Sunday,
29 April 2018
I
woke up at 03:30 local time to perform morning prayers. The girl in the bed
below was snoring and the Vietnamese girl across was not happy about it. I felt
like telling her that her grumbles were as noisy as the snores.
I
woke again at 07:15 and there was a queue for the bathroom. I didn’t fancy
going out to find another bathroom so I packed my things while I waited. I went
down at 08:45 with my bags and had a light breakfast. I left just after 09:00
and walked to Inside Busan (I had searched for it the previous evening) and it
was only 5 minutes away. I had booked via Airbnb to stay there for the next two
nights. I left my bags in the double ensuite room I would be staying in (the
previous guests had just checked out), keyed in my door code then walked to
Busan metro station.
I
rode the metro to Toseong station, exited the station at exit 8 and walked to
the bus stop at Cancer Hospital about 100 metres away. While it is possible to
walk to Gamcheon Culture Village, the village is built on the foothills of a
coastal mountain so it’ll be a steep walk up. You can take bus numbers
1-1, 2 or 2-2 to Gamcheon Culture Village.
We arrived at the bus stop at the entrance of the
village and alighted. I went to the left to admire the scenery and even went
down some steps to explore the nearby area before retracing my steps and making
my way to the main entrance. There was a festive feeling in the air and I walked
along the main thoroughfare around the village. A bit of history on the
village: it
used to house the city’s poorest people, but during the Korean War, refugees
fled their homes for Busan (known as Pusan until year 2000), which was the only
area which was free from fighting. The North Korean People’s Army had pushed
back UN forces to a 230-km line near the south-eastern tip of the Korea
Peninsula known as the ‘Pusan Perimeter’. This was the only part of the
peninsula the North never held. These refugees fled to Busan, but the areas
near Jagalchi quickly became overcrowded and the refugees eventually flooded
Gamcheon as well. Many quickly built shanty homes along the hillside (which is
why Gamcheon should remind you of the favelas and slum areas in Brazil and the
Medellin slums in Colombia). At the same time, or slightly before the influx of
refugees, a person called Cho Cholje, the founder of a new religion called
Taegukdo that believes in yin and yang, had moved his religious headquarters to
Gamcheon. Interesting fact: Gamcheon is also known as Taegukdo Village. Cho
told the refugees that he would help them if they believed in Taegukdo, and the
refugees did. Together with the Taegukdo followers, the refugees rebuilt their
shanty homes into concrete homes which we see today.
I
spent two hours at Gamcheon then made my way to the bus stop for the bus back
to Toseong station. The small bus was full this time. I stood close to the door
and driver (even the driver was young and handsome! Probably a university
student working part-time as he really looked young).
I
took the metro to Jagalchi station one stop away and walked to Gukje Market (in
hindsight, I could have just walked from Teseong station). I was looking for
street food for lunch and when I finally found the street food stalls, I had to
wait until I could find someone who could speak English to translate for me. In
the end, I asked loudly if anyone could speak English and to my surprise, one
of the street food hawker aunties actually knew English and helped me pick my
lunch. Fancy that!
After
that, I crossed over to Jagalchi Market, the largest seafood market in Busan.
Fresh seafood is sold at ground level while dry seafood is sold upstairs. There
are many food stalls on the upper level too but most seemed to be selling some
kind of seafood stew for at least four people. I left and walked along the
market towards Yeongdodaegyo Bridge and Lotte Department Store Gwangbok and
passed a few seafood restaurants along the way. I was tempted to try some
noodles but was still full from the street food and besides, it was nearing 2
p.m., where part of Yeongdodaegyo Bridge would lift up for 15
minutes to allow ships to pass between the south and north ports. There were
already many people waiting at the waterfront. I stayed until the part of the
bridge that lifted started coming down before leaving for Lotte Department
Store Gwangbok.
At Lotte Department Store, I took the lift up to
the eleventh floor where the petting zoo is. From here, I went up the stairs to
the observation deck for a view over Busan. You can also go to Busan Tower but
you have to go up Yongdusan Park and then to the tower itself and you have to
pay for the entrance fee.
After going around the observation deck, I went
down and walked out of Lotte. I decided to skip the metro (nearest station to
Lotte is Nampo) and walked back. Along the way, I stopped at 40-step
Culture & Tourism Theme Street near Jungang Station (if you take the metro,
take exit 11). The 40-step stairway embodies the joys and sorrows of refugees
and those displaced by the Korean War and I was a bit surprised when I arrived
in the area and found it deserted. I did meet three uncles at the steps and we
helped take pictures of each other. After we parted company, I walked along Donggwang-gil
which is somewhat parallel to the main road of Jungang-daero all the way back
to Inside Busan. Busan is a pretty hilly city and Donggwang-gil is at an
elevation over Jungang-daero.
