Busan, Korea

Not what I was expecting, except the weather, which was cold. Your first glimpse of Busan is of skyscrapers –office buildings and condos. Maybe most of the pictures I’ve seen of Korea came from the fifties during the Korean War or maybe because of Korea’s history of surviving four major wars in the last hundred years, I wasn’t expecting quite such a modern look. The worst residual feelings from the various wars, seems to be against the Japanese. The general feeling we got was that the people of Korea would like to see Korea reunited; they have friends and family on both sides of the border. It is the governments that don’t want to unite. The guide  showed us a picture of a very impressive looking building just across the border in North Korea. While imposing to view from South Korea, apparently it is for show and is only about 10 ft. deep- sort of like a Hollywood set. Almost everyone we talk with from the past ambassador to Laos to the local guides predict that unsteady times will be increasing in Asia. North Korea is in pretty bad shape. One reason might be that they expend over 50% of their annual budget on the military, funding over one million soldiers. South Korea spends 35% of their budget on military. On both sides, all men between the ages of 17-25 must serve.  As for their currency, it reminded me of the old Lira days in Italy. The man sitting next to us said he went to the ATM machine and as everything was in Korean characters so he just pushed the top button, which is usually $200 cash. He said it was like winning the lottery – it took two hands to carry it all. He was really worried about how much he got until he saw that even postcards had at least one comma in their price. The smallest bill the ATM gives is a 10,000 won bill. We started our tour in what is a very large and active harbor. According to our guide over 50% of all ship builders are represented here. The average workweek is 55 hours. The average retirement age had been 55, but with the current economy, it is edging toward 58. The average income is $30,000 a year. One of Korea’s biggest problems is that they must import about everything but rice. Only 22% of their land is usable, with the rest being too mountainous to use for building or farming. Our first stop was Haedong Yongungsa Temple. It was located on a beautiful seaside mountain – quite an impressive view. It seemed like hundreds of steps going up and down to various shires within the Temple area. These were Buddhist shrines with one 30 ft. “Golden” Buddha towards the top. I have to admit, American tourists can be pretty obnoxious. As the locals were knelling and praying inside their shires, many tourists were snapping their picture and talking loudly about their climb up or putting the “fat” Buddha on a diet, as the locals were trying to pray. I couldn’t help but wonder how they would feel if a busload of Korean tourists walked into the middle of their Mass talking loudly and snapping photos of them at prayer. Anyway, a beautiful place with cliffs and waterfalls, very lovely and I am sure quite tranquil when tourists aren’t in residence.  Next, the APEC House. I am not sure it was worth a stop, but a lovely setting for the conference where the 2005 APEC economic leaders met. On to downtown Busan. While similar to many other big cities, Busan has a famous Fish Market- and holy mackerel – what a market! This huge, indoor marketplace was started by women during the Korean War. It has everything from octopus to sea slugs (pic above) and various other sea creatures that I didn’t begin to recognize. There was what looks like a couple of dozen raw oysters strung on strings with sea weed in between – sort like an oyster necklace or an oyster kabob. Probably about 90% of the fish were fresh. How do I know? I know because they were all alive and swimming in tanks. It is like an enormous dinner aquarium that goes on for a block. There was also a huge variety of various colored sea weed - and many other things that didn’t look, or smell, like something you might want to put in your mouth. Under the bustling street was a huge underground market for as far as you could see. We then headed to the U.N. cemetery, where soldier from all the participating nations were buried.  After a potty stop the bus returned to the harbor. I know you guys think I am getting fixated on potties, but most their public toilets don’t furnish toilet paper or paper towels so you have to furnish your own or buy them from vending machines outside the restrooms. I think after this trip I may publish a potty guide for women. You know, like noting the Japanese 5 star potty, or develop some symbol for “crappy” potties you should avoid at all cost.(No, not that symbol, don’t go there) