Busan, Korea (July 23)

The ferry arrived in Busan, Korea about mid-day. This was my first view of Korea from the ferry window. Turns out it's a fairly typical view - my week in Korea was a bit hazy and everywhere I looked there were large identical high rise buildings.


Once we landed in Busan, I found the subway station and was just about to pull out the directions to the hostel when I was accosted by an overly helpful Korean woman. This also turned out to be a fairly typical experience - looking even the slightest bit lost or confused brought "helpful" people running over. Sometimes though, it was too much help, like the helpful woman who spoke no English and who insistently put me on the wrong bus, heading two hours in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go.


In the subway station, my "just off the boat" look was apparently evident as the non-English speaking woman demanded of me where I wanted to go. I was just looking for that information when she grabbed the money from my hand and dragged me along to get some small change. I was rather stunned by this whole encounter, because while Japanese people will be very helpful if you ask them for help or directions, they will NEVER just approach you offering help. But I quickly learned in Korea not to pull out my map or guidebook unless I was comfortably sitting on a park bench or restaurant, so as to discourage unneeded "help".


In Busan, I visited Beomeosa Temple. The temple was founded in 678 AD but none of the buildings are original. For me, it was a very striking temple as the temples in Japan are not brightly colored. Another thing that caught my attention at this and every other temple in Korea is that Korean Buddhas have a handlebar moustache!


Guardians at Buddhist temples


I liked these little Buddha statues of see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil!


After visiting Beomeosa temple, I took a cable car up the mountain-side for a view of Busan.


I wandered through the streets of Busan for a while, snapping photos. Korea is the world's 11th or 13th largest economy (depending on which set of statistics you're reading), but sometimes it didn't feel like it. For instance, you can't drink the water from the tap, nor can you flush toilet paper. And there were lots of things for sale on the streets, outdoor markets, etc.

a tank of barely alive eels for dinner



A couple more things that caught my eye:
"Live" food - that made me nervous, having heard other travellers stories about being served live baby octopus.


A vending machine selling books!


More photos of Busan