We made our way to our last destination in South Korea, Busan. As we had a little time to explore we went to the South Coast and to a small island of Gadeogdo, slightly away from the city. The islands are connected by a huge necklace of bridges and this little Island was part of the chain. We didn’t really have a plan and ended up in a narrow lane next to Oyster farms. Huge neatly stacked Oyster shell blocks bordered the roads. We were wondering what was going to be done with them. We learned later they have many uses including substrate for baby Oysters, water purifiers, conditioner for soil, a supplement for birds and as an aggregate, to name but a few!
Tatjana managed to navigate the very narrow streets of a fishing village, where the houses stuck out into the road! Then after that we stopped for a drink and we wandered along a coastal path, finding a fabulous walk. Had we had the time, we would have liked to spend the day but instead, we got a few hours in.
We came across what looked like a deserted village only accessible on foot or by boat although it didn’t have much of a harbour, it’s now a Christian retreat of sorts. I thought the above was interesting a building very snug against the rock face.
Part of the trail took us up wooden steps and up a steeply wooded path, there were hundreds of caterpillars, nearly all of the looping variety and all different. They were hanging in the air, on the ground and every surface! I still don’t know what they are, I’m guessing a moth?
The next day we returned Doris to the car rental and headed to our next host, Junghee and her husband.
I don’t think Junghee believed we would be able to navigate our way to her flat, she came to meet us at the entrance to the complex and greeted us with, “you are so smart!”
We spent the afternoon with Junghee, her sister and brother in-law, visiting Beomeosa Temple in the woods north of Busan. The temples are Buddhist. Half the population now, have no belief and of the remaining, it is split between Christianity and Buddhism pretty much.and many go to the Temples for specific prayers and wishes. Confucian culture is embedded in the psyche.
The following day, and our last, Junghee suggested we visit the Jalachi fish market. Wow! What a place! A whole different scale of market! In the main building you can choose your fish and get is cooked and served in the restaurant above!
Then this!
Put you off your dinner yet? Another helping Raw or cooked?
We went up to the restaurant and we were rather put off by someone preparing a foil dish with vegetables and something still alive and moving in it and about to be roasted!
Yunghee made Bibimbap that evening and I tried the sea squirt, not the worm above although I didn’t know it at the time, it looked a bit similar. Apparently the Koreans love it…..its disgusting!!! It’s bitter and the texture is just yuk! Yunghee told us one of her favourite dishes is fresh baby octopus that has just been chopped up, it still moves and suckers to your teeth…….that makes me shudder.
The meal was lovely without the sea squirt or live octupus!
Later we played cards with Yunghee’s husband (I cannot remember his name I’m sad to say). We taught him “Lake Toba”.
I want to mention a few things that we found amusing or odd in South Korean
Firstly when we were in Seoul in the area where all the plastic surgeons were, we saw a few women with very bruised faces wandering about. They looked like they had been in a boxing ring with Mike Tyson, often their heads were wrapped in thick fabric! I don’t think I have ever seen this. We were told that the women were probably not Korean as they would not go out after surgery (maybe Chinese). That was quite horrible to see for all kinds of reasons!
On another matter, Ahyoung had mentioned how rude men can seem here and we had noticed that the men here cannot cope with women who will not move out of their path when walking, so we enjoyed a game of ‘patriarchy chicken’. Sometimes the men just stopped dead and didn’t quite know what to do! Hilarious! I think Ahyoung , thought us quite brazen playing games on the pavement! Confucianism is still very much alive, but Tatjana and I didn’t follow the rules!
Here, those who drink too much alcohol (mostly men) go exceptionally red in the face, all the way up to the hair line and it’s very noticeable. Tatjana calls them the red heads! It is an alcohol induced flush reaction and well documented in Asian people!
Another thing that stood out for me as we were driving about is, there are Love Hotels, often rather odd looking like maybe like a fairy castle shape or with a suggestive name like the one that I saw ‘The hole in One’. Most often they are unattended so presumably you get a code to go in, it all seems a bit seedy ‘Ooh Matron!’ Or worse sinister!
Sometimes there are strange signs in random places. It might be lost in translation as we used an app the read the characters. One time on the pavement it said ‘Maintain order move slowly’ there was absolutely no point of reference for this!
Food can be a mystery too, without it being a local dish, which are often a mystery to me anyway but, what the heck is a Croffle? I found out it’s a croissant/waffle and really popular here. Perhaps you were aware? We weren’t.
Anyway we say goodbye to South Korea and hello to Japan next!
The Travelling Bee 