Busan

Back in November I went to Busan with two co-workers. For all of you unfamiliar with Korea's layout (as I was) Busan is a large city on the southeast tip of Korea. Here's a handy little map:

You can also see its distance from Suwon (where I live). Busan is the second largest city in Korea after Seoul and is a big vacation place for most Koreans. They have a lot of nice beaches and it's rumored to be so packed in the summer that you can't even move on the beach. Busan is known for its port too which is the fifth largest in the world. It was on my list of cities to visit and luckily some friends also wanted to go.

I don't get a lot of vacation time here so we decided to go just for a weekend. The train ride takes a little over four hours. There's a fast train called the KTX that can get you there in two and a half hours but we booked too late to get that train (and it's more expensive). Our train left at 10:52am Saturday morning. I will forever remember that time - it's a funny story and I think speaks volumes about Korean transportation.

We got to the station early and had plenty of time to collect our tickets, and grab breakfast. Korean trains/subway/everything is known to be extremely punctual so we made sure to stay on time. We were walking down the stairs to the platform around 10:48 and saw a train waiting. We ran down the stairs and hopped on the train just in time. As we were strolling through the train towards are seats we found ourselves in the first class section - that was indicator #1 that something was wrong. We showed our tickets to some passengers standing between cars and we were calmly informed we were on the wrong train. We had gotten on the 10:48 KTX train instead of our 10:52 train that was leaving from the same platform. How silly of us. Of course they would schedule trains four minutes apart. Oh, Korea.

Long story short: we got off at the next stop (an hour away) and waited for our train to catch up to us. It was a nice journey once we got settled, and I enjoyed watching Korea pass by.

We got into Busan and set off to find our accommodations. We had booked three beds in a shared room with the help of one of the Korean staff at school. The place was really nice, it looked just like a nice apartment, where someone had decided to put four bunk beds in the bedroom instead of one bed. There were little lockers for our bags so we tucked away our stuff and went off to explore. We walked along the beach then went to meet my friend Laura's friend who taught English in the area. We had dinner with her and went out. One of my favorite things was the drink menu at the first bar we went to. Some of the drink names are... interesting...

The next morning we went back to the beach early. I have this thing, like it's an accomplishment to stand in different bodies of water; so we went to Haeundae Beach (one of the most famous beaches in Busan). We wanted to see the beach too, but now I can officially check the Korean Straight off my list.

Haeundae Beach

After the beach we decided to go to a jjimjilbang (I pronounce it Jim-ji-bong). Jjimjilbangs are traditional Korean public bath houses/saunas. My guidebook says it's one of the things "not to miss" if you want the full Korean experience and I had been working up my courage to go for some time. Since I was traveling with two girls and they both wanted to go I figured it was time to let peer pressure win. Busan is also known for having some of the largest jjimjilbangs not only in Korea but in all Asia. We went to one recommended by my guidebook called Hurshimchung jjimjilbang.

Here's how it works: you don't pay anything to go in (you pay at the end) and they give you a bracelet with a number in case you purchase anything inside (like drinks) or get any extra spa treatments. The men and the women are of course separated and you go into your respective locker room where everyone is naked. In fact, you feel a little weird wearing clothes. So what can you do but join them? The main room of the jjimjilbang had a dozen pools. Each were kept at different temperatures and had different properties. Some had jets, some had minerals in the water etc. You hop from pool to pool staying wherever you want as long as you like.

Most Koreans have been going to jjimjilbangs from a young age so there's nothing out of the ordinary to be around lots of other naked people. In fact, after a few minutes you kind of forget about it. It's all the same when you get down to it, right? Wanting to go for the full experience we paid for an extra experience, that no doubt will sound weird, but basically involves a woman scrubbing you down. You lay on a table and she just scrubs you down; she has a special brush, soap, all of that. But at the end of the day it really just is a woman scrubbing you.  I will tell you though, it would shock you how much dead skin comes off and how soft it makes your skin feel. After that we went back to the pools and at one point we had three young girls coming up to us practicing their English. It was really cute and surprisingly not awkward; like I said you get over the whole naked thing in the first couple minutes. Okay, maybe you don't get over it but I will admit you kind of forget about it until you look down :)

The jjimjilbang not only includes the pools but other sauna rooms. For that part they gave us robes and it was mixed men and women. We went down into a big open floor and on that floor there were little huts that looked like igloos, they were maybe thirty feet around each. There were three and each one had different health benefits. One was really cold, one hot and one even hotter. There was also a separate room with charcoal in the walls and a sign that said the oxygen level in that room was higher than normal. I guess that also has beneficial health properties. Overall we were in the jjimjilbang for over three hours. It was an interesting experience and I'm glad I got up my courage and went.

After the jjimjilbang we had a couple hours before our train back. We went to the Jagalchi Fish Market. We got there later (around 5pm) so a lot of the market was closed, but you could still see how busy it must be during the day, especially in the early morning when the fish comes in. This is a traditional stand at Jagalchi and a selection of what they offer:

You pick what fish you want and can get it cooked or sashimi on the spot. We found a stand and bought two fish. One was a flounder but I'm not sure about the other. The man took the live fish out of the tank, clubbed them, and told us to follow him upstairs. Immediately the fish were handed to a women who started cooking them (we opted to have them grilled). These were our sides and the delicious fish:

The drink being poured is makgeolli, a fermented rice wine.

After dinner we caught our train back to Suwon. It was a busy weekend but I loved it. I will definitely try to go back to Busan before I leave Korea.