The hike around the Ocean at Songdo
As I type this I am doing my washing and watching the grand prix, which has about 3 cars going around at half pace waiting to blow up.
Because of my need to do washing, I had to be back to the hotel early, so I decided to go on a stroll around a seaside park.
This turned out to be longer than expected, and in the end I had to jog to get back to my hotel in time.
I got up early, and left early, thinking I would get a coffee once I was at Busan beach number 3 in all Busan, Songdo.
Songdo beach is not on the subway line, so you either take a bus or a taxi, or walk for an hour. I walked.
This was quite an interesting walk, past people selling cabbage, bean shoots, seaweed and coagulated pigs blood on the pavement, but I was ready for a coffee.
There are about 46 cafes at Songdo, but on Sunday none open until 10am. This is something I cant understand.
So I bought a can of coffee from the pie warmer at the convenience store, burnt myself on it, juggled it from hand to hand until I could get it in my coat pocket, and a bag of kimchi flavoured bagel crisps and set off.
First there was a walk along the beach, which features things in the ocean to climb up and jump off, or perhaps hit your head on, things such as a giant whale.
Then there is a nice ocean walk, along jagged rocks one might get washed off of, I think there were plenty of signs warning people, but a few brave souls decided it was worth the risk to collect some molluscs to turn into face cream.
Then finally you get to Amnam park, which has some spectacular views, lots of gun battery mounting points, and is an excellent place to visit.
This is the frontline on the war against Japan, on my way back I tried to go over various mountains, but they were all closed off for use by the military, and all along the walk there were spots to mount big guns, pointing at Japan.
There is also a big radar on top of one of these hills, pointing at Japan, in case Japan and Korea both decide to launch some U.S. made missiles at each other.
In short Japan and Korea despise each other, and Shinzo Abe is making Koreans very nervous.
Along my walk to the beach, there were numerous markets selling partially living creatures, and mandarins. Lots of mandarins.
I dont know if this is poor people housing, rich people housing, or holiday homes. They are however destined to one day slip into the ocean in a landslide.
This is a different bridge to the other day. Busan loves to build bridges that save you about 19 seconds on your commute. Theres a huge amount of very noisy ships in the bay, burning their fuel oil and collectively producing more co2 emissions than all the cars in the world (look it up!)
Songdo beach, comes in at #3 presumably because of the lack of subway proximity. Very nice beach though.
Magic mountain! I found it! Adelaide sold off magic mountain and it has been moved here to be a fake waterfall.
Adelaide replaced its magic mountain with a smaller, less magic version of the same thing in the same place, and wondered why even less people visited.
Just another view of the beach and the thousands of happy people building sand castles and splashing in the cool South China sea.
Now I am on the ocean side boardwalk, made of steel plate.
Ocean boardwalk affords a great view of the local oyster farms. Their delicate flavour is accentuated by the shipping frequenting the worlds second busiest port.
My perilous journey involved a swing bridge with glass bottom, will I plummet to my grisly death? Only the appearance of another photo below this one will confirm my survival.
Eventually you get to an area with lots of recreational fisherman. Jokes aside, the water looked very very clean. No algae, no rubbish, very clear.
I dont really understand how. Lasers perhaps.
Safe at last.
Pirate cove in the distance. Now on high alert for invading kawaii army.
There were people on this island, but there is a police boat with loud speakers yelling things. So I decided to not walk all the way down there to see if I could get arrested.
In hindsight, probably should have tried it on.
According to my map, this is the overseas fishing harbour. Different harbour from last night, this one has all kinds of customs facilities, jails, police, very noisy place.
Todays best photo. The walk over, around, along and under the cliffs was very picturesque. Probably about 90 minutes to complete the loop. Most people could make this one without too much effort, theres a few public toilets and vending machines along the way.
You can also stop and do your exercises, I like the big steering wheels.
I decided to try and go over some small mountains on the way back because I just cant help myself. This gave another view of the rumbling ships.
However, thwarted, South Korean Army says no to my plans to go over the top of this mound / hill / mountain.
Oh well, have to descend back down to the beach and get back to my room in time for the grand prix.
