More of the same of Korea - March and April 2024 - Page 5

The path up to the start of the hike goes past a hermitage, but they had signs up asking me to not go in, so I did not. The stream was nice though.

I thought this might be a wild unmarked hike. I could not be more wrong. Signs everywhere. Although for most of the day, no other hikers, until an entire school group passed me on the way down.

The path I chose up was great. No staircases, no barriers, but a well kept trail.

There are these signs everywhere explaining that you are standing on something ancient. Most of the time I could not figure out what, it just looked like dirt to me!

A low down view of the farmland below, more on the farmland later...

This being Korea, there were plenty of big rocks. Some had ancient carvings, stay tuned.

I was really enjoying this path up the small mountain.

And then, a driveway of sorts! This was unexpected.

A UNESCO world heritage driveway.

Enjoy the view of the farms below, and a nice big rock.

Here is summit number one of 2, I would actually come back almost to the top of it later. My path today was a big figure 8, so up to here, down, up to the next peak, down, back up to this peak, then down again. A lot of up and down.

Just beyond the summit, a view. Looking away from Gyeongju.

A great path, greenery, purple flowers.

And, more view.

Looking back in the direction I had come from.

And now some ancient relics from between 600 and 800 AD. This is a 3 storey pagoda. They are not very big storeys.

Same view, no pagoda.

And since the pagoda and view were so cool together, another.

Another nice view.

And now for the headless Buddha. The sign mentioned the head was missing and they do not know when it went missing, so it seems unlikely I can get the blame. Note that the whole thing is carved out of a single rock.

Across there would be the second peak of the day, after a bit of down then a lot more up again.

I descended on some stair free paths but then arrived at this bridge in the bottom of the valley.

It was now time to follow a stream down the valley. Thankfully nothing too slippery to worry about.

There were a few places that people probably go swimming in during summer.

Now to start the climb up to the second peak, obviously there is a temple, there was also a public toilet.

Nice paths again, and a bit of sunshine.

More views, so many views today.

Summit #2. Also without a view.

But fear not, there is usually a view nearby.

After descending down from summit #2, a surprise dam.

Descending further into the valley and bamboo appeared, and a muddy path. Unexpected mud.

But not for long, time to go back up again.

Eventually I rejoined another driveway of sorts. It was near here that an entire school group passed me.

And then, finally time to head down again. Here is a different low down view.

Along with the grave mounds there were also rock piles on the way down.

OK, one more view, of the spot where you get the view from. Viewception.

I thought that since I passed 100 or so grave sites, I should post a photo of a grave. So here is one. Most of them do not have the concrete markers.

And just as you finish, another Buddha, this time with his head.

And as threatened, I once again managed to exit a hike in the middle of farmland.
I will not be going far tonight, but I am very hungry!

OK, I found the prime suspect for the place that probably stole the head of the Buddha I photographed earlier.

On my way back to the tourist area, I walked through a traditional street that has not been turned into cafes yet, a rare thing indeed.

A car.

First sighting of some people playing dress ups. I wonder if they have my size?

This used to be the traditional food market in this area. It is now cafes and restaurants.

Bonus photo because sunset.

These appear to be tiny hotel rooms. Also you can get on the roof easily. I was tempted. That is a washing machine sitting there outside.

The tourist information centre.

OK, one last photo of the tourist area.

Now for my dinner. It looked better in pictures. A noodle soup with a galbi (beef rib) and bonus bulgogi. Pretty flavourless like a lot of Korean food.

Now for the two bonus mound shots. This one came out great. Handheld! They have a lot of spotlights.

And for the final pic of Gyeongju other than the journey to the train tomorrow morning, more funeral mounds. Also a handheld shot.

Here is the inside of the Gyeongju station, which is 20 minutes on a highway bus outside of Gyeongju. There are more shops than pictured, it is a big modern station.

But it is in the middle of nowhere, here is the view out the back of the station.

Rear view of station. Highly superfluous.

I thought Gyeongju was famous for the upcoming APEC summit and historic tombs, but also cheese sandwiches. And when they say cheese, it is an entire block of cheese inside 2 bits of cheap white bread. Weird.

The view out the front has a new ghost town under construction. I do not think anyone lives here yet.

Now for some platform shots while I wait for my train. The station is between 2 mountains. Tunnels at each end of the platform.

Here comes my train. I missed the front by a microsecond as it went past.

I purchased a first class ticket again for the short journey. The inside of this carriage is not red like the last one. I prefer red.

Arriving in Busan to blue sky and shops going up hills in every direction.

Wash Enjoy 24 has not let me down on my 2 visits two years apart. You can see my fishy bag here leaned against something so it does not fall over.

OK, take a deep breath, because here they come, the hotel shots. A good bed, a good desk, an extra seat and little table.

And my bathroom with space toilet and full sized towels, the shower here drains into the bath, not across the floor. Many Korean hotels only give you bath mat sized towels, a bit like you might find at a weird gay sauna. I was happy with this place last time so decided to stick with what I know.

Great views too, here is view number 1, sightly to the left out of my (opening) window.

And view number 2, which incorporates the Busan tower. Most Korean cities have one of these towers.
I have no idea where I am going tonight yet, they let me check in a bit early so I have time to research a destination.

Starting in Nanpo, I headed down to the docks to inspect the catch. I thought it was a public area, it was not. I walked quite a distance along the wharf getting strange looks from smoking fishermen before I realised I was trapped and would have to double back while they laughed at me.

I do not think this lighthouse is real.

