South Korea, day one (Thursday, Dec. 27)

 (continued from my last blog entry, the introduction to my Korean travels)

... and so commenced my travels in South Korea! In this post, I will talk about all the exciting things I got to see and do on my first day in this lovely Asian peninsula!

Yay! Arrived in Korea!

First restaurant in Korea

Eating blowfish

On day one in Korea, after I landed at the airport, we went to the Haeundae district in eastern Busan (about 40 minutes from the airport). We dropped off my suitcase at a guesthouse and went to eat blowfish soup at this restaurant. It was Japanese-Korean fusion food, but a nice introduction to kim chi and other Korean side dishes.

Then we hopped on a bus headed towards Haeunjeongsa Temple (해운정사). We got off a stop early and took the beach/mountain adventure route. The construction men working on a new development in one beach cove had quizzical looks on their faces when we rounded the corner, climbing over tidepooled-boulders and along the concrete wall/sea-barrier. Then we got some awesome sunset shots in as the sun hid itself behind the hills over yonder.

Fun with exercise machines along the beachside pathways

Taking the adventurous route along the waterfront

Sun setting 

The fence under which we crawled to arrive on the site of the temple,
since we took the more creative "back route" along the beach and over the mountain to arrive.

With the remaining daylight, we explored the temple site (newly renovated and clean-cut construction made me guess that it had not been such a big operation in years past, and perhaps the continued collection of coins from the wishing ponds had funded new additions to the grounds??).

Workers cleaning out the
ponds and pools at the temple

After the temple, we went back into town and ate dinner at a little cafe that had an interesting toilet that I had exploratory interactions with, to satiate my curiosity of buttons and heated toilet seat settings. Look at my Facebook album for a photo of that darling piece of technology.

The reception desk at the jimjilbang. SO interesting.
I don't know why I'm including this photo instead of
the more exciting image of the high-tech toilet.

Then we decided to go to a jimjilbang (Korean spa). Anthony thought it would do my respiratory system good, opening up airways with sauna rooms, heated floors, public baths and water massage therapy. It was a lovely cultural experience. The common areas have heated floors, snack bars, televisions, and people relax even with their technology. Guests are given scrub-esque types of garments for co-ed areas of the spa (such as sauna rooms), but the gender-segregated baths have a birthday-suit dress code. I was the only non-Asian in the female side of the spa, but they seemed not to mind. So long as I don't know the people I am co-mingling with, I could totally be a nudist!

I did feel nice and warm after our few hours at the jimjilbang, as we walked the sub-freezing streets of Haeundae, Busan back to our guesthouse for the night, where Anthony began to teach me the Korean language (MUCH easier, mathematical, logical, calculated, phonetic than Chinese!). A nice ending to a first day in Korea.

Look through the album of photos from my Korea trip, with more details and images of the day's sights and doings. Follow this link. (also see link on the photo menu to the right)