Plane to Busan (and Suncheon)

27^th June

Flew to the nation with the fieriest prayer in East Asia: South Korea. My first visit to Korea was in 2009, when I went to the Onsari Prayer Mountain with the short mission group from church. Despite the “crazy fat kid” threatening to shoot missiles, my aunt was already sick of travelling to Japan, so we got on a plane to Busan (no zombies this time). We went with the Cola tour group, with Jade as our tour guide. Jade is a very professional tour guide who made a youtube short clip for our group everyday. He is also a tour guide trainer.

Busan is in the southern end of South Korae (Kim’s missiles probably won’t get this far?), and is the largest harbor city in Korea. We ate pumpkin duck for lunch. The waitress taught us that we can pour the soup into the rice and eat it that way.

The first attraction was Nakdong Estuary Eco-Center. However, most of the birds we saw were specimen made from dead birds. We had more luck seeing live birds using the telescope.

We then went to the Amisan Observatory and saw some ships with the telescope.

The next top was the Taejongdae Resort Park. There is a mother statue there (looks more like a grandma to me), where many people had committed suicide at. According to Jade, pressure is high in South Korea, and it is the nation with the highest suicide rate in the world. The men must earn enough to support the whole family, work very hard during the day, and drink alcohol with colleagues in the evening. Academic competition is also fierce, with everyone trying to compete for the “SKY” universities. I also observed that there were many bright red lips floating around, it seems to be a fashion trend amongst the Korean women.

Then we went to the Korea National Maritime Museum, and saw a Turtle Ship model (Geobukseon, the secret weapon of Korean national hero Yi Sun-sin), and a petting fish pool where we can touch the fish.

In the evening the tour bus drove towards Suncheon, and Jade played the movie “Train to Busan” for us. However, at DVD got stuck at the climax! We went to so many places on the first day of the tour and slept pretty well.

28^th June

The first stop was Gwanghalluwon Garden, where several famous Korean dramas were filmed. However, I don’t watch Korea dramas, so it just feels like a nice park. According to Jade, the South Korean government decided to invest in Korean dramas in 2002, so there is actually government policies and strategies behind the development of Korean dramas.

Next, we went to Namwon Theme Park, which had lots of cute thinks for us to take photo with. However there was not enough time for us to go through the whole park.

Then we went to the Seomjingang Train Village which had lots of cute things. We took the steam train to Jirisan Spa Land for Hanjeungmak. Jade recorded my grandma suddenly lifting one of her leg high in his video, and I was very puzzled when I saw this: is this some new exercise move my grandma came up with? When I asked my mom why grandma did that, she told me that grandma was saying how her hands shake when she tries to take photos using the smartphone, and my mom said to use her legs to stablise the phone, and my gradma lifted her leg high asking “like this?” Mystery solved.

The spa land provided us with t-shirt and shorts, but it didn’t feel very comfortable to go in the spa in those. Whenever the wind blows, we felt very cold. The Hanjeungmak is very similar to a Sauna but not as dry and hot. Jade says that the Hanjeungmak is open 24hours a day, so many people who ran away from home likes to live there. After the spa, we tried out the CASS beer, banana milk, and yogurt jelly, which were all very nice.

29^th June

The first stop was Songgwangsa, which produced 16 national preceptors. However, today the tide has turned and Christianity has become the mainstream.

The next stop was Nagan Eupseong Folk Village, a World Heritage Site.

The Suncheon Bay Wetland was huge and we could only see a tiny bit of it given our limited time. There were many tiny crabs in the mud.

The Suncheon Bay National Garden has a train that took us around many gardens.

Then our bus headed towards Busan, which was quite a distance, so the movie “The Admiral: Roaring Currents” was played, which described Yi Sun-sin's most remarkable naval victories, in which he led the only 12 ships remaining in his command to a heroic victory against an invading Japanese fleet numbering 330 vessels. The actors that played the Japanese in this movie were particularly ugly. Historically, the relationship between the Koreans and Japanese had not been friendly.

When we arrived in Busan, we ate pork bone soup with potatoes. We walked around the markets close to our hotel as well as a cosmeceutical shop. The hotel used Dead Sea mineral washing products, which reminded me of Israel. We tried the local fried chicken that evening, which tasted different from all the fried chicken I have every eaten.

30^th June

Today, Jade wore a formal suit and took us to several “shopping stops” because he has a sales performance target which he was required to meet. The first stop was a black ginseng shop, not many people bought the ginseng. The second stop was a liver tonic shop, where more people bought the product. Many people also bought stuff in the cosmeceutical shop and local produce shop. Jade seemed to have reached his target and bought melon ice blocks for all of us.

Then we went to Gamcheon Culture Village, which had many lovely thing for us to take photos with. There were many tourists, most of them lining up for the “Little Prince”.

At Haedong Yonggungsa, there were statues of the twelve Chinese zodiac animals outside standing upright, which appeared very strange, especially the standing snake! Jade treated us Hoddeok (brown sugar pancake)

We had Korean style pork knuckles for dinner and took photos with the pig outside the restaurant. We walked to the Lotte Mall, which was quite a distance. This was the first time I saw fresh ginseng in the supermarket. Went to a cosmeceutical shop and saw the Isa Knox and Soo range of cosmeceuticals, and my mom bought many. 

1^st July

First, we went in the Dongbaek Park to the Nurimaru APEC House.

Then we went on the Songdo Skywalk, a 365-metre-long promenade extends out from the edge of Songdo beach.

We had BBQ pork for lunch, but some got burnt accidentally. Then we had three hours of free time, and we mostly roamed around the BIFF Square, and my mom bought more cosmeceuticals. We then had crushed ice desserts in Lotteria and found that the toilets have password, which were written at the bottom of our receipts. By the time we got to the Jagalchi Fish Market, time was really running out, but we felt we must not miss it (especially the live octopus sashimi!), and ate a rushed meal before heading to the airport.