Busan
We arrived in Busan by ferry from Fukuoka, Japan. It's a three-hour journey through the Korea Strait on the JR Beetle hydrofoil. As we pulled into the international port, the city extending as far as I could see to the right and left along the coast and up into the hills, I thought, "well, that's going to be a lot to try to see in three days..."
Luckily, Busan's excellent infrastructure makes it possible to move quickly. We were off the ship and in Busan Central within minutes, thanks to handy labels in the floor that guided us out of the port and into the station. After a couple more minutes, we'd spoken to an agent at the tourist information desk and followed her instructions to check the next to-dos off our list: acquire Korean won from an ATM; store our big bags in a coin locker at the station; locate the metro entrance; figure out where to buy pre-charged T-cards to ride it. Turns out this last could be accomplished at the convenience store in the station. We walked in ready to stammer out our few Korean phrases, "anyeounghaseyo" (hello), "szillehajeman" (excuse me), "jongo haseyo?" (do you speak English?), and "cansahamnida!" (thank you!). As it turned out the two guys in the store spoke great English and were super friendly and even helped us learn to pronounce "thank you" in Korean. Whew! We'd been in the country about 35 minutes, and it was smooth sailing.
From the port we took off for an Airbnb booking we’d made called "Busan history and market food tour with local chef." Jalgachi is an enormous fresh food market right in the harbor. Its specialty is fish of all types, not only caught in the local waters but also fresh catch from abroad brought in right through the international port. Heeyoung, our local chef, works in the area and took us to her favorite vendors and snack stalls. She explained some of the context of food in Busan. Obviously, seafood is king because of the port. Also, somewhat scrappy and inventive items originated during the Korean War era: dishes with Spam (a Spam assortment pack is a valued gift around the holidays, she said); fish cakes, which use flour to extend limited quantities of fish; leftover rice dried out and eaten as a crispy rice snack. Another food tour for the win! We walked out of Jalgachi with a plan for which vendor to return to for lunch the next day, Korean restaurant and movie recommendations from Heeyoung, and a bag of nutritional nut powder that lasted us for breakfast the rest of our stay in Korea.
On our second day in Busan we walked along Gwangalli Beach until we picked up the oceanside walkway, Igidae Coastal Track, which we took to its end at the Oryukdo Skywalk. From there we caught a bus to Jalgachi to visit our fish vendor from the day before. We tried buttered abalone for the first time and splurged on king crab and scallops; the vendor threw in some cherrystone clams too. Re-energized, we caught a bus to Gamcheon Cultural Village up in the hills, to our eyes the Guanajuato of Korea with its colorful buildings. You can do a self-guided walk through the village to see all the murals and cafes, which we did along with a mere few thousand other tourists. Fortunately for the local residents, the route seems to shut down at 5pm.
The final day in Busan was rainy, perfect for diving into the Korean experience of the jimjilbang, or spa. Honestly, the humble "spa" doesn't quite capture the essence of Spa Land. First of all, it's inside a mall and, mall-like, is located across multiple floors. Upon entry to Spa Land you receive a shoe locker key, a clothes locker key, a towel for your head, a towel for your body, and flannel shirt and shorts. You store your shoes and clothes and, naked, you enter the hot baths section, where you first spend at least 10 minutes at a shower stall thoroughly cleaning yourself (we were experts after Japan). Then you can get in the various hot water pools, in the saunas, or in a back room where you can pay for additional treatments. I chose a 25-minute body scrub to exfoliate all my dead skin; worth every cent. Then it was back through the hot tubs and to the lockers to don the flannels. At that point, and in my experience this is a unique and fabulous feature of the Korean jimjilbang, you still have three hours (or more!) to enjoy all of the other amenities of the spa, in the company of your friends. Spa Land has an entire atrium devoted to footbaths of different temperatures. I imagine you've heard of Himalayan pink salt -- they have a room made of that. How about an electromagnetic wave room? They have that too. Plus regular dry saunas of different temperatures, from ice cold to 77 Celsius. Also a relaxation room where you can sit in leather recliners and just be quiet. There are cafes, a restaurant, and salons for hair and nails. Although Spa Land seemed to be populated by as many tourists as locals, the other jimjilbang we later visited in Seoul deep in a sub-basement level of the Paragon Mall felt much more like we were partaking of the local self-care scene.
