Goin’ Coastal
Circadian rhythms are a hell of a thing. Planning on a 8:30am wakeup for a 9am departure, we found ourselves up and at ‘em around 6am.
With this newfound time, we observed the previously unlit vista from our deck, and found some neat stuff.
Let me tell you, every high-rise in Busan has a helipad on top. Our apartment was in Tower C of a 4 building, 48 story-each complex. Each had their own helipad. All of the buildings we saw downtown had them as well. I speculated on the reason for this:
- We got some pretty dang’ rich folks livin’ up in here.
- There is a regulation requiring the addition of a helipad after a building rises above a certain number of floors.
- Since Busan is so full of new construction, these are actually flying-car parking lots, and they’re well future-proofed.
On this fair Sunday we were headed for the Jalgachi fish market — a trip made easy by a nearly vacant subway and a population that seemed to sleep in late on the last day of the week.
As I concluded with twin, the Jalgachi fish market was pretty much everything your social studies textbook ever taught you about Asia. It pegged all of the right stereotypes.
The sheer volume of quarry had us wondering what happened to the whole deal at night. A block of frozen mackerel, though unholy, had us coming to some conclusions on our own.
I tried a fish-stick on a stick. It was alright, had some random corn in it, but wasn’t something I’d eat again. To cleanse my palette of that, we shared some delicious vegetable dumplings and this curious doughnut-filled-with-sunflower-seeds deal.
Somewhere in that midst I spied a McDonald’s delivery scooter. Hey, that’s pretty neat.
We entered a flea market in which the hilarity of Konglish started to really shine through. To follow that thread, check out this album that I’ll be updating the whole trip.
Sister and Twin did their best Harry Potter Professor impressions
And we meandered through the shops will being assaulted by heinousy overlapping K-Pop songs.
A short metro hop and we were at the beachy part of Busan. And beautiful it was.
All man-made, the beach had a Waikiki feel to it-white sand sheltered by the surrounding city. We stopped at a side-street cafe for a donkas: a fried pork dish. Looked like a Korean Chicken fried steak, and that was fine with me.
We also got our first taste of kimchi, fermented cabbage: not my favorite.
After this we lazed through another flea market, and found some things even more otherworldly than before.
Next up was the crest of Haundae beach adorned with a lighthouse, a mermaid statue, and even a trade house consortium.
Photo ops abounded along the path.
The trail in this haven was beautifully quiet, free of traffic, and even soft underfoot.
After the park loop was complete, we split into taxis and headed for the largest shopping center in Busan.
At Shinsegae despite my protests, we didn’t peruse and sample the wares of the shopping center. Instead, we took off our shoes and entered “spaland”. A better name would have been “hotland” as the varying saunas reached temperatures as high as 74.2 C, about 165 F. For those of us uninterested in experiencing the inside of a toaster oven, footbaths, ice rooms, and even a relaxation room were also on tap. One of the most noticeable themes of Korean culture seems to be their respect for quiet. With perhaps 80 reclining chairs with TV screens in one room, an American wouldn’t expect the level of quiet we found (broken only by father’s snoring) especially if alcohol was involved.
The final treat of the day was the (in)famous Korean nude baths.
With the buzz and general sluggishness of time just spent at a spa, we headed for Gwangalli beach — famous for the imposing presence of the Gwangalli bridge.
Some unsettling weather was headed our way, so we cruised the coastline and then took the metro back to our side of town. A stroll through “Koreatown” led us to some Beef Bimbap — a version much better than the one had on our flight over. Sister got a different dish — one that required scissors to cut. For dessert we sampled some frozen treats. Mine tasted an awful lot like a vanilla milkshake.
