I stayed in this hostel while in Busan. I picked it because it was right next to the train station and that was very convenient for getting around all the places I went in Busan.
Some things I've noticed about Korean hostels: people generally are less concerned about safety than in European hostels. Doors are rarely locked and people rarely lock their stuff in lockers. Shoes are normally not allowed to be worn around the hostel. This last one lent us slippers.
My first full day in Busan took me awhile to get going. I decided to just go to Gamcheon Culture Village so I wouldn't feel rushed.
This is my T Money Card. It's like the Oyster Card in London. It's SO convenient. I love it. I love public transportation. I just load it up with cash at the station as often as I need. Instead of buying tickets for each subway or bus trip, I just scan this and it deducts it. It's awesome. I can use it in Seoul and Busan. It's so cheap to use too! Subways are about 1200 won per trip ($1.20) and buses are 800 won ($0.80).
To get to Gamcheon Village, I needed to take the subway a few stops and then get on a bus. I love subways. I think they're great, easy, convenient, environmentally friendly, I could go on. I wish we had better public transportation in the US. But as much as I love subways, I hate buses. They are so much more confusing and less reliable than subways. And they always smell like pee. Buses stress me out, especially in foreign countries because I never know where to get off the bus. And they don't announce stops, so if I don't remember what the stop I got on looked like, I don't know where to go back to.
Luckily for me, the bus trip to Gamcheon was so easy. I think it's very popular for tourists, so the bus drivers are especially helpful to those who look lost.
This is what the little bus looked like that I took up the hill to Gamcheon. The bus ride felt like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. The hill was so steep. The bus struggled immensely getting up the hill, so the driver compensated by going as fast as he possibly could. The bus driver took sharp corners fast, and the bus bumped and leaned all over the place. The streets were so narrow. It was a really fun bus ride though. The way down the bus just screeched down at half a mile an hour because it was so steep.
(Disclaimer: I'm having trouble fact checking this) Gamcheon was a town that was built by refugees during World War II. Very recently, the city has put a lot of money into making it a tourist destination in order to bring more money to the area. It is still one of the more poorer areas of Busan. The money went to revitalizing the city. They tried to make it an art town, so there are lots of art workshops (Western painting, ceramics, etc.) that people can sign up to take in advance, there are murals, local artists shops, empty homes turned into giant art projects. According to one sign, it's used as a successful example of an Urban Revitalization Project. You can still see the poverty in some places. It's dirtier than the city, and some buildings are crumbling, pieces of rebar sticking out of windowless walls. But it's been a really successful tourist attraction.
People
still live and work there and there are signs all over the village
reminded people to be quiet or that some alleys are off limits to
tourists. The horizontal alleys between rows of houses are very, very
narrow. You have to squeeze between homes to get through
For two bucks I bought a map of the village that has a stamp scavenger hunt on the back. There are little fish signs pointing you on a tour of the town that you can follow to the different locations. There were 9 stamp places around the village. The places you could go with
The village pours from the top of a hill down into the ocean. It looks like if lava had carved a path with colorful tiny homes. Most of the roofs are blue or green, but there were houses of all colors and shapes and sizes. Tall narrow houses, short square houses. I heard them compared to lego houses.
The village is surrounded by dark green forests and hills. A lot of Korea is very hilly, and covered in dark green lush forests.
There are tiny alleyways with insanely steep stairs that are uneven and different sizes.
There are cafes and art shops and art installations lining the tourist trail. The encouraged tourism I think brings a lot of money to the area. It was packed with tourists holding the same map as me, going around collecting stamps.
The weather was awesome for all the walking I was doing. It was overcast and windy. Still warm and humid, but not unbearable.
I was half following the path, half kind of wandering anywhere I thought looked cool. I got down into an alley and there were a group of old ladies sitting in plastic lawn chairs who shrieked and grinned and kept saying "hello! hello!" to me. I smiled and said hello back. I was studying my map to see where I was. An older gentleman came up to me and took my map and pointed to a missing stamp location and the pointed me to turn right.
The guided walk had viewpoints at all angles of the town. I enjoyed just looking down over the sea of colorful homes that poured down into the ocean. And also, the stamp scavenger hunt was really fun. I completed it, although I almost didn't, because the last stamp was so far down the mountain and I didn't want to climb back up. But I did it because I wanted to complete the stamp scavenger hunt.
I started with Haedong Yonggungsa Temple on Tuesday. This was a little harder to get to than Gamcheon. An hour on the subway (one transfer) and a thirty minute bus ride. This bus was a little more challenging because it wasn't clear which side of the street I should get on the bus. I guessed (wrong) and then ran across the street to catch the actual bus. I got on the bus on one side and asked, "Yonggungsa?" and the bus driver said, "Change!" and pointed to the other side of the street.
