This list keeps track of everywhere that I have been to and all of the things that I have seen, and I find it a useful tool for my memory and will probably print it off and put it in a scrapbook of some kind at the end of my trip.
Having been through so many different cities and countries it is actually quite a varied list which demonstrates that I have tried to balance a number of factors when making my decision of what to do each day. I feel like the sights in this last part of my trip might be slightly different to the ones I've experienced previously, but what I hope is that in June I can look back proudly on a long list of sights I took in on my travels.
Of course, it isn't all about sights, but considering I am someone who takes an awful lot of photographs these are likely to translate better than stories I have about my feelings and experiences. Those are impossible to quantify, and very difficult to convey at any time, but particularly difficult when this trip has been something of a whirlwind across many different countries, and I feel like I've had a lot of experiences that I might not yet be able to truly appreciate - I'm sure this will come in time though.
I discovered pretty early on that because I am travelling by myself, it is extremely important to keep active and give myself plenty to do. Perhaps this is why a place like Korea suits me better than Laos where I sometimes found it difficult to fill the day with activities.
Whenever I go on holiday I tend to be pretty busy with seeing and doing different things, and that suits me just fine though I'm not sure how my body will be able to handle doing that for four months straight.
I guess we'll find out very soon.
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A good example is walking around in the fish market which I tried to explain in great detail, but there is no way that I can do justice to what was going on around me with just words or pictures - it definitely had to be experienced to get the full effect.
I'd thought about coming to Busan, maybe just for the weekend, when I lived in Korea, but in the end it never worked out, and apart from Suwon where I used to live I actually only visited Seoul and Incheon which were each about an hour away. Seoul used to be quite a common visiting spot as there were plenty of interesting things to do there, and I probably about once a month we'd hop on the metro (or the KTX once we discovered it was the same price and way quicker) and head to the capital. It ranks up there as one of my favourite cities in the world, and it was a hard decision to make not to go back and visit this time around.
Seems like I have made a good decision by coming to Busan however as it has a lot of similarities to Seoul, particularly in its size and also in the wide range of activities which are available there.
I mentioned in a previous blog that I managed to get an extremely detailed map from the hotel when I first checked in, and although I'm still trying to work out the best way to explore as many things as possible, I made a decision to try and cram quite a few things in today.
I don't really remember what the temperature was like when I first moved to Korea - I had so much else going on that the weather was clearly an afterthought. Being quite a built up city which is close to the centre of the country, Suwon always got a little bit of a temperature bump thanks to global warming. I realised that being by the coast would mean that things are a little cooler, but I legitimately could have worn a coat and been comfortable since arriving.
Perhaps it's because I got so used to temperatures of over 30 degrees Celsius and at times I felt I was melting like an ice cube in the desert, but there have been times since I arrived when I felt like even just for a little while I'd like to feel any kind of humidity. From what I can remember it was always pretty cold at night, even in summer, and with winter being particularly cold and snowy I can't say I am surprised that early spring still has some cold temperatures.
On the world map Busan is level with Turkey (average temp. today 20), Tunisia (average temp. today 24) and San Jose (average temp. today 28) where as it's been about fifteen degrees here with some high winds.
Just so you know, I'm not complaining, because I'd much rather it be sunny and cold than raining, but it's just a bit of a shock for my body to deal with that's all.
Today my main objective was to get to one of the city's most famous sights which is Haeundae Beach. This is primarily the reason people come to Busan, and on a sunny day in July it can get a little....crowded:
I think that was one thing which put me off about visiting in the past, but I guess I'd have to deal with that later if it came round to it.
There were a couple of other attractions in and around the Haeundae area which I'd seen on the map so decided to make a bit of route and set off from my room about 10am this morning - probably the earliest I've been out and about to go somewhere other than Angkor Wat or the airport.
It was a bit of a trek to get to Haeundae Beach metro station, but I didn't have to change lines or anything, just go about seventeen stops before I eventually got to the right one. I was leaving the beach as my last location to visit, but I still had to go there in order to go to the first place I was going to head which was Haedong Yonggungsa Temple.
One of the highlights of the tourism scene in Busan, Haedong is a Buddhist Temple located on the north-east coast and is accessible by bus from the metro station. It was first built in 1376 and is up in the mountains, as are most temples in this country.
The map very usefully gave me the number of the correct bus to catch, and also which exit to come out of the metro at, and by the time I got to the bus stop it seemed like a few other people were waiting for it too. This usually provides me with some reassurance that I'm going the right way, but there wasn't a single westerner there so I just had to trust that the map was correct. It turned out to be right as about 25 minutes after jumping on board we were whisked up towards Heodong, although once we got dropped off you probably had to walk for another fifteen minutes to make it to the temple entrance.
It seemed like quite a simple temple to me. Nice architecture, but nothing terribly flashy. Just before you went through the main gates into the temple itself, there were a lot of shops and stalls with people selling things, and as you walked down the hill there were also a number of statues there. Unfortunately their significance was written in Korean so I can only demonstrate what they looked like visually:
Just as it took a while to get to the temple entrance, it also took a while to get to the temple itself once you reached sign stating that you were in the right place. There were lots of people around so it was quite slow going down some stairs and then you had to make a decision to go to the temple which was on the right, or to some rocks which gave you a great view of the temple which was on the left.
You know me to well, I picked the great view first:
Set on the rocks it was quite a sight, and I can imagine that depending on the condition of the water it can be a very peaceful place with waves lapping against the shore - I'd imagine that's why it's location is what it is.
