigners - and let me add the only ones on the bus - thought we were lucky! Extremely lucky! That is not until later when the driver stopped the bus in the middle of the street (literally!), left his driver seat and demanded his fair share! Equal and fair - you ride the bus, you pay;)

Ps. After almost 2 days of travel - looking less fabulous than intended - I can only think if that image: 'Surviving the flight'

Seoul here we come!

After a very early wake up and pacing through half of London, we're finally at Gatwick Airport! Tired but full of positive energry with a massive grin on my face! Seoul here we come!!!

One day to go!

The level of excitement is growing! We will be boarding the plane tomorrow morning heading to Seoul and to Gueongju from there. I still have some packing to do and a day of work to go through, but the thought of starting my South Korea experience will definitely motivate me throughout the day!