Big Adventures, Little World

A month ago or so I was sitting a home on the computer and a message pops up from Bel. “Hey, wanna go to Korea while you are here?” A little bit confused I reply “Sure, why not?” so here I am, in Korea, for a whirlwind tour of about 24 hours.

Once again up and about in the early morning for two unemployees, we were off to the bus station to take us to Fukuoka, where we would depart for Busan, Korea. The bus ride was like any other, and gave me a chance to catch a little shuteye. All this traveling on public transport was great. I could sleep all during the trips, then only need a few hours sleep each night.

We got the International Departure Port where we would be catching the Beetle Boat to Korea which took roughly 3 hours. Some of the views as we left the port were good, but once out on open water, it was time to sleep again. Before we knew it, “Land Ahoy!” Korea was in our sight and it was a magnificent looking city from the water with mountains and buildings everywhere.

We got through customs, found a bus to take us to the station, where we changed over to the subway, and got off where instructed by the hostel, and made the call for them to come pick us up. Now this is where it gets interesting. Not in a bad way at all, just a different way I guess you could say.

We were told it would be about 10 minutes to meet us at the station, which confused as a little as the hostel was supposed to be in the heart of the city, but no matter. About 8 minutes later a car pulls up, so we think, maybe this is for us, but no go, until about another 5 minutes passes and a guy comes jogging across the street to us and introduces himself as June, from the Zen Backpackers Hostel. So he’d ran to come meet us so he could escort us to the hostel, to make sure we found it, which was good, just not what were expecting.

We arrived at an apartment building which June told us was only built 10 months ago and he hands us a keycard to get it and takes us to the 29th floor (of 32). We go through the door and find a extremely nice place with extraordinary views which seems more like  bachelor pad than a hostel. June showed us around, starting with our room with 2 beds, another room with 4 beds, the bathroom, the kitchen, lounge area, the views, then shows us his room. It basically just seemed like he had bought the apartment himself, and the spare rooms he just rents out to international travelers. He wasn’t even sure how long we were staying! Nonetheless, he was a great host, showed and told us some places to go on our map, supplied us with everything we needed, offered to use his computer if the guest one was occupied, and was a great person to deal with and talk to.

Not long after putting our bags we headed back out to Haenabe Beach where we found a Korean Barbecue restaurant for dinner. We had lots of small bowls served to us with different kinds of vegetables, salads and sauces, plus some pork and sausage which we got to cook ourselves in the middle of the table. It was all quite spicy, but a pretty good meal no doubt. I did however eat a red chili, which I thought was capsicum, which then kept my mouth burning throughout most of dinner! Even the beer couldn’t cool my mouth down.

We finished our dinner and headed out to the beach, where June had to take us told us there was over 1 million people the day before. It didn’t disappoint. There was people everywhere, but not as packed as it could have been as the sun was setting, and we think the officials were telling people to get out the water. We found a Starbucks and sat down for a coffee overlooking the beach and relaxed for a while before checking out the beach once again, this time with the night lights, then ventured back to the “hostel” to turn in for the night.

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