Project 3162: Asia: Day 8, 9, 10: Korea

backtrack blog...


at Hakata Ferry Pier

got on the jetfoil from Hakata to Pusan (3-hour ride) and arrive at our first "foreign" land.
thought it'd be simple to navigate through trains, buses, and signals, but no. once we got out of the international ferry terminal, most everything was written in hangul, and we had to be like kids and play a game of matching lines, squares, and circles to find the correct destinations and routes.

first thing i realized upon entering the train: it smells like garlic.
not raw nor cooked, but garlic that seeps through the pores after being digested by a human being. it wasn't gross or anything, 'twas just how it was. in a day or two, i too will be seeping garlic from my pores.

first train in Pusan

we get to the hostel, go out to lunch at the local town, get a huge meal of bbq pork + naengmyun for less than 5 dollars/person,

incredibly cheap and yummy food

explore,

nap, do research on our next destination (proving to get harder and more stressful by the day), and head out to the city at night with fellow hostellers.

dad excited to hang out with the young ones (me too)

at the first restaurant, they served us a pot of makkoli (korean rice wine) which then you water down with Sprite (or the Korean version of it). you keep chugging the drink in a bowl-like cup, as you take shots of soju whenever the guys want to say cheers. fun times.

hostellers

the next day, dad and i woke up before everyone else at the hostel and took off in stealth as we visited one of the UN World Heritage sites: Bulguksa temple in the Geongsang province.
we got to the site around noontime, and headed towards the restaurant area which was obviously established to serve tourists. the 15 or so restaurants all looked very quiet. before we could get to any of them, an old lady who was standing on the street corner spoke to us in Japanese and quickly pulled us into her empty restaurant down the hill. before we knew it, she was cooking up a huge meal of dolsot bibimbap. after serving the food hurriedly, she ran back to the same street corner to catch some more tourists getting off the next bus.

the meal was great, and upon paying the bill, dad asked if we could leave our heavy backpacks with her while we explored the temple. "sure sure sure," she replies, "wow great!" dad says, and although i felt a bit skeptical, we entrusted our bags with the lady.

we climbed for about 10 minutes to get to the entrance of Bulguksa. just as we were looking around to purchase entry tickets, an old man stops us and says, "you two left your backpacks at the restaurant right? i saw you, i even saw you go into the bathroom at the bottom of the hill, here's what you have to do from here: go over to that counter, buy tickets, take a good look at the temple for about 1.5 hours, head to that bus station over there by 2:40, take bus #12, go up to see the big buddha, and then come back in time for your train to Seoul. oh, and look, i have some extra time right now, so let me explain to you all the important sights within this temple!" and so he does for about 10 minutes, explaining in detail the historical and cultural meaning of every aspect of the temple and the layout of the land.

dad listens carefully, as i get worried more and more about our bags..."he saw us? he followed us up the hill? he's telling us to take our time?" the thought lingers for a bit, but we enter the temple and i forget about our bags for the next hour...

we realize there's not enough time to catch the KTX (high-speed train) to Seoul if we visit the huge Buddha, so we head back down to the restaurant. my worries come back and i imagine a scene shady-man and the lady-cook going through our backpacks searching for valuable. "i'll catch them red-handed..."
we get to the restaurant, the place is now packed, and our bags are sitting there exactly where we put them a couple hours ago.
we say our thanks, give the lady a tip and as we leave, we find the old man playing with a kid next door. turns out he was the shopkeeper of a souvenir store and sometimes volunteers as a tour guide for the temple.

for a moment, i regret being suspicious of the two. i know i need to be extra careful taking care of my dad, i've also read about so many horror stories, but i don't want to keep traveling suspecting everyone who approaches us with kindness. i feel a bit torn as to how i should proceed in my travels...and life.

the KTX was fully booked with reservations, so we board the train without a seat and find space in between cars to place our bags and make our way through the 3-hour ride to Seoul.

good bye...the girl was crying the whole time.

dad a bit tired

KTX ticket inspector

we don't get to do much in Seoul. we stay at a nice guest house with a Japanese speaking owner named Mr. Kim, and roam around the city for a bit to grab a nice dinner. Seoul seems to me like any other big city in Japan. the feel of the streets, the neon, the conbinis, the stations, are all pretty much the same. the writing is different, the smell (garlic!) is different, and the young girls and guys here tend to have fuller bodies. i realized this first within the girls (duh), they seemed to not be as skinny as Japanese girls. then i realized that the same was true for the guys here. i'm assuming that it's the mandatory military service that makes the men here stronger, and in turn affects the whole culture and everyone's understanding + preference of the body.

the next morning, as i was researching how to get to the Incheon ferry port on the shared computer, i catch a "Lonely Planet: China" book sitting on the corner of the desk next to mine.
"you going to China also?"
"yeah."
"when?"
"today, on a ferry."
"serious? my dad and i are doing the same too! which ferry?"
"the one to Weihai."
"oh, we're going to Shidao...wait, Weihai is like right next door to Shidao. let's just catch the same one!"
"sure."
and so we make a new friend, Luke. Luke is a 24 year-old from Ireland, and he's been in Korea for 2 years(?) now, and can read + speak the language. let me tell you, having him around made our trip to the ferry port and beyond much much easier.

Luke

Korean couples like to wear matching clothes


cute

got on the ferry at Incheon, and although the bathroom smells intensely of urine, we enjoy the beds, the Korean cafeteria food, the amazing sunset, and beer at the empty bar lounge.