More of the same of Korea - March and April 2024 - Page 7

First up, there is a boardwalk over some sandy swamp areas. Apparently a place to go bird watching.

This being the last stop at the edge of town, there are of course many new skyscraper apartments nearby.

One of a few bird watching spots.

You can see from here that there actually is a large beach in the distance. I thought I would get a better view of it from the coastal path, but I did not. There is an enclosed area of water no more than 2 feet deep that you are permitted to wade in.

Instead of walking up the beach, I will walk up the nearby coastal hill.

I lied, there is a slightly better beach view, but there is no beach view to be had from the main path around the hill. The light is very weird in this photo due to the pollution today.

This is the general feel of the main path through the park. Nice trees.

Today's helicopter landing pad has a wind sock! This area is an actual military base, complete with guys with guns on the gate.

Apparently this was the local naval commanders office until 1915. I found this hard to believe. But the sign explains this a bit. The roof was relocated to here, it used to have walls and rooms and even a heated floor before it became a public monument in the park. I think this is probably the case with a lot of these.

A nearby island. Apparently in winter it pierces the fog for one of 'the views of the Busan coast'.

A bell. The soldiers with guns are near here and there are signs warning you against filming anything, they did not seem to care about me taking this photo though.

Now for some rocky views. This one came out pretty good.

There are some guys fishing dotted around the rocks. The sea was very calm today, not much risk of getting washed off the rocks.

Enjoy a nice rocky view.

There are a few tiny lighthouses around here. And rocks jutting up all over the place. I believe I am standing on an old gun installation.

I left the main path a few times to enjoy some pine needles underfoot.

This area looks like a proper hike.

Bit if you were missing rocky trails, fear not, there are rocks too.

Rocks plus high rises, and lots of pollution. There is no cloud in this shot, and the camera cleans it up a bit compared to the naked eye.

Final shot of a rocky and sandy day.
Tonight I might go up another hill and enjoy a polluted sunset view.

The low down view on my way up the hill. That is not cloud!

Some more pre Gamcheon view.

There are a lot of characters and cat statues and paintings of goofy things around here. I would say it is all Studio Ghibli inspired, but that might be offensive to the locals.

Another example of Gamcheonified, tiny ceramic tile version of tiny tile covered houses.

This is the main shopping street, during the day it can be packed.

Good views in every direction. There are a lot of galleries and fancy gift shops. A lot are cat themed.

Here are people lined up for the shot sitting with the cartoon characters. The last time I was here in the rain, there was no line.

The view everyone gets excited for. It is much the same as many other views in Busan only they painted the houses with ridiculous colours.

Most of these are not peoples houses anymore, they are cafes and galleries.

Last full view shot.

There was a line for this when I first went past, but on my way back, line was gone.

Tribute murals of girly men such as these two are also prominent features all around Gamcheon. There was a line, but I snapped my shot during a changeover while the next group were adjusting their makeup before standing in front of this painting of boys with makeup. They are boys aren't they?

The entrance, as I exited.

Time for a bit more neon while I find my dinner.

Bonus neon.

And for dinner, poor persons steak night. It might have been horse. With kidney beans and macaroni. The bonus corn based grool was nice.
Tomorrow is a hiking day, but it might not involve a mountain! I am weighing up a smaller mountain hike or a long hike around a reservoir.

I started the watch about here, the walk up to the start of the hike is along a drain.

As always, this passed the old persons exercise area. There was lot of gentrification of this drain going on, bike paths being constructed on both sides etc.

After maybe 2km, I arrived at the dam area, and there are giant rocks just below the dam.

That is not actually the main dam, strangely I could not get a shot of the main dam, the path veered up into the hills behind trees before there was a clear view.

Now for a horrible development. 100+ of these fools have awarded themselves a blue sash and are slow walking around the path talking loudly. This is really obnoxious behaviour. Nothing good ever happens when sashes are involved, hens nights, beauty (rape) pageants, and now this. My tip to improve planet earth, ban sashes.

OK, here is the lake, it will be our constant companion for the next 40 or so photos. I guess you can kind of see the dam in this one.

Looking the other way, and that is by no means the entire lake, it curves around a few times and is much bigger than it at first appears.

This is what most of the path looks like. There are a few shortcuts that I did not take. Unfortunately I passed the blue sash brigade on one of their many breaks, then they took a shortcut and got in front of me again.

This is an offshoot bit of the lake. The pollution does not look so bad from this side, but just wait.

There were occasional swampy bits, but since it is a reservoir, it was mostly swamp free.

There are many places to stop and sit, especially on the much more popular first half of the hike.

I am back at the main body of water now, so why not another superfluous photo.

Another view that is not too polluted looking. Sky pollution that is, the water was clean.

There are a few spots where a road meets the lake, some with bus stops. Most spots have a few cafes and restaurants, but no convenience stores to buy simple water or snacks suitable for hiking, so stock up before you start (I did).

The next small section was the special red mud for bare footers looking to re-ground themselves spiritually or some such nonsense.

There is a bypass for this bit, and maybe if you are leaving your shoes on (which of course I did), you are supposed to bypass it, but I insisted on doing the whole damn lake!

After red mud, time for some bamboo. I like bamboo.

Look! A human sizer. Such a thing would never fly in the west any more, it would be called a public fat shamer.

I had become distracted, but then remembered, lake, must go around the lake.

It was however time to now head up a steep hill. There is no way to bypass this, so it is not all flat fun and games.

View #1 from the top of the small mountain. Check the pollution! The AQI reading was over 400 according to the warnings on my phone, which is 'extremely unhealthy'. I think this is the direction from where I had come.

View #2. There is a tiny bit of actual cloud today, but you can clearly see here pollution vs cloud. The wisp of real cloud is at the top.

And view #3 - the bit of the lake still to come.

