From Busan, With Love

Now that the weather's warmed up, and we're beginning to feel the pressure of our impending departure date, Shayne and I are off to see Korea on a series of weekend trips. Our first stop: a second look at Busan, Korea's 2nd largest city.

A view of our hotel at night. Don't be fooled by its ultra-classy exterior, because this is what is known as a "love motel". These joints are strewn across all Korean cities, and if the name isn't enough of a clue, they are where otherwise respectable Koreans meet for clandestine rendezvous, wink - wink. Shayne and I had to check one out.


Check out this bad boy! Yes, that's faux red leather...and it's round!!


Shayne was most impressed by the remote...allowing the patron to control everything from the comfort of bed... from the air conditioning, to the lights, to the tv...yes, even the tv.


Anyways, after checking into the hotel, it was time to go check out the "public" side of Busan. Here I am at Haeundai Beach, perhaps Korea's most famous. Even with the chilly weather, there were scads of beach-goers. In August you can barely see the sand.


I guess the beach is also popular with gulls...no doubt encouraged by naive but well-meaning people like these having fun hand-feeding them french fries. Admittedly I wish I had something to offer them too. heehee!


Here's Shayne with a view of the boardwalk.

Next it was off to the acclaimed Busan Aquarium, handily located right on the beach. We're suckers for a good aquarium.


We took this picture just because he looked grumpy (Shayne's note - that and it looks just like my old man).


No, these freakish spider crabs aren't starring in the latest sci-fi horror flick, they're on the menu at your local Korean eatery. Not this guy, though...he's going to live out his days looking at humans through the tank-glass...and maybe eating that mangled-looking starfish to the left (do they eat those?).


Next was the jellyfish exhibit, which was wickedly lit-up with various-coloured lights. These guys were majestic, slowly moving through the tank with 6-foot tentacle trails flowing behind (Shayne's note - This really is one of the coolest photos we've ever taken. Props to Jo).


By far the coolest thing in the aquarium was the giant, walk-through shark tank. Here's Shayne looking up at a stingray swimming above him. It was quite amusing watching little kids shriek when Jaws slowly swam up to them.

After all the fun of the aquarium, we thought we'd take it down a notch...or twenty...and visit the UN Korean War Cemetery. Apparently it's the only UN-run cemetery in the world.



Here's the front gate.


There's not too many graves here, as most of the Americans were repatriated to the States some time ago. But it's still enough to give one pause. Over 500 Canadians died in the Korean war, many of which were our age or younger. (Shayne's note - It was truly a sobering experience to see how many people died in the war over here).




Here's the Canadian monument....to be lighthearted for a moment, it seems that we really do look friendly everywhere. Seriously though - an American monument would probably have a few stolid GIs, but we put a soldier surrounded by children. It was a really touching monument.


Here I am looking at some of the names on the Wall of Remembrance. It's always a shocking reminder to see all the names before you...just going on and on and on.

Well, after paying our respects, we headed across the city to Beomeosa Temple (Buh-muh-sa), one of the largest in Korea.

I've gotta say that my favourite parts of Korean temples are the gatehouses. They always have these cool, colourful statues inside. I have yet to educate myself as to their exact purpose, but it seems that the original architects poured all of their creative spirit into these particular sections of the temples. But at Beomeosa, I was in for a double-delight....these guys!....

"Smeagol led the nice waygookins to the gates. Orcs always watches. Orcs never gone."

"Nasty tricksy waygookins...I hates them!"

"But waygookins always kind to Smeagol."

"Kills them! Kills them!!"

Anyways.....here I am in front of what Shayne thinks must be the oldest stone pagoda in the world (Shayne's note - who's to say that it isn't. Ehhh? who's to say?).


Here's a modern touch to the stone lantern that would make Al Gore proud. God bless compact-fluorescent light bulbs.


Cherry blossoms, old world temple buildings, and mountains...postcard perfect.

And what you would expect to find at a temple most...monks! Thankfully, these guys were friendly and happy to have me take their picture.


Here's Shayne standing next to the man he'd like to be. It's hard crushing someone's dreams.

After two days of sightseeing, we headed back to the bus station to catch a ride home. Before going, though, we spotted a crowd of older Korean men playing Chang-gi (Korean chess). It is with this image that we leave you...


Until next time,

Jo