I did however spot some mountains for tomorrow!
Bonus photo of some more colorful houses going up a hill, the furthest peak here, I might be there tomorrow.
Right now I am doing my washing which is costing me the grand sum of $2.
Since I am washing ALL my clothes, I am sitting here in my running tights, a pair of hotel slippers and a neoprene high technology singlet with ventilation mesh on the back.
This had the desired effect, as one lady walked into the washing room, took one look at me, and performed a perfect 180 degree pivot and left.
Eating Ramen in Busan
I think using a dryer on my clothes earlier has shrunk my pants. At least I hope thats whats happened, otherwise I really need to step up my mountain climbing because my girth has expanded.
I have put on weight on such holidays before, now I am deeply concerned. Perhaps on Tuesday I can walk to Gwangju. Perhaps Korea needs to understand skim or on fat milk, or aspartame. I have so many reasons, none of them seem to involve overeating. Now I sound more like a woman than ever.
Anyway, enough about my pants. Today I decided to go to the station where there are 3 universities, because the internet said its a very exciting spot. The internet lied.
There is only 2 streets of shops and restaurants, and a whole heap of cheap looking pubs selling fried chicken. The streets here were also filled with rubbish. Because students are filthy, and eating chicken and drinking beer I paid for. Yes this applies to Korea, because there was a shop called Aussie burger which I am just going to assume is staffed by Australian students on a permanent holiday in Korea at my expense.
So instead I walked back to a busy area, and got lost. I kept crossing the road using the underpasses, some of the junctions had 12 exits. Each time, no matter how I tried, I came out in the wrong place, then walked the wrong way. At one point I ended up somewhere I had been previously.
An hour or so later, I managed to climb up the stairs and get to the area I wanted to be. Despite it being Sunday, it was really very busy.
I think I saw a flash mob, does that still happen? 2 People were walking down a busy street and all of a sudden people came from everywhere, linked hands in a circle around them and ran in the circle as fast as they could yelling something. A bus obscured my view, and camera. The crowd then ran off in every direction.
Then I saw a guy who had something similar to the waffle sandwich, but 4 times as thick, so thick it wouldnt fit in his mouth, so he squeezed it, and cream flew out of it all over his girlfriend.
She then ran up and down on the spot stamping her feet and yelling, and got her phone out to look at herself, whilst her little white dog went crazy. The guy thought it was hilarious though!
Because there wasnt anywhere to eat at the University area, I had to have a pre dinner snack.
In many subway stations there are places called Yam Cafe, selling things made from yams, whatever they are.
They have lots of signs telling me how healthy they are, for long life and wellbeingness. I dont really know how a cake can make such claims.
What was surprising is that its completely flavourless. A waste of calories, further pants issues as a result.
Also near the universities is Gunmart. Now everyone knows that Korean students always go on shooting sprees in U.S. and Canadian schools. Its a fact.
So they need to get their guns from the gunmart.
Presumably they post them to themeselves in the U.S.
LG shops, which have a song playing that goes something like LG SHOP, ITS BEST SHOP, BEST! always have one of these british fluffy hat guards out the front.
If you look closely, you can see its standing on a black bucket thing, its inflatable. When I arrived in Incheon a week and a half ago, I thought these black buckets were all recycling bins.
No, they are inflatable advertisements, and they are everywhere.
Busan has a casino. A real casino.
I dont know if the rules have changed, but when I was in Korea in 2011, there was a casino in Seoul, but Koreans are not allowed to go to it, only foreign passport holders.
Tonights random neon, slightly different, just one building.
And then for dinner, I had delicious ramen. Very good quality noodles and pork. This was inspired by my mother, who asked me if they have gyoza in Korea, yes, but only in the thousands of Japanese restaurants.
They do of course have mandoo, Korean dumplings, but thats not the same thing.
As nice as this was (and cheap), I actually tried to order something else that looked like it had a lot more vegetables, but the girl wouldnt let me order it, she spoke in Korean, I think she was telling me it was soba not ramen and I wouldnt like it.
No amount of me telling her in English that I just want to try it anyway would convince her, so eventually we compromised on item #1 on the menu.