11 March 2015
Short train ride
From Daegu to Busan on the KTX
Now I am in Busan, the southern metropolis on the coast of Korea, home of a famous beach, very useful in winter, the Busan film festival, not on whilst I am here, and the Busan ROCK! festival, in August.
But there are mountains! Mountains in the city.
The city layout is complex, with harbours, mountains separating different bits, bridges across the harbour for no good reason.
Getting here took forever, because I got to the station in Daegu about 2 hours early. My weird hotel in Daegu insisted I check out at 10, and then it took 3 minutes to get to the bullet train station.
So I had to spend 2 hours waiting for a 48 minute train ride.
The train itself today was the more modern Korean designed bullet train, photos below. I now realise the one I went on the other day was an older French design.
Enough train talk.
Once I came out of the station at Busan, there were some dodgy guys demanding I either give them money or go in their taxi, I am not sure which. One guy just wouldnt stop annoying me, I gave him 2 no's followed by a shoulder charge that sent him flying. He seemed genuinely shocked by that.
My hotel here is the western chain, Ibis, and the room is exactly like the Sydney Ibis I know well, except it has ridiculously fast free internet.
Also its on top of a subway station, in the centre of town, with a window, with a view (last room had no window), and carpet.
The hotel is having a German food festival, because, no idea, all for a stupidly expensive amount, dinner is more than the nightly room rate. No sausage for me.
I will be here for 6 nights, the longest of any of my stays in Korea, so I hope the location is good. Internet says its a few hundred metres to the main downtown area full of neon, but I havent been to check yet.
No mountain climb today (sad face).
Before I left Daegu, I went for one last walk around the joint at 7am, and it was mostly abandoned. This coffee shop, called Two Hands, did a decent coffee.
No burnt ant taste, proper mugs, milk that was thicker than water.
They did talk up the variety, origin, and whatever else of their coffee beans, all of this is irrelevant. To make a decent coffee you just need to use enough of it so its strong enough, not burn it, and then add air to milk, not just separate froth and burning white liquid.
I rented a book from the train station library vending machine. They have these in Taiwan. The book of choice was called 'The selfish Gene'.
I now can read Korean.
Capsosiphon Fluvoscens. Delicious.
Since I was very early, I decided to have traditional Korean breakfast / lunch / dinner.
The joke about Korean food is they eat the same meal 3 times a day. But to me the rice porridge looks more like breakfast.
So I ordered the deluxe vegetable option. Which had no taste at all, apart from the fish flakes they added to the top.
They also gave a side dish of fermented tuna.
I will not be ordering this again.
The inside of the train.
Annnnnd the front of the train. Suitably bullet train esque. Todays train did hit 300 on its short journey of nearly all tunnels. I had the carriage to myself most of the way, so no amusing stories to tell.
Urban mountain. I cant see any reason I wouldnt be up there at some point, adding to my collection of boring photos.
The impressive station is very large, too large to fit in my photo. Near here is where I gave an english lesson to a beggar who didnt understand the word no, courtesy of my lowered shoulder.
And, room photo number 1.
And from the other side.
Now to find some lunch or snacks or something.