Ok.. now…Busan, here we come, really!

May has been a very nice month for English teacher in Korea. On the 5^th was Children’s day and on the 10^th it was Buddha’s Birthday. Both days are public holidays in Korea. What makes them even more enjoyable is that the former fell on a Thursday and the latter on the following Tuesday. Because of that the school generally take either the Friday or the following Monday off as well to give them an extra long weekend. In the week leading up to these my schools were conducting mid term exams, so that basically meant that I would be teaching 1 day in the space of 2 weeks.

When our schools originally confirmed that we would have extra time off Sandy, Deborah and I originally planed to take a quick trip to China. The logistics involved in organizing this proved a little difficult to arrange in a short space of time, so we shelved that idea. It was then that Deb suggested Busan, which we were going to do the following week in any case (as neither she nor I had been yet, Sandy had been a couple of times). And so begun the planning which involved finding places to stay, making sure we 3 could meet up, and deciding what we wanted to do and see. Places to stay proved difficult to organize, as apparently places were fully booked (which as we found out was not the case). I assured Deb that “It’s Busan – there must be loads of motels and we will easily be able to get rooms when we get there”. This was not as easy as the statement suggested but we did get a place to stay for all 3 nights we were there.

Here is our stay in Busan:

After School on Friday the 6^th, I met Sandy at the train station and we made our way to Busan. We had tickets and it was all fine until we got onto our transfer to get us to Busan. There were already people sitting in our seats. We were thoroughly confused and after checking other cars and trying to find a conductor to help us we find 2 seats that are at the doors and take a seat. When a conductor comes around she asks where were we going as we were not in assigned seats.

As it turns out we had climbed on the wrong train. It had arrived before our train and was at the platform at the time our train was due to be there. So… we did what you would expect. We assumed that it was our train and hopped on as we didn’t see any delayed notices on the boards. The train we did get on actually arrived ino Busan 30min later than we were scheduled to arrive with the tickets we originally booked. I still don’t know what happened but the upshot was that the conductor said we were still going to same place so not to worry.

Upon arrival into Busan we went to find dinner. It was humid and drizzly. Thereafter we attempted to find a motel that was suggested to us by a friend. We walked around for about 30min and eventually decided that we could not find it and settled for another place. After I met Deb at the station, when she arrived later that evening, we all had Strawberries, swapped stories of why none of the 3 of us are staying in Korea for a 2^nd year and then we went to bed – sleeping 3 sardines side by side on the one bed.

Day 1

Saturday we decided to head to Haeundae where Korea’s most famous beach is located. It was better looking than anything else I have seen in Korea but still nowhere near what we have in beautiful SA. We played around on the sand for a bit and then went to the aquarium. Lunch was slotted in-between those two events. We went to an Indian restaurant called “Ganga”. It was really great food and great company :)

The Aquarium was very impressive. I can’t remember when I went to Cape Town’s aquarium (I know it was years and years ago) but this place was still greatly impressive with the range of water life on display. They even had a couple of Cape Penguins! (Who just so happened to be in an enclosure with a few fake penguins so as to make it look more lively – difficult to do when the things don’t move :-P)

After lengthy discussions on what to do next we headed to Shinsegae Centum City – The biggest department store in the world according to Guinness Records peeps. The span of the place was MASSIVE!

Click here to read up about - The largest Department Store in the World

 We walked around a little admiring things, grabbed some coffee at a small coffee shop and then headed up to “Spa Land”. “Spa Land” Is more a very modern and upper crust Jimjilbang without as much nakedness I think (speculation as I am yet to go to a Jimjilbang).

There are various kinds of sauna’s you sit in (ranging from 36 C to 67 C) and you can also go outside to the foot baths, or outside scrubbing pools. If you wanted you could have proper massages or facials and such (things you would normally find at a Spa). Those, though, would cost you a little extra. We spent about 3 hours there and I spent about 1hour of that time in automated massage chairs and the rest of the time moving around between the various saunas.

After having some trouble we eventually found a place to stay for the next two nights and passed out, aiming to refresh for our 2^nd day of adventure.

Day 2

On, what appeared to be a lovely Sunday morning we spent our time getting up and grabbing breakfast at Café Pescucci whereupon Deb got a call from our friend Lisa saying that she and another friend of ours – Alan were heading to Geoje-do (Geoje Island) to try and take a ferry tour around some of the other islands. We slowly resolved to join them and made our way to the bus terminal to get us to Geoje-do. The bus ride was about an hour and once we got there we were at pains to find out that Lisa and Alan were on the opposite side of the island to us and we were not in walking distance. After some lunch we decided to go and do some pottery making.

