Not must context for these pictures, other than Nampo-dong, Busan, South Korea, in 2012!
Archive for December, 2012
Came here after the Taejongdae lookout–take the 101 bus and get off when it turns left at a fork in the road and walk down the right fork for a few minutes. I think you can take another bus but I couldn’t find where that one left from. The building is pretty easy to identify once you get near it. The anchors outside help.
At the time there was a display on Tidal flats which was pretty interesting but it didn’t have English on the display.
Then there were some adorable photos of kids playing in mud. I’m pretty sure that these are there all the time.
It was also all decked out for Christmas which was really cute.
There was some art work on display in the basement, but I liked the boats hanging from the ceiling more!
There were some live fish as well, but not too many interesting fish other than the lion fish. Oh, and starfish that you can pick up and play with, and, if you’re the Korean boy below, throw as hard as you can back into the water.
Also some interactive things where you can practice working on a sail boat! If I was a kid or if the line was not so long I would have done this.
The top floor was all about the history of Korea and things Koreans have done in relation to water. The best was this one with the seductive seal.
The view from the top was not great, as the roof extends for awhile.
Came here for a cool brisk hike on December 8th, the day after it snowed in Busan (which never happens, right?) which was really nice. Clear blue skies with a bit of wind so you need to wear gloves, but there are some more intense walking parts so the hat and scarf might come off. You can take a a train all the way or walk, but why take a train and miss out on some of the cool things or view points? I could see the people on the train looking longingly as I was at the first view point, sad that they were not stopping for it.
It is a beautiful walk as well, even when its cold out with the foliage.
At the lookout where the train stops the first time there is an interesting Western looking man trying to sell you a burger. There is some Korean food and other fast food as well, but the main point is this lookout! You can see the Japanese Island of Tsushima, but that didn’t show up to well in the photos.
But here is the actual lookout with the weird arch thingy.
After walking quite a bit more in the loop around (not going back) there is a monument.
This monument is dedicated in consecration of the old camp site of Young-Do-Group (Oct 1950-Dec 1952), composed of the young anti-communists from three north Eastern-Sea provinces. Equipped in tactics of guerrilla warfare, they were launched deep into the hostile territories, inflicting heavy damage on North Korean army installations and facilities.
Because every forest needs fake tree stumps.
I went to Naejangsan National Park after a visit in Gwangju. We unknowingly went up one of the higher peaks–722 meters! When you go in at Baegyangsa–where the bus from Gwangju drops you–there is a little uninhabited village at the very bottom.
After a bit of flat walking you will come to Baegyangsa temple which is really big! Pretty nice too as there are only 2 places selling touristy things. There is a beautiful walk from the starting village to the temple along a river which you end up following up to the start of the hike (not the Cheonjinam Temple part, the Yaksaam Temple part).
The walk up to Yaksaam temple is incredibly steep, but on our way up we saw some older people coming down so I figured I had to push on no matter what! Also saw some monks coming down who looked like they did that walk everyday of their life.
After that is the Yeongcheongu Cave, which has a buddha in it and some candles which you should pay for.
Next is another steep hike filled with helpful stairs to Baekhakbong Peak. Beautiful views from the top, even when it is a bit cloudy.
After that we headed down into a valley and back along the river. We had run out of water and my companions did not bring any food so we could not go on to the Helliport, second peak and waterfall. The plan is to come back in spring and go straight for the waterfall!
This weekend I went to Gwangju with two friends and continued onto Naejangsan National Park for a Sunday hike. The bus from Sasang in Busan is about 3 1/2hours (but on our way back it was only 2 1/2 so that was pretty amazing). You can also leave from Nopo but that adds more than 1/2 an hour to the time and costs more than 5,000 KRW more.
One friend had already been to Gwangju and there were certain things he had not seen before and wanted to see this time so we headed off from the bus station towards the river and to the Gwangu Student Independence Movement Memorial Tower. Let’s just say that the map on how to get anywhere in Gwangju is very deceptive in the scale. We walked, and walked and walked and walked while checking the map I had taken a photo of on my real camera and Googlemaps on our phones (had to cross check as the memorial tower is not in Googlemaps). Let me simplifiy it’s location for you, as their tourist map is also a bit wrong: go to the Yangdong Market stop and check out the market for a bit (if it’s open, we were there midday on a Saturday and things looked a bit closed). Either cross the river at that train stop bridge or the next bridge south. Keep walking down the street of that second bridge and you will see a few rocks with carvings and a nice building that looks a bit like a police station. Go in there and keep walking ahead. The shrine is surrounded by trees so we almost missed it from within the park! Fair warning: it’s not very big.
After that we headed down toward Art Street which was 1 km away. There were some interesting statues along the way, and a park that had a great performance area (more on that on our way back). We headed down towards Wongaksa Temple to see that before art street and it was quite a beautiful temple in the middle of the city. Art Street is more of ‘Art Academy Street’ as there were many academy and not so much people selling art on the street, which is what we thought it would have been. After that, we headed back to the park, going towards the 5-Story STONE Pagoda. I’m only seeing the word stone now that I’m looking at the map, as we thought it was going to be a real pagoda. In the park there were some rapping 20-something Koreans that I wish I had taken a video of since they were free-styling but I was a bit nervous to just pull out my camera then. It took us awhile to find the pagoda since, again, it is not on googlemaps and the tourist map is a bit deceptive as to where things are.
After this we had coffee and warmed up in Hans and Bean which is a great coffee shop! Haven’t seen them in Busan, but they were all over Gwangju. We then found out that we were in the perfect area for what we were looking for that night–pubs and great food–around the culture complex subway stop.
Our first stop was the Speakeasy, used to be called Mike and Dave’s Speakeasy, which was an expat Irish-Ameircan pub with Guinness and Smithwicks. The bathroom had a ton of interesting and hilarious (and sometimes hateful) writing. Next was Tequilaz Mexican Grill and Bar where we had TG Tequila which was the best tequila I have ever had. The manager was trying to sell it to us hard and said “I won’t even give you a lemon, it’s that smooth” and he was right. We also had fantastic tacos, chimichangas and nachos there. He suggested that we go to German Bar Two, but after we got there it was more of a club which was not what we were looking for so we headed back to Soul Train (not related to the one in Busan) which was a bit expensive but had pool.
Spent the night in Starbucks Spa (Starbucks was the name of the building, but there was no Starbucks Coffee to be seen) which was pretty standard other than the washrooms which had personal jacuzzis.
The next day we went to the park for the hike and that post is here. We returned in time to explore Gwangju a bit more, but using the same map we did not find much. We tried to find the Hwadamsa Shrine but I’m pretty sure that was taken down as we walked a circle around where it should have been and only saw 2 Christian churches there. Also tried to find the May 18 Memorial Park but there was no park to be seen, unless it was inside an apartment complex.
Overall, Gwangju was interesting and I do plan on going back to do another hike in that park and for delicious Mexican food, but this time I’ll keep my expectations low about the tourist map and if things will actually be where they say they are.
World Traveler: Asian Edition 