For our last evening in Busan, we got what I'll call our occasional "expat fix" by going to a bar in the Gwangan area that had an English language pub quiz. We teamed up with a visiting Englishman, Harry from Stratford-upon-Avon (yes, that one, my fellow Shakespeare nerds), who made the evening extra fun. "Across the Pond" didn't win, but we didn't lose, either.
Jirisan Ridge Hike
Months before we arrived in Korea, Matt and I had decided that a multi-day hike should be part of our time there. I did some research into our options, and thanks to some very helpful blogposts, especially Runaway Juno's, I landed on hiking the Jirisan Ridge in southwestern Korea, about a three-hour bus ride from Busan. For those who might at some point attempt this 2 - 3 day hike (I highly recommend it; Matt not so much), I'll regale you with the tale of our adventure there:
From my research, I learned a lot about the possible ways to tackle Jirisan -- some people start in the east at Daewonsa Temple and hike west; some start in the west, at Hwaeomsa Temple, and hike east. Unfortunately, we were constrained by the availability of reservable shelters atop the ridge (camping in the park is not allowed) to starting in the east, hiking in a westerly direction, but then backtracking east again to exit off-mountain in the south, without completing the full ridge hike. Still, all the research I'd conducted on the full trail paid off. Knowing the key place names in Korean -- Hwaeomsa, Daewonsa, and the various shelters in between – made us capable of at least approximating trail pleasantries with other hikers. Though I couldn't say in Korean, "isn't it a beautiful day on this lovely hike...and, by the way, are you headed to Jangteomok Shelter this fine evening?" I could say "Anyeounghaseyo! Jangteomok??" and feel more connected to this hiking community where we were the only foreigners we encountered the entire time.
But let's back it up a bit, to May 15, when we were still in Japan. That was when the online portal for Jirisan shelter reservations at the national park service opened for June bookings. Not only is hiking the national pastime of South Korea, but our dates also fell on a long weekend, so you better believe that 15 minutes before the portal opened I was sitting at my laptop, finger ready to click; plans A, B, and C of possible hiking trajectories based on available shelters plotted out. Still, within seconds, the shelters I'd wanted for plans A and B were booked up. Plan C it was -- Chibatmok Shelter on June 3 and Seseok Shelter on June 4. Quickly, I reserved the Airbnb bookends on either side of this hike -- key elements of the plan since we needed somewhere to stay June 2 and June 5 that was walkable to/from the trail, accessible from/to Busan by reservable bus, and, ideally, hosted by people who could, you know, maybe help us with directions...These turned out to be a spot in Sangcheon in the east and Jungsan-ri towards the southwest.
[Here I'll insert a side note on just how complicated our lack of Korean language made planning this leg of the trip: we were entirely dependent on the English-language facing information about everything, and there are inconsistencies in this, especially where translations of place names are concerned, due to the difference in alphabet. Case in point: Jungsan-ri, Jungsanlli, and Zhongsan-ri are all the same place per the Latinate spelling.]
Okay, so this brings us to June 2. Everything's been booked, we've stored our big bags at Zam 101 Hotel, where we’ll be staying upon our return to Busan, conveniently (deliberately) a 6-minute walk from the Busan Sebou Intercity Bus Terminal, and we've picked up groceries for the trail. At 7pm we board the intercity bus bound for Sangcheon, having pre-arranged a pickup with our Airbnb host for our late arrival to the small town. We arrive and there she is, and she's brought her English-speaking tenant with her to translate. Success! In the car, we’re able to express our deep thanks for the late-night pickup, explain that we would be hiking Jirisan, and get to know our host a bit. Her husband had been a sea captain for a 30-year career and then they retired to Sangcheon, in view of the mountains, to run a farm and B&B. They grow and preserve persimmons and also have a lovely cafe on the property for guests.
The next morning in the cafe I spoke with our host's husband, who knew the Jirisan trail quite well and offered to drive us to the trailhead. Over tea and persimmons, the whole family, including the neighbor from the night before and her husband, gathered to give us advice on our Jirisan route. They took the trouble to write out English place names on the relevant stops on a Korean trail map our host had ducked out while we packed to pick up for us. How nice were these people?! Then they drove us to the trailhead about 20 minutes away. Success again!
