Alex in Motion

My partner in crime for the first day in Busan was a gentleman from Italy, Giorgio. After a few comical jabs at each other, we quickly became friends (that’s how guys bond). He also laughed when I ordered an espresso after lunch claiming, “That’s NOT espresso”. Such an Italian.

By the way, speaking of coffee, Busan has the most coffee shops and cafes I’ve ever seen in a city. More than Vancouver and Seattle, if you can believe it!

The district of Gamcheon is known to be the cultural centre of Korea, and has adopted the nickname of the “Machu Picchu of Busan”. Gazing upon the colourful houses on the gentle slope reminded me of San Francisco. In fact, I noticed a few parallels between these two cities:

• Both are artistic and cultural, complimented with plenty of shopping centres
• San Fran has the Golden Gate Bridge and Busan has the Diamond Bridge
• Busan is also known as “Dynamic Busan”, which is probably because the view constantly changes as you explore it’s slopes and valleys. SF has a similar hilly landscape.

My hostel was above a live fish market, the largest in Korea. For a reasonable price, Giorgio and I choose a big, fat fish from a tank, then went to the restaurant upstairs to eat it. Half was prepared as sashimi, and the other half was grilled. The first portion arrived so quickly after we sat down that we were suspicious whether it was truly the fish we chose or his cousin. In either case, it was delicious. Coupled with a local beer (Hite) and soju, a rice-based liquor, great conversations, and the meal was one of the best I’ve had in Korea.

I assumed the largest department store in the world was in Dubai. Well, I was wrong; it’s in Busan. It doesn’t feel that large though, as it’s a series of smaller spaces instead of one or two massive ones. Aside from countless food courts, 11+ floors of shopping, it also has one regular theatre, the world’s only theatre with reclining beds instead of chairs, a huge spa and an indoor skating rink.

For my last day, I jumped onto the hop-on/hop-off city bus, which allowed me to see the further reaches of this wonderful city. Being a warm and sunny day, my theme was beaches, and I spent the day enjoying two of them.

I noticed Koreans have a fascination with white:

• Nearly all the buildings and skyscrapers are white
• About 80% of their cars are white, 19% are black and the last 1% are various other colours
• Women paint their faces white, even more often than in Japan. I can understand the desire to lighten their complexion, but they use white paint instead of light beige. This makes the face looks distinctively different than the rest of their body’s natural colour. Odd.

Busan ends my two week experience in Korea, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Warning: there are some “not safe for work” pictures below

With mostly mild weather and beaches, the island of Jeju is primarily known as a honeymoon destination for Koreans. It’s also famous for various museums, beautiful landscapes and good trekking, which were my reasons for visiting.

Following a theme that started in Seoul, I met a fellow traveler at the bus stop closest to the hostel, a German girl who was also escaping her husband for a week. She was interested in the same activities as me, so we spend the next few days together.

The day was already coming to an end, so we grabbed a quick bite to eat before walking across the famous Saeyeongyo bridge to enjoy the orange sunset.

The next day we trekked 4.9 km to the top of Hallasan mountain in the national park, which is located in center of the island and provides nearly 360 degree views. Since it was a weekend, the weather was a perfect 21 Celsius and the followed day was supposed to rain, the path was overflowing with hikers. At several narrow points, we had to wait for slower people to move or make way for others to descend. It was interesting to see so many Koreans dressed in professional trekking gear; it seems looking good is important.

The views from the summit were definitely worth the wait, and it was cute to watch the crowds form a line to take pictures with a stone marker at the very top of the mountain. It was also a good time for lunch and power nap 🙂

As anticipated, the following day was mostly rain, so we leisurely visited to three waterfalls and then went to a Yeomiji Botanical Garden to enjoy the carious vegetation. It was also thrilling to see some Haevneo, as known as “the sea women”. Starting at an early age, this increasingly rare women train to free dive and collect crustaceans for food. Most of them can hold their breath for up to 3 minutes and reach a depth of 30 meters (90 feet). Very impressive!

For the last day, we rented a car and drove to the most famous museum, Loveland. It’s an outdoor park with huge sculptures depicting sex and sexual themes. To know where to walk, you followed penises painted on the ground. Coupled with a good sense of humour, this place was cute and silly.

Subsequent to the park, we drove east to Seongon Park and climbed some stairs to the iconic crater, which is normally displayed in all Jeju advertisements. Along the way up, I teased Kim about Germans and how they famously lack a sense of humour. She defended herself by saying Germans are nice deep down. Without a word, I did a quick search for “Top 20 German jokes”. The first two of were:

Q: Why do they bury Germans 20 meters underground?
A: Because deep down they are really nice

Q: Do you know why Germans build such high-quality products?
A: So they won’t have to go around being nice while they fix them

Owned!

After spending nearly two weeks in the world’s largest city in the world, exploring the 4th largest city (with over 10 million people) seemed small. In addition, Seoul is quite different than Tokyo, and I couldn’t stop making comparisons between them. Koreans are much more expressive than Japanese and wear more colourful clothing, but they are also friendly and have never invaded anyone (as compared to the Chinese and Japanese).

Being an introvert, Tokyo drained me a little. So with a lower energy level, I was not very keen in exploring this huge city. Luckily, while stepping out of the metro station closed to the hostel, I introduced myself into two eastern European girls who were staying at the same hostel. They live in Beijing and were escaping their husbands for a long weekend; we ended up spending evenings together, swapping stories about each day.

My most fascinating story was the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) tour. The DMZ is the de facto border between North Korea and South Korea, serving as a meeting point for negotiations. The day tour included

• Going to an observatory building equipped with long-range telescopes, allowing you to see North Korean farmers on the other side of the Han River
• A meet and greet with a North Korean defector. We were able to ask her questions, and I posed several dozen. In brief,
  • By being part of the social elite, she was able to pay specialized brokers to smuggle her into China, and then she moved to South Korea
  • She escaped with her baby because she felt constantly threatened, while her husband remains in North Korea. She isn’t able to communicate with him
  • North Koreans are becoming more and more aware of the outside world and know they are being manipulated by the government. However fear is still keeping them in check
  • As they become more aware, she believes a tipping point will be reached in the next 5-10 years and the current regime will end

After the meeting, we visited the Joint Security Area (JSA). The JSA feels like the edge of the world, and it’s intriguing and stressful to watch the Koreans spy on each other from a short distance. Security protocols were intense, as we were told

• although you can freely look around, you cannot take pictures of anything except what’s directly in front of you – nothing to the left or right
• dress properly – no ripped jeans, no sleeveless shirts, no shorts or skirts above the knee
• do not wave or point, as they constantly take pictures and can remove fingers using Photoshop to make it look like you’re giving them the F-finger
• when walking, stay in line and don’t run, as they interpret it as something is wrong

We then entered a blue building that was constructed right on the border and by stepping over a line within that building, I technically (and safely) crossed into North Korea. On the north side of the building, there’s a guard in front of a door; we were warned that if you exit that door, you would become a permanent “guest” of North Korea.

In addition to the DMZ tour, I enrolled in some free walking tours, to explore the city’s districts and learn more about its rich history.