The Pottery Place

What we failed to realize is if we did so we would need to come back 1 month later to fetch our creations following glazing. What we ended up doing was having a personal guided tour of 2/3 of the island by taxi before we hopped on a bus back to Busan.

Day 3

After 3 days of muffins for breakfast I caved and got a toasted Samie
and a Cappucino the size of my 2 fists put together

Our last day started off a little drizzly. I thought it would disappear so left my umbrella in a locker at the train station. Deborah did the opposite.

Since I had arrived in Busan I had wanted to go and see Haedong Yonggungsa Temple. It was located right next to the see and had been established on the Cliffside.

The temple on the day before B-dog's birthday

So that was where we went. What was drizzle became a 1hour torrential downpour and we were left scurrying for cover while at the temple (EVEN THOUGH we were covered by hundreds of lamps that were put up in recognition of Buddha’s birthday the following day (Also a public holiday in Korea). The temple was beautiful and I am sure it would have looked even more amazing on a dry clear and sunny day. Even without the lamps – for me it is the most beautiful temple I have seen in Korea.

Taking advantage of what we thought was a slowing rain we made for the exit of the temple only for the deluge to return half way back to the bus stop. Deb – umbrella in hand helps shield Sandy and I fall on my sword allowing the girls to get away with minimal dampness. I on the other hand was a little wet. Safely arriving back in Haeundae we grabbed our trains and headed back to our cities. Sandy and I got backing just after 17:30.

The trip back had it’s own 10min of fun – I thought I had lost my wallet with my Alien Registration Car, bank card and a couple of other things (as well as some cash) in it. Sandy’s keen eye found it though, as we were pulling away from the station. Buddha’s birthday proved restful. I completed my project of hand making 3 sets of scrabble and I am sure I watched a movie as well. That will do it for our mid semester break for a couple of days dedicated to children and Buddha.

Life is never dull on Geoff’s Asian Adventure! Stay tuned folks!

Busan here we come

After a little period of inactivity I’m back giving you the latest from Geoff’s Asian Adventures.

Since last we “spoke” I have traveled to Busan for my nice long weekend; had school picnic day and I have seen the following movies: “Water for Elephant” (with one of my schools on a staff outing); “Source Code” (with Sandy on the 1^st public Holiday that lead to a long long weekend); and “Thor” (this past weekend).

Here is my very un-Barry-Ronge-like review of them all

Water for Elephants

Staring Reese Whitherspoon and what’s-his-face Pattinson from the dreadful Vampire trilogy that shall not be named –

A “Titanic” type story where a man recounts how he first joined the circus back in the American prohibition days. He is a failed Vet, who for some reason or another (I don’t know because I missed the 1^st 10min of the movie), is running from someone/something and ends up hitching a ride on a train that is moving a circus around the country. He meets the circus owner’s wife, falls in love with her and is also given an elephant to look after. Not my first choice of flick so see.

I was supposed to be given a choice of film but that offer was retracted along with a number of other Admin promises made about this day-long story short reaffirming my reasoning why I have not signed on for this for another year.

That said back to the movie…

A standard romance really. Reese Whitherspoon was elegant. The elephant was cool (in my opinion she should have featured more according to the title). If Vampire-boy does it for you then go ahead and see it. I have seen better romance based movies but it was not bad.

Source Code

I have seen a few action flicks this year (“Red”, “Inception”, “Indestructible”, “The American”…) all of which I enjoyed and all of which have their merits. This movie however ranks 2^nd (behind Inception) for its creativity and action packed, explosion filled nature. It was anticipated by both Sandy and I when we saw the trailer and it didn’t disappoint.

Staring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Jeffery Wright and Vera Farminga, it is a clever Sci-Fi idea about stuff that happens to the brain before death. (I am being deliberately because I recommend you see it! Really enjoyed the 2 hours I spent watching that movie and think you should do the same.

Thor

What more do you need. Superheroes; Cool battle suits; A man mountain of a lead character who dominates when he corrects the wrongs he created; fights, lightening and of course Natalie Portman (Interesting movie to be in following “Black Swan”).

Again a very nice way to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon. Action packed with some pleasantly surprising witty humor and a very well chose cast, Chris Hemsworth has a few more action flicks in him and I look forward to his appearance in “The Avengers”

That done – back to the recent trip to the coast (and the point of these 2 posts)