I walked over to the temple itself which looked as though it was currently under going some repair work. There were no signs about explaining what was happening, but there was one giving information about the temple which was reconstructed in 1970 and is a common place for people to come on Buddha's Birthday (a national holiday in Korea) and New Year's Day. There was what looked like strong tied in grid formats all over the place so it was hard to get a good picture of what I was seeing:
There were some stairs leading to a balcony of sorts which was next to the temple, and from there I also managed to get a few good pictures, although again, the string inhibited my view somewhat:
Once I'd climbed all the way to the top, there wasn't much more to see so I went back to the entrance and decided to go a different way back to the bus as I'd seen earlier that there were some signs for a 'coastal path'. These paths seem to be pretty common in Busan as yesterday when I crossed the bridge there was a sign for a coastal path, and I've seen them indicated on the map also.
I walked through an area with some trees for a while before coming to the path which looked like it was currently still under construction in order to be completed.
There were some rocks down below where some ladies looked to be picking out some small crabs from the water, and there was only myself and a couple of other people down there able to get the great view of this part of Busan which looked even better with the sun glistening off the water:
I was considering walking around to the next section of the beach, but I realised that I had quite a few things left to do in the day as well as visiting Haeundae which was my main task so decided to hop back on the bus and continue with my plan.
The bus had been pretty busy on the way to the temple and catching it a stop later than it's origin at the temple it was packed when I got on. What didn't help was that a group of school kids piled on the bus to make it even more cramped as we started to get closer to the station.
I'd brought an all-day ticket for the metro today which allowed me to get on and off as many times as I'd like, and where as usually I'd be all about walking from one place to the next I thought I might as well use my travel privilages for the next couple of stops as I expected them to only be short stays.
The first place I stopped at was Bexco which is Busan's convention centre:
There wasn't anything particularly interesting on that I felt like going to see being showcased today, but the complex had a huge cinema and several floors of restaurants also.
Very close to Bexco is Centrum City which is one of the largest department stores in Busan, and I had a quick walk though there just to make use of the toilet and see if they had anywhere that I could grab a snack from.
Just around the corner from both of those places was the Busan Cinema Centre which is a huge outdoor cinema which hosts the city's film festival each year. I wanted to take a picture but there was a big block of scaffolding in front of it so it didn't quite look as good as it does in the shots I'd seen online.
From here it was time to get back into the metro again and creep a little closer to the beach by stopping off one stop before Haeundae at a stop called Dongbaek.
The stop has the same name as a small park which is located on the edge of the landscape here, and after walking from the metro it looked as though it has been developed into quite an upmarket area with a few restaurants and some high-rise buildings:
From here you can also see Gwangandaegyo Bridge (Diamond Bridge) which is Busan's longest bridge at 7.4km long (more on that later):
The subway directions describe Dongbaek as an island, but it's still attached to the mainland although it does rather stand on it's own. Located there is something called the Nurimaru APEC House which played host to an international convening of leaders in 2005 which met to discuss all things economic and trading in the pacific rim. In order to get to the building you have to walk through quite a well-kept park which has some excellent views of the sea as you walk around.
I wasn't actually going to bother walking in there and just head round the corner to where there looked to be a good viewpoint, but I'm glad I did because it was interesting to walk around the building itself which is left in tact from the original meeting in 2005. As you go down the stairs there's a cafe, a souvenir shop and a little area which provides fantastic views of the bridge and whole area itself:
Climbing back up the stairs you then follow the path towards a lighthouse which again gives you fantastic views out over the sea:
There were quite a few people around making the most of the opportunity, and from there I saw my first sight of the beach:
I decided to head in that direction, and thankfully there was a winding path which took you up, down and around providing better and better views of Haeundae as you went along:
Now visualise the picture I've just shown you, and compare it to the picture at the start of this blog which I stole from Google..... lots of people missing aren't there...?(and umbrellas). The beach itself was actually empty, and I'm not sure because it was nearly 5pm or whether it's because it was still extremely cold, but Busan's most famous beach was free for me to walk up and down without having to worry about crowds of people getting in the way. I'd like to go back on a weekend or in the summer to see what it's really like...
The beach itself was extremely surreal, not only because I'd heard so much about how busy it gets, but also because of the backdrop of skyscrapers which makes it a unique location - think the green space of central park in New York and you're almost there.
The sand itself was incredibly soft, and flat, it was too cold to sit still as I attempted to do for a while, and even whilst walking along and then back I still had to break the coat out of my bag (first time this trip!)
The sun was starting to drop behind the skyscrapers now, and I figured there'd be a pretty good view back near the APEC House so I headed back in that direction. The House itself was closed but I still managed to get some good pictures from the viewing spots of the surrounding area:
I'd read on the map earlier when I was looking at it that Diamond Bridge holds the record for the number of LEDs attached to it, and figured that as it was starting to get dark and as I was still in the mood for exploring that this might be an ideal opportunity to go and visit. The best place to do this from is Gwangalli Beach so I hopped back on the metro and walked the 500m from the station to the beach:
Night was just starting to fall so I snapped a few pictures and walked along from one side to the other. Once I got to the far side I tried to capture as best I could the chaotic scene of lots of buildings lit up with the juxtaposition of the beach in front of them from several angles and I think I did it pretty well:
I stayed for a while until my stomach started to remember that it hadn't been fed since lunchtime so I got back on the metro after about an hour and headed back in the direction of my hotel.
Feel like I had a really productive day in Busan today, and I think being out of my room for almost twelve hours is a testament to that. As I've mentioned in several occasions, it feels like there is plenty to see and do here, and I hope that over the next couple of days the weather stays dry (and maybe warms up a bit) so that I can tick off as many different things as possible.
On The Beach
Chris Rea (1986)
On The Beach
York (2000)
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