The cliff on the right here is why the path went up over the small mountain with the pollution view.

The second half of the lake looks bigger from lake level.

You can see here that the lake gets narrow at one point, and then gets big again.

Bonus view with pontoons and a rock.

Here you can sit and enjoy the view.

At the far end of the lake there is a bus stop, cafes, and an instagram advertisement.

This area has been made-over for the blossom hysteria, but we are well past blossom time here now.

Wherever you go in Korea, there will be plastic characters.

The view from the far end of the lake, time to start the lonely journey back.

Like I mentioned, in all those buildings, no convenience store. I feel as though one would make a killing here. Also a lot of the photos today have weird colours, which is because of the terrible pollution, apparently still courtesy of Mongolia.

This is the one shortcut I did take, this little bridge over a tentacle of water off the side of the lake.

This bridge is the end point of the day for nearly everyone, after this point I had about half the journey to go but saw maybe 3 other people on the way back.

A view from a bridge. Once again, that is not the main body of water of the lake, just an offshoot.

I had to cross one stream. It had rocks positioned for this purpose.

As a reminder, this is what the path looks like for most of the journey, hence you can make quick progress.

That cliff is the mountain view I was on top of earlier.

On the journey back, some of the path was a forestry truck trail, and it snaked up the hill at times, giving a slightly higher vantage point.

Looking back from one of the higher bits on the return leg.

This is where I stopped to drink my remaining water. There was no one else around.

For reference purposes, here is where I exited the trail and joined a road.

It was about a kilometre along a thankfully not very busy road before I rejoined the drain you saw at the start.
Another day of way too many photos of the same damn (dam) thing.

The Lotte store at Seomyeon is gold coloured and has grown a hotel out of it's roof.

Late afternoon blue hour. The air quality index is still in the 300's but it does not look too bad in this photo. They have AQI readers and LED signs on street corners and in subways. In the subway it is about 100.

This line of orange tents are all street food stalls. They stay open all winter when they seal them up and you all smoke and breath charcoal smoke and each others lung excretions together. That was a fun sentence.

Ahhh, this is the place with the great food court, I remembered it from previous visits. I knew once I saw it that my dinner would come from here.

There are a few food levels, my choice is the one with the fake food trucks. The formal dining level is of course off limits to the likes of me.

A shabu shabu train. Like a sushi train except you take the hot pot ingredients off the train. So much plastic!

And here is my Buldak. It kind of looks like something I might make myself.

All that was left to do was a few more shots of neon. Like I said, Seomyeon seems like the place to be.

I cannot quite figure out what was going on inside Fantasia, they have an indoor merry go round and a limited edition zero calorie soft drink. And yet they have crowd control. I suspect it is just somewhere to pay to go and take your photo?

2nd to last Busan neon shot.

And a vertical one for my final one. A lot of the streets around here are very reminiscent of Japanese neon streets, lots of Japanese food places too.

Before heading to the train in Busan, it was time to do an early morning hardware market lap. There are markets for everything in and around Nanpo.

I decided to examine some of the movie related hand prints in BIFF (Busan International Film Festival) square. I thought they would be all Korean, but no, this one is Ennio Morricone, the recently dead greatest of all time! He was here a long time ago as his hand print still says Pusan, before they updated the romanization to reflect how it is actually pronounced instead of how an archaeologist wrote it down when he heard it once 3rd hand from a Chinaman in 1855. I am allowed to say Chinaman because I am describing someone from a period where that term was not offensive.

I took this photo as I arrived 7 days ago, so why not take it as I leave. Since then I have been up that hill behind the buildings here. When I get bored I can do a forensic analysis of what has changed in a week.

The inside of the Busan station is good, a couple of levels of restaurants.

It also has a huge viewing deck area, but there is still no view, just a huge empty construction site that has been there for many years now. Also, still lots of pollution.

The inside of my train for today. It filled up. I am travelling poor person class today as the difference in fare for the longer journey was too much for my tightassedness to cope with.

And now, sadly... the final hotel shots. This is a modern style room, the hotel is quite new. They gave me a welcome pack with some snacks. All have already been consumed.

The room is so new, that it has only a shower, no bath. What if I need to take a bath? I missed my chance... I missed my chance.....

First of 3 photos of busy. Most of these places are not really properly open yet, the street stalls really only get going once it gets dark.

You can see a lot more western looking tourists than I can recall seeing in the past.

Even the narrower side streets have returned to their former glory.

New ridiculous shops have sprung up everywhere, such as the (reads sign...) wiggle wiggle.zip flagship store. I have no idea what goes on inside.

Daiso is not just an underground store wherever the real estate is cheapest in Korea, it is a (counts...) 11 level junk store. Apparently it was recently sold by its Japanese owner to a new Korean owner in Korea only, as hatred of Japan (comfort girls, Dokdo islands) had halved their sales. Also, first sighting of the tower, there will be more tower on another day too.

The cathedral is still there. It is the landmark to get your bearings in Myeongdong. Also underneath are some good shops and toilets.

After consuming all the free snacks my room came with, I decided it was time for a healthy dinner. Some sort of chicken rice salad poke bowl. Not bad.

Now for the stream. I love this stream.

I will be back for more stream, maybe more than once!

I am sure some people protest the rainbow.

Coming up from the stream and it was time for me and 30 other guys to take a pervy photo of girls doing yoga. Actually a few guys snuck into the yoga lineup too. I plan to start wearing yoga pants exclusively.

And this leads to the main protest street in all of Korea. Generally closed off every single weekend for various protests with at least 100k people. There are many permanent protests for weird reasons set up all the way along, but this is the first time I saw memorial altar for covid vaccine victims. The memorial altar is a tent.
I am back early tonight as I must get up early tomorrow to go a long way to a long hike.