I've tried to get more creative with communicating since I don't speak Korean and most people don't speak any English. Pointing has been quite effective, both when ordering food by picture on a menu or when getting directions from someone. I did a lot of pointing and gesturing at the squares on the calendar to indicate to the receptionist at the hostel that I wanted to shorten my stay. I lost my selife stick at a cafe and I came back the next day with a picture I found online of a selfie stick and brought it to the cashier. She knew exactly what I meant and returned the selfie stick to me! (Although losing the selife stick was probably a sign that I should take fewer selfies. I've take more selifes on this trip than I have in my entire life).
The temple was a ten minute walk from the bus stop along some hills. It got very jungle-y. There were a bunch of food and souvenir stands by the entrance. Once you got past that there were statues for the zodiac animals.
There were statues hidden in the jungle along the walkway the whole way with little sign descriptions.
It was louder there than I expected. There were Buddhist chanting recordings playing all over the temple, the waves were crashing on the rocky bluff, and there were lots of jungle bugs hissing and squawking. And the whole place was packed with tourists wielding selfie sticks. Out of all the places I've been so far, this had the most foreigners. And it was sticky humid there.
The temple was very cool to see. It's perched close to the water. You could walk over bridges, see gold painted statues, look inside the painted temples, and walk around the bluff and the grounds.
I tossed hurled a coin into this wishing well below the bridge
I made a quick stop by Haeundae Beach.
I then went to Shigsegae Department Store, the largest department store in the world. In it are a cinema, ice skating rink, and golf course.
And a spa!
There are gender separated baths and then a large common area. They give you clothes to wear for when you're in the mixed gender section, but everyone mostly just walks around naked in the gender specific areas. People were very naked.
The clothes reminded me of PE uniforms. The girls had starchy maroon tshirts and long grey shorts. The guys had variations of brown clothing. I started with the outdoor foot bath to soak my feet. The whole spa seems like a place people went to hang out with their friends or significant others.
There were a bunch of different saunas of varying temperatures. They each had a theme, and described the various health benefits from that room. There were salt rooms, ion rooms, steam rooms, and more. It was crazy. The spa was three floors.
For extra fees, you could have various massages or oxygen treatments. There was also a tarot card reader.
Eventually I tried out the women's baths. I didn't stay long because I started to get germaphobic.
Then I showered and went to check out Haeundae Beach at night, briefly. It reminded me of Waikiki.
Mike said the mosquitoes in Korea were awful. I thought I missed 'mosquito season' because I was totally fine in Seoul. In Busan I got eaten alive. I have over 20 mosquito bites. I hate mosquitoes. They love me.
I work very well with deadlines, and I'm a very plan as I go traveler. I tried really hard to plan this all in advance, but I actually work really well booking things at the last minute. I like it because it gives me flexibility if I need to change my plans, and also the pressure of 'if you don't book something now you won't have a place to sleep tonight' helps me actually book places.
Food
Shrimp fried rice at Busan Train Station
Stir fried noodles from Shinsegae Department Store
Hostel breakfast
Dessert
I'm not really missing American food here (yet). I mostly just miss the ease of ordering food and finding something that I know I will like. I do like the food I've had so far. I've been exposed to some Korean food before coming here, which helps because it helps give me an idea of what I will like. And knowing how to use chopsticks. I could imagine it would be challenging if you were from somewhere that had never exposed you to this type of food or eating with chopsticks. Except most restaurants use metal chopsticks which are heavier and more slippery than the wooden chopsticks I'm used to. But I've finally gotten the hang of it!
They really are flavors I've never tasted before though. It's good, and I've liked pretty much everything I've tried so far. I'm trying to slowly branch out and try more and different Korean food and get braver. A lot of stuff at markets or in restaurants I've never seen before, and if the sign has no translation sometimes I have no idea what it is either, which is an interesting experience.
Even things that seem like they would taste the same everywhere, don't. I got a chicken ciabatta snack at a coffeehouse and the chicken had Korean like spices. (Kind of like how foreign food gets an American spin in the US).
The only Korean product I've really struggled with is alcohol. I'm still adapting to that taste. The beer is good, and interestingly the bubbles are bigger than the ones in other beers I've had. Two items I've sought out that I've struggled to find here are wine and dark chocolate. I didn't realize how abundant wine and chocolate is in Europe until going somewhere where it really isn't.