And here our success trails off, pun intended, because pretty immediately on the hike, Matt started to feel unwell...food poisoning unwell. So he was uncomfortable the whole day of hiking, and Jirisan can be a punishing hike anyway, composed almost entirely of uphill slogs, extended stairways, and boulder climbs. Then we got to Chibatmok shelter around 4:00pm, and it was okay: drinking water, warmed-floor sleeping bunks, toilets, not super-crowded. However, it ended up being very, very hard to sleep there, even tired from the hike as we were. The floor was too hot and the other hikers were noisy with their 3am or 5am start times to summit the highest peak at daybreak, which we weren't doing.
So, unrefreshed, we proceeded up the trail. Matt felt a little better, at least. The views from all of the peaks were incredible. Also, we kept meeting up with a few of the same friendly folks, so that was nice. We also got a lot of inquisitive, but I think ultimately impressed, glances at the heavy-looking packs and cooler we carried. The Korean hikers had serious, stylish gear including trekking poles, brand-name athletic clothing, caps or hats with the Korean flag, coordinated hiking packs, and, often, sports tape on their knees or calves. In comparison we looked...shabby?
Anyway, at around 4pm on Day 2 we arrived at Seseok Shelter. Seseok had about four times the number of occupants as Chibatmok -- in the vast women's dorm, I had slot #88 and all those around me were filled -- but one-eighth the toilets. I’m not exaggerating. Seseok, it seems, normally has a regular set of toilets, but these were under construction. Instead, for 200 overnighters plus everyone passing through during the day, there were 2 male and 2 female port-a-potties, latrine style (by "latrine" I mean a hole in the ground inside a box).
Matt and I ate our PB and red bean paste bagels standing at a metal counter where others set up cookstoves and made hot meals. We then parted ways for the night to our separate dorms, the only place really to be out of the wind, and read and tried to sleep but didn't really accomplish much of either. I had a snoring compatriot to my left who clearly irked the woman on her other side far more than she bothered me; unfortunately then I had one woman’s huffing, shifting, and sighing plus the other’s snoring to contend with. Finally at 3am the snorer's alarm woke all of us up. Eventually it woke her up, too, and then she left and I actually did fall asleep for a time. At 7:30 I went out to meet Matt, feeling relatively refreshed, and guess what? He hadn't slept at all. Early in the night he'd had a food-poisoning-caused “accident,” to put it vaguely. Please refer to the section on the latrines above to round out the portrait of suffering that was Matt on that morning.
Day 3 of the hike was two hours backtracking to Jangteomok Shelter and from there -- new ground! -- downhill to Jungsan-ri. Matt felt like, looked like, and probably smelled like crap. I was not so pretty myself, but nowhere near as bad as he was. *In looking at the photos of this journey, everything looks rather stunning; all the more reason to tell the full story for the historical record.* The hike to Zhongsan-ri was hard, very hard, and that was going downhill. There weren't too many people hiking up, and I can see why. This trail didn't have switchbacks down the mountain; it was just straight down on a path that looked like a bunch of boulders had just tumbled down the entire mountain in a gargantuan rockslide and they decided that was clearly the best trail to use. It took us from 8am to 1pm to get to the park entrance at Jungsanlli. From there it was a 1km walk to the Airbnb in a beautiful private log cabin complex our host later told us he'd built by hand 20 years ago. He let us check in early, he helped me use the washing machine, and we napped on floor mattresses after lovely showers. The next day he drove us to the bus station nearby (really, it was walkable, but at that point we needed the ride...stay tuned) and even helped us get the right tickets back to Busan. Success on that Airbnb!
BUT, that final post-hike night Matt and I passed up a burger joint for a local Korean place specializing in the region's famed dish, grilled burdock root seasoned and served with pork as well as the traditional side dishes, rice, and clear vegetable broth soup. Filling, delicious, nutritious, replenishing after the hike…Unfortunately, all of that did not mix well in Matt's addled digestive tract and he spent the night being extremely ill.
So that about wraps up our Jirisan adventure. Oh, except that when we got back to that conveniently bus-station-adjacent hotel in Busan where we’d left our luggage before the hike, Zam 101, we realized it was a sex hotel when it didn’t take check-in before 6pm, unless, of course, we were willing to pay hourly for the room until then. That was the first clue. I leave the other clues up to your imagination.