Nearby is the giant Lotte department store. It is small compared to some in other parts of the city, but still quite large as you can see. At some point I am sure I will head up to the roof garden.

The immigration detention area of the port features a strange grass area.

Busan port authority has decided to Japanify themselves with a cute logo.

This hotel actually came up in my searches when I was booking my accommodation here. If only I knew it looked like this, I would be enjoying its ridiculousness from within right now.

Nearby is Busan Chinatown, or more accurately, Shanghai street as they call it.

The Busan station was not even half way to my destination. For whatever reason I thought it was only one more stop to the main area, very wrong.

One street over from Shanghai street, Texas street. Comparatively cheap sign.

Finally I arrived at Seomyeon, the big smoke, with cool cloud at sunset.

Time to go enjoy some neon. There is a lot of neon around here, and a huge number of suitable places for dinner, I am sure I will be back a couple more times.. although I will take the subway on future visits.

I was really starving by now, so Japanese ramen it was, with extra green onions. Finally something with a bit of flavour! Very good quality ramen.

OK, another neon shot for this evening before I head down to the subway.

And inside the subway - a plastic forest.
Yeah yeah yeah, tomorrow is a hiking day, probably not an overly long hike, I want to do one I have not done previously before I get into repeats.

This hike starts on the outskirts of Busan. If you are wondering what the outskirts of a big Asian city look like, this is it. High rises all the way to the very edge.

The university is on the edge of the mountain. The streets leading up to it are kind of meant to be pedestrian streets

Here is the view from the start of the hike.

But don't worry, the trail soon becomes rocks and trees.

This low down view is looking away from Busan, but still more high rises, and a nearby eco island bird sanctuary.

This is a very popular trail, so there will be stairs, and other people. Here is other people.

There is the full eco island, bird sanctuary, education centre, sewage treatment works.

Over there across the water is the airport. I am not sure if that is a river or the ocean.

Quite a bit of pollution today, but still great views.

Rocks nearly all day, but also tree cover, and blossoms.

Sometimes I like to incorporate rocks into my view shots.

Here you can already see quite a lot of other people.

Lots of rocks, and quite a lot of people. The people will thin out eventually.

Heres 2 dudes contemplating if their university studies are too stressful and if they should end it all.

This is a just a small portion of the university social group who have been getting in my way up until this point. Impressively they have an ice cream station on the summit, which means somebody carried up 100 ice creams. They offered me an ice cream but I declined.

A higher view towards the airport.

Eventually I will get to that observatory, but first I will head down to the bald patch on the ridge.

Today's helicopter pad is a triangle. First triangle helicopter landing pad of this trip.

A view of the view spot. This area of Busan is called Saha, hence, I love Saha.

The bald spot on the ridge has a manicured garden area for picnics. There is an easy way up to here which even mountain bikers ride up.

The valley down from here is full of blossom trees, however it seems we are past peak blossom here in Busan. Hence the trees are also greener as leaves have appeared.

This is one of the other paths down, but I shall not be taking it, I will go up again, on the loneliest part of today's hike, but there were always still a few other people.

More rocks, so many rocks.

Also more flowers, blossoms, and not so many rocks, so the path made a liar of me.

That is the ridge I had come along, you can see the bald spot, later you will also get to see my bald spot.

TO THE OBSERVATORY!

Oh wow, unexpected amazing view approaches. I thought maybe I was done with the views for today, how wrong I was.

This is the best view you can get of Busan from anywhere. BAR NONE.

It continues off to the right...

Around to the left, more mountains and a village on the hill.

And this is the view around to the left from 3 photos prior which I declared to be the best view bar none.

YES! Here I am. Great selfie today. My blood red shirt really helps accentuate my best features.

The trail down this side was thankfully a bit smoother, less rocks.

Now for a lower down view the other way. We are almost there.

Same view, more trees.

Getting close to the end. Exercise machines start to appear.

And today I did not exit via farmland, I exited the hike into high rise apartments. So that was something a bit different.
That is enough photos for now.

The touristy bits of Nanpo start right over the road from my hotel. The umbrellas are still the same from years ago.

I love shooting into the late afternoon sun.

My hill of choice was not a big hill, but I knew it had great views.

Photo stays due to the cool shadows.

Now to ascend up the hill to the view.

I am almost certain I took this exact same photo last time I was here.

Wherever I go, I can sniff out a good staircase.

Cats! There are lots of women up here feeding a hundred or more cats, I saw them everywhere!

Time for a bit more view in another direction, but fear not, there will still be more view.

But first blossoms, the huge pink blossoms. There will also be more blossoms below.

This apparently is the democracy monument. An indoor outdoor spiral ramp to walk around it 3 times and observe its magnificence.

Here is the view from the top of the spiral ramp for the democracy monument. I thought about climbing the monument itself, but then thought better of it.

More blossoms. It would have been a lot better an hour earlier with the sun still on them, but there were still a lot of people posing.

There are always more hills and monuments in Busan. The next hill over has a memorial of some kind, further research required.

Now to descend with a few more view shots, much like the blossoms, these would be better if there was still some sun.

The sun has just gone. I spent too long gawking at blossoms.

The roads here are generally, staircases, although there is an actual road that full size buses can wind their way up the cliff on.

When you get bored of stairs, you can take the lift. I did. There is a network of them.

Last view shot for today, I promise.

The markets were closing up just as I arrived.

But the streets around the markets were just kicking off.

Apparently this is pig foot alley, even though it is much more like a street than the alley in the previous shot.

And finally... tiny steak dinner. A bit of a rip off, more like half a meal!
Currently I have no plan for tomorrow.