Day 29 Part 2 - Busan - And Then There Were Two - July 23

Welcome to Korea

Ava and I made it to Busan, Korea. From the air you can see numerous mega blocks. Scores of 30 story apartment high rises that all look the same. I read that this is Korea’s way of solving the housing crisis. It is a sight to behold. You see them all over South Korea. I passed a “village” in the middle of nowhere and even it had at least a ½ dozen of these high rise buildings clumped together.

Bad Luck

I went to a money exchange to convert my Yen to Won. Tossed all my money in it and the machine broke down. We needed to wait for a technician to come to pull it all out. Ugh!

Good Luck

The Busan airport tourism center had a “spin to win” event. Ava got a keychain but I managed to capture first prize. A tourism pass for Busan. Nice.

BBQ

I knew BBQ was popular here, but I didn't realize just how much so. There are everywhere and open late. There were several just outside of our hotel. Many we saw closed as late as 6AM.

We did some shopping and had some Korean BBQ for dinner. The chef cooked everything for us right at our table. It was amazing, but some of it was a bit too high on Ava’s spice meter.

First Impression of Korea

• People are very chatty unlike Japan. When looking at a map people often come up and give us directions. Standing near a restaurant, at least ½ the people coming out gave us their review.

• There are places to sit. Right out of the subway we saw benches and tables all over. And even fancy swing chairs. There wasn’t any place to sit in Japan. We will see if this trend continues.

• There are garbage cans for our trash. But we see a lot more garbage everywhere. At night they pile it on the side of the street and it’s a bit stinky, especially in the heat…

• Free WiFi is everywhere, even on the bus.

• We never saw a homeless person or beggars in Japan. But we’ve already seen a few here.

• You can use credit cards almost everywhere. Japan has many places that are only cash.

• Google maps works but only gives directions for the metro, and not very good ones at that. For one trip Google told me it would take 8.5 hours. Eek! Naver (alternate app) said it would take 40 minutes, which was correct. Apparently Korea has laws that prevent Google maps from doing it’s thing.

Airport Story

When Ava and I were waiting to board our Busan flight there was a guy in front of us that looked like the Michelin Man. He was wearing a trench coat with dozens of pockets all filled with boxes. It must have weighed 60 pounds. The airport staff made him take it off so they could weigh it. They guy could barely hold it out in front of himself. There was security, and I'm sure it is a social faux pas, but I really regret not taking a picture. It was the funniest thing ever. I thought it was bad enough when I filled my pockets with batteries and other heavy things back in the Calgary airport. This guy really took it to the next level.