13sept2005
busan, korea is an amazing city. like a tim burton film it exists definitively in some grand era of the 20th century, but it's very hard to tell just when. crowded street markets leave no room for cars and very little for the throngs of people that are shopping. it has more of a movie set - asian market feel to it than i thought possible. women and men call from their booths to you from across the way. one man in the fish market yelled above the crowd, 'hey! usa? hello!' as he gave me a big smile and an enthusiastic thumbs up. there are countless old women squating on upturned buckets with a myriad of food for sale. they cook on small stoves on the ground and serve the food from giant platters balanced precariously on more upturned buckets. if you'd like to eat, you sit in the same manner with, yes, upturned plastic buckets for table and a seat.
you can easliy get lost in the markets and then turn a corner to find high and long narrow alleys lined and stacked with bars offering 'hof and coffe' ('hof', turns out, is beer. hops?). there is a myriad of western chain restaurants, like burger king and pizza hut nestled between korean barbecue houses and trendy clothing stores. the retailers seem to stay open as late as the bars, which i guess is a very smart way to sell trendy clothes. i didn't ask about return policies.
more corners and you will find a huge department store called lotte. it has a wide side walk in front with large stone potted plants and trees. to the left of the entrance is a huge metal globe in a metal orbit tilted on axis, shadowing whatever lies beyond. to the right are four bronze horses leaping out of a fountain with manes tossed. we're talking decadent and big. the store itself houses such high end shops as louis vuitton, paul smith, dolce and gabanna, coach, chanel, and so on. it was like strolling through a vogue magazine. we milled around a bit in our tourist clothes attracting many stares, but got nervous thinking there might be a charge for window shopping and moved on.
if you walk a little farther, you will find four and five star hotels with lounges and coffee shops reminiscent of 1960's america: plush armchairs to swallow you, heavy wooden tables, stages for bad english lounge music, candles and dim lighting. the front lobbies are wide and open with marble floors and shiny brass trim. the bellhops have their own counters and are prompt and courteous. our room key was attached to a fancy, but yellowed, clear plastic key chain that weighed slightly less than me. keys are to be left with the front desk when you leave the hotel.
the overall architecture of the city is a myriad of styles. there are some 3 million people living in busan and geographically it is not that large. it is korea's largest and most active port. the city is nestled tightly between the sea of japan and mountains marching straight up behind. like many parts of east asia, they are forced to build up rather than out. the korean appartments are massive. they must be 50 and 60 stories high. they are built in groups and so it is common to see seven or twelve of these builldings lined up in a row, towering over some neighborhood. they are all identical in a group and built to such impossible proportions that they look as if they are props from a terry gilliam set.
we spent three days and two nights in busan, which wasn't nearly long enough. our tour guide from the travel agency met us at the port (we traveled there by ferry) and took us to our hotel. she was korean and fluent in japanese. there were four other people with us, who were all japanese, so needless to say, we didn't understand most of the information on the brief van tour of the city.
the other tourists eventually left and went their own ways, but our guide seemed to be worried about us. she asked if we needed anything else and we asked her where we could find a book store to pick up a phrase book. she was kind enough to take us to one herself. we asked her for a recommendation on a good place for dinner and again, she took us there. we offered her to join us and bought her dinner for spending most of her day with us.
her english was very limited as is my japanese, so our communication was a little rough. she was explaining the prices of the subway and the taxis to us, which are incredibly inexpensive. so i made my first good language blunder that i understood. i exclaimed, 'vegetable!' instead of, 'cheap!' we almost lost our food laughing so hard. hah.
we spent most of our second day at beomeosa temple in the mountains above the city. it is a huge complex with about 50 monks in residence. there are actually many buildings and temples all built and assembled since 678 a.d. the architecture is phenomenal, and so too is the decoration. nearly every surface is handpainted in delicate floral patterns. there are also some panel paintings. some of which are so faded over time that they have an eerie feel to them. this is especially true of those in which the white pigments used for skin weathered better than the other hues. the results are ghostly faces and hands floating in barely visible forests and temples.
we went for a hike near the temple, which was especially revivng for me, as i'm not accustomed to living in a city and have been itching to get to the woods. there were some amazing plants and trees, but the only wildlife we saw were spiders. john wasn't so happy about this, of course, but they were incredibly impressive. we're talking about spiders that are probably related to shelob and aragog - although defininetly of a more colorful variety.
the food was also amazing. the bold and spicy flavors were a nice contrast to the subtle flavors of japanese cuisine. we ate enough food in the three days we were there to last us a week or more here in japan. it was well worth it.
unfortunately, our trip was too short to visit the beaches and the museums and the bath houses and spas. there is an old fortress in the mountains accessible only by ropeway that provides days' worth of hiking and there are many restaurants that we neglected. we'll have to go back and spend atleast five days there instead of almost three.