Seoul
We took the Mugunghwha train from Busan to Seoul. This is the least express of the Korean Rail lines, and the cheapest, and I’d recommend it. We were ready to be at our destination after five hours, of course, but the ride was smooth, there was room for our luggage, and we had comfortable assigned seats.
Our time in Seoul felt restful after the adventures and misadventures of Busan and Jirisan. We stayed in an Airbnb in a quieter part of town for almost a week. We got groceries from the local store and cooked our own food a few times, Matt played in a couple hockey scrimmages at nearby Mokdong rink, and we split up some days to see things on our own.
A few recommendations for Seoul:
Themed cafes. We went to Geurim Cafe, which is noted in Atlas Obscura for its decorations that make it look two-dimensional. Highly recommend it. We also went to Ddong, the “poop cafe” (after all, poop had become a subplot of the Korea leg), but we were underwhelmed. To our experienced eyes, there just weren’t enough poop-themed items to earn to the name.
Historical experiences.
The War and Women's Human Rights Museum has a permanent exhibit on the Comfort Women during Japanese occupation in World War II. You can watch online an animated short video they have running at the museum, which relays one woman's memories of her experience.
The DMZ. I did one of those half-day 40-person bus tours to the Demilitarized Zone. Some tours with much more advance booking and security clearances than I chose to pursue take you into the Joint Securities Area. This one took us on the more common circuit of the 3rd Tunnel (one of four tunnels that South Korea has found cutting under the DMZ from the North, and which it has blocked but also turned into a visitor experience), the Imjingak Park (an area of monuments and memorials to this war that claimed close to 5 million lives and displaced some 10 million people), and the Dora Observation Deck (from which you can gaze out upon a distant North Korea through binoculars). I experienced a range of emotions on this visit. On the one hand, some of the paraphrenalia like military cut-outs for photos and the opening line of the informational video at the 3rd Tunnel Museum, “Welcome to the world’s only demilitarized zone!” as if it were some Ripley’s attraction, were bemusing. On the other hand, I’d just finished reading The Korean War by Max Hastings, and it was significant to me to see the memorial to the US Veterans of the Korean War and to contemplate the topography of the Imjin River, where so many devastating and important battles were fought. The most moving section of the entire visit was our stop at the memorial to the 1983 television project that attempted to reunite some of the displaced persons. A film I’d just watched on Heeyoung’s recommendation, Ode to my Father, features one of the successful reunification stories, but so many more people never found their missing. Right next to this memorial is the Mangbaedan Memorial Altar. Our guide explained that every year at Thanksgiving families who’ve never been able to reunite with their loved ones come and set up a meal here, facing north, as if to eat in their company. He glanced towards the stadium-style seats rising up in the complex facing this altar and said the whole area can be packed with people on that day.
Food. We tried to try it all. By “it” I mean all of the culinary treasures for which Korea is famous, plus locales recommended by people we met, plus dishes eaten by Phil Rosenthal in the Korea episode of Somebody Feed Phil, plus foods we ran across enough times while walking around that we felt they had to be sampled. So we tried it all and gained back any weight we may have lost on the hike. Here is a list of our best eats:
Tteok-bokki, corn flour pancakes, and dumplings at Gwangjang Market.
Fried chicken at Chicken in the Kitchen.
Shaved ice confections at Sulbing Cafe.
North Korean cuisine: dumplings and garit gukbap soup at Banryongsan.
Korean barbecue anywhere a local recommends. We went to a neighborhood spot on our Mokdong Airbnb host’s recommendation.
Ssambap (seasoned meat and rice wrapped in lettuce leaves) at The Whale in Mokdong.
Bonus item: Go to the Kimchi Museum! You get a free tasting of different types of kimchi and you get to engage with their nifty holograms and touch screens.
Last but far from least, baseball. We saw the Kia Tigers take on the Doosan Bears at Jamsil Sport Complex. Friday night baseball in Seoul was a happening scene. I’d gone to a Tigers v. Lotte Giants game the week before, and that was pretty exciting too, but it didn’t have quite the Tiger fans turn-out as the Seoul game. Even though they were the visiting team’s fans, this crowd took up about half the stadium. Since their team batted first they set a high bar for chants, songs, and general spectacle that the Doosan Bears’ section, where we’d sat, attempted, and failed, to match.
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