I believe my last post ended with me catching a ferry from Jeju to Busan. The line to board the ferry was very long, but luckily there was a line for foreigners which was empty, so I was able to bypass the long wait. I walked up the gangplank and began searching for my room. I had bought a cheap ticket and the room they had shown me a picture of in advance seemed fairly nice. It had windows to the outside and outlets to plug in my electronics so I figured I could watch a movie on my laptop or something. Unfortunately, that was not at all what my "room" was like. I couldn't even seem to find it so one of the ferry workers had to lead me to the correct place. I don't even really know where to begin describing it.
Jeju Harbor
In the middle of the second floor of the ferry was a… corral of sorts. A large carpeted area with no furnishings surrounded by a waist high wall of cubbies where the passengers could store their shoes and luggage. This un-air conditioned space was shared by about 50 people of all ages including many pushy ajummas (older women who won't think twice before roughly shoving you out of their way). I had a couple of these ajummas actually lay down on me attempting to force me to give up my place. I ended up in the middle of the room cramped in the fetal position spooned by a stranger. I fell asleep pretty quickly, but awoke after a couple of hours to the noisy television in the corner of the room.
Sorry for the bad quality. It was hard to hold still on the rocking boat.
I made my way to the deck and gazed out at the beautiful darkening sky for a while until the sun disappeared beneath the horizon. Then I headed to the upper floor where there was a night club that I thought might be interesting to visit. I went to the bar and met a couple of Canadian guys who had been teaching English in Seoul for six months, and were spending the Summer vacation motorcycling across the country. I talked to them for a few hours over a couple of beers and then returned to my pen where I attempted to sleep for a while longer. I woke up just as we were arriving in Busan and was able to watch from the deck as we docked. It was about 6 am and the city, surrounded my tree covered hills, was beautiful in the early morning light.
Arrival in Busan
Surrounded by mountains
A delicious traditional Korean breakfast
I waited a couple of hours in the ferry terminal watching a movie on my laptop before I started calling hotels. I booked a room at the Busan Lotte Hotel, but couldn't check in for several hours, so I explored the city for a while and found somewhere to eat breakfast. At two I made my way to the hotel, which turned out to be a beautiful, with waterfalls and marble statues filling the enormous lobby. I went to check in and was told that I was I had to go to the 33rd floor for some sort of exclusive check-in. Confused I made my way up, but apparently they had misheard McVey and thought I was a Mr. Mack McTeague. When I informed them of their error the clerk apologized and sent me back to the first floor for "regular person" check-in. After being misled to believe that I had somehow scored some special room I was slightly disappointed at my average accommodations, but I got over it quickly enough and spent some time exploring the neighborhood.
My view of the city
Saturday morning I went over to the Busan Museum of Modern Art where I looked around for a couple of hours before making my way over to the beach. There was an amateur skateboarding competition going on which I watched for a while, but none of the competitors were very good, so I ended up going to the aquarium. All I have to say is that Asian sea creatures are freaky! I saw things that I had no idea existed before, the weirdest of which either had to be the turtles with snake necks or the fish with faces that looked more than an little human (the smiles were the worst part).
After seeing the creatures I got to eat them!
As I exited the aquarium, I found thousands of people packed on the beach surrounding a large stage where a man was talking. I worked my way through the crowd to a prime spot where I had a great view and was able to watch the rest of the show which included some very famous korean bands including CNBLUE and Big Bang!
So many people
The Lotte hotel only had the one room available until Sunday, so I had to find somewhere else to stay after that. I found a Buddhist temple mentioned in my guide book which offers overnight stays and dining with the monks, experiencing the traditional Buddhist vegetarian meals (not too difficult for me with my 5 years of vegetarian experience). I called and talked to a woman working there to organize my stay. Apparently it is uncommon for foreigners to stay there, but she was impressed with my Korean and got permission from the head monk to allow me to stay. I caught the subway over to the far northeastern corner of Busan to a very rural area where I took a shuttle out into the forest where the Hongbeopsa temple is located. Denise, the woman I had spoken to on the phone, showed me to my room where I was able to shower before she took me on a tour of the temple (which is currently under construction), taught me the basic temple etiquette, such as where and how to bow, and then introduced me to the head monk and offered to set up a time when I could meet with him and ask him any questions I may have.
After Denise left me to go make preparations for the evening lecture, I explored the orchards and gardens surrounding the temple and relaxed by one of the many large ponds. At 6 I made my way to the dining hall for dinner where I served myself up some rice, vegetables and soup and went to sit on the floor at one of the low tables. Denise introduced me to a couple of students who go to college near the temple and as I ate we got acquainted. At the temple you are expected to finish all of the food that you take and after eating you wash and dry your dishes in one of the sinks along the wall. The meal was delicious and some of the women overseeing the kitchen brought us a dish of sliced pear and watermelon for desert (fruit has become a rare treat during my time here). The students invited me to join them later in the evening to pray in the temple for the high school students of the nation to do well on their college entrance examinations (a very big deal in Korea). This was very interesting to be a part of as I have not previously had much experience with Buddhism.
The temple is currently being remodeled
A Koi pond with a statue of the Buddha
I retreated to my room early, as everyone at the temple rises early for prayer and breakfast at 7:00. After breakfast I wandered a bit more and had time to talk to the head monk for a while about my time in Korea and about the history of the Hongbeopsa temple. After packing my bags I had my last meal at the temple and then tried to find Denise to say goodbye, but was told that she had returned home to be with her family for a while. Some of the women from the temple were also going to the subway station so I walked with them and talked. One even pulled a bag of crackers out of her purse and gave them to me (this ended up being a blessing a few days later, but I'll get to that). The same woman offered to help me find out where I needed to go to acquire a visa to enter China, which I had been having some trouble working out. She took me to the city center where there was an office for foreigners with such problems. The office had an English "counselor" who tried to send me to the Chinese one because I was going to China, but after trying to explain my problem in Chinese (which I haven't used in several months) I decided it would be easier to work with the English speaker.
The two women were able to figure out where I needed to go and they called the travel agency and drew me maps to get there. It was very convenient, but I felt bad for the woman from the temple who had initially helped me who was standing to the side for the entire time, and I couldn't seem to convince her that I would be alright on my own. She finally left after a half hour after I thanked her. It turned out the place I needed to go was right where I needed to meet my friend Sandy, who's train from Seoul was arriving just then. Together we went and applied for my visa, which would take a couple of days to go through and then we were off to find accommodations for the night. Someone at the information desk of the train station was able to direct us to a backpacker's hostel called Blue which was fairly nice and comfortable. We made plans to go by bus the next day to a small town a few hours west called Tongyeong. There are many islands off the coast of the city which you can get to by boat and explore or stay the night. Once we had figured out what we were doing we went to the college district of Busan and found a bar with good music and got a couple drinks. The area was pretty dead because it was a Monday night, but the four bartenders were funny and kept things interesting. We got back to the hostel and went to bed semi-early in order to get a good start in the morning.
Blue Backpacker's Hostel
Check back soon if you're interested in hearing about how the crackers the woman gave me saved us when we were stranded on a cliff in a typhoon…
