June 18, Wednesday, Sangju to Busan
The train ride from Sangju to Busan was about 3 hours. Youngmi drove us to the station in the rain, she also provided us with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, on homemade bread! Yummy. It was a good thing she did because there was no food on the train. Some of the trains have little cafes and carts that come by with food. Not on this train. Once we got to Busan we went to the Tourist Information booth, almost all the cities we have been to have these, but we rarely utilize them. We probably should check them out from now on. The woman recommended some areas we might be interested in, and told us which bus to take. Outside the station the first two things we see in the city of Busan is a rat, running into the sewer in the middle of the day (11am) and a drunk couple, the woman was stumbling all over and yelling and hitting the man she was with, and then eventually just sat down on the ground in the middle of the plaza outside the station! We got our bearings and tried to find the bus to Hae-undae beach. No luck, so we took the subway instead. This subway seemed to make more sense to us than the one in Seoul. But it was super crowded, and we have these bags strapped to us. After about 30 minutes we made it to Hae-undae Beach, as we were going up the stairs from the subway, Kyle said, “well here goes!” Expecting to step out into a scene similar to that of Daecheon Beach! But to our surprise it was very nice! There was of course the usual area with a ton of love motels. We wandered through this area in search of the perfect place to stay. Some of these motels have the funniest pictures and sayings on the outside (see picture) we found one that looked really nice and new, but they were booked. Then we came across Motel Mu, they had a room, and it was only 70,000 Won. The room was exceptionally clean, and spacious, and it had a real glassed in shower! We unpacked a little and went in search of lunch. What we found was the most satisfying meal I’d had so far in Korea, and it was Indian food! Hehe, (Adrianne, our next trio includes you, Jef, and India get planning!) The food was great, and my two glasses of wine were even better. Not many places serve red wine, so I am very excited when they have it!
After lunch we walked out by the beach, it was humid and felt like it would rain but it hadn’t started yet. This was a very nice beach, and there were lots of good people watching. Kyle got an espresso, and we went back to the motel to get my sweatshirt, it was really windy! Then we took the subway back to another area of Busan that looked interesting. We started walking around it that area and once again found ourselves in the middle of a market, smelly fish and all! But this one had some stalls that had dried herbs and things that smelled wonderful! Even with the rat and drunken people Busan was the best smelling city in Korea so far! Actually I really liked Busan, and if I were to move to Korea and take a job teaching English I would want to live and work in Busan. I liked being so close to the ocean, a little like San Diego! After walking about the market for all of 3 minutes the rain started, and then it really hit! We didn’t have an umbrella, and we could find anywhere that sold them, finally we found a cab and asked for a coffee shop. We both had an Americano, and tried to figure out what we should do next, we ended up heading back to the area of our hotel to find some raw fish for dinner (Busan is known for raw fish) and to go to the bathhouse, our muscles were sore from weeding! So all in all we took two 40 min subway rides to have a cup of coffee!
We grabbed some supplies for the spa, since we now knew the drill, and grabbed a taxi. This bathhouse was much nicer, it had a separate floor for men, and a separate floor for women, and the floor in between was a floor for both, you get a little uniform to wear in this area, like long shorts and a t-shirt. I scrubbed down, tried a few baths, looked at more Asian bush, saw an extremely large woman naked, and then went upstairs to meet Kyle in the joint area. He actually walked out on a patio area butt-ass naked and looked out at the ocean, I wasn’t that brave. We checked out some of the saunas, and the funny massage chairs (Kyle called them happy ending chairs!) On this floor they had a little restaurant, café, cell phone charging area, two TV’s, and places to take a nap. Some people come to baths like this instead of getting a hotel room, for 15,000 Won two can stay in the spa as long as they would like, and this place was 24 hours.
After the bath, we went in search of the raw fish house. Kyle said we were close to one recommended in the Lonely Planet book, so we looked for it, but it was dark, and rainy, and not the best area. I wanted to find something else. Just as we were about to give up a man on a moped drove up to us. He noticed our book (lonely planet guide) and asked if we were looking for Grandmother Lee’s, we were! He said “ So I knew what you were thinking! That is my restaurant follow me!” At this point I was concerned because if he is chasing down business in a deserted part of town, how good and how fresh can the fish be? Kyle seemed excited he was going to show us where it was, but I felt suspicious.
Check later, more to come. Angy is getting impatient. Imagine that!