Back
in my room, I performed prayers. I tried switching on the air-conditioner but
it didn’t work. After some snack, I went out again and took the train to
Geumnyeonsan station. It was a nice area of Busan but alas I was too late to
catch any cherry blossoms. I walked along the waterfront for a bit to see the
Gwangandaegyo Bridge before returning to the station. I took the train to
Dongbaek to view the skycrapers and decided to call it a day after a stroll
around the neighbourhood.
I
rode the metro back to Busan station and walked back to Inside Busan. I had a
light dinner before returning to my room. It may be hot during the day but the nights were cool and pleasant.
Monday,
30 April 2018
This
morning, I decided to try the city bus so after breakfast, I walked to Busan
Train Station and after asking for directions, took the exit for the bus stop. I
waited about 10 minutes for bus 1003 and rode the bus to Suyeong metro station.
To my pleasant surprise, the ride took less than 25 minutes and definitely
shorter than getting there by metro (I would need to change trains at Seomyeon
and climb up and down stairs from one platform to another)! From Suyeong, I took
the metro to Centum City. Shinsegae Centum City is the largest shopping mall in
the world but I only went to Lotte Department Store. I spent about an hour
there before taking the train to Seomyeon. You exit the station to Seomyeon Underground
Shopping Centre and it’s a huge sprawl of shops located underground. It even
made me wonder why we are keen to build cities below ground as if space is
already limited above ground. Or are we just greedy for space? There are
clothes shops, cosmetics shops (and Korea produces a lot of cosmetic and
skincare), vintage shops, shops selling curios etc. There are multiple shops of
the same brand (The Face Shop, Nature Republic, Etude House...all skincare
shops). I walked around and around and finally went up Lotte and above ground
to find some street food but nothing caught my fancy. I then returned to Lotte
and went up to the top floor where the duty free is. I was tempted but after a
quick online check, found that things cost less in Europe.
I
rode the train back and returned to Inside Busan. After lunch and prayers, I rested
a bit before venturing out for dinner to the restaurant where I had my first
dinner in Busan. After dinner, I went to Top Mart to buy some seaweed to bring
back. I had come prepared with my foldable duffel bag to store the packets of
seweed. Heh.
Tuesday,
1 May 2018
While
you can take airport bus to/fro the airport and city, I decided to take the
train instead. I left at 07:15 after a quick breakfast and walked to the Busan
metro station. There’s a lift to bring me down to the station and another lift
to get to the platform and the lift reached the platform just as the train
arrived. Alhamdulillah. I changed trains at Seomyeon (there were a few other
fellow travellers also bound for the airport) and rode the train to Sasang. At
Sasang, I exited the metro and walked to Sasang LRT station (LRT there is above
ground). The train was already waiting when I reached the platform and I quickly
ran to board it and a good thing too for the doors closed twenty seconds later.
We reached Gimhae International Airport three stations later and all in all, it
took only 45 minutes from Busan metro station to reach the airport. Fantastic! I
quickly made my way to the counter and was shocked to see the long queues for
Vietnam Airlines snaking across the hall. I was the third at the web check-in
counter so ladies and gentlemen, do check in online prior to your flight unless
you enjoy queuing. The lady at the counter asked if I wanted to change to an
aisle seat two rows further up and I accepted happily.
After
dropping off my bags and getting my boarding passes, I took the escalator down
to arrivals level to return my Cash Bee card. The chap at the counter explained
that there would be 500 wons charge as administrative fee and deducted from the
card balance. That was fine with me. After getting my refund, I went through security
and passport control. The duty-free area was not too big and after browsing, I headed
for my gate. We boarded about 30 minutes before departure and took off just
slightly later than scheduled.
We
landed at Saigon Airport at 12:44. I went through transfer process and was
browsing the duty-free shortly after. The duty-free here was different as it
had a lot of Vietnamese products – jewellery, clothes, handbags from exotic
skins (crocodile, snake). I happily browsed them all (and almost tempted to buy
one bag but wasn’t sure of CITES) before sitting down to catch up on social
media and my book. We were fed too soon after taking off from Busan so it was a
good thing I had some bread and chocolates to eat while waiting.
We
boarded at 14:30 and landed at KLIA at 17:53. My bags were out by 18:25
(record! This had never happened before!) but I was asked to place my bags on
the belt before exiting. I asked why but received no answer. I got the 18:40
train to KL Sentral, reached KL Sentral at 19:08, got the Grab car and was home
by 19:45. Alhamdulillah. This was the first time that I arrived home in less
than two hours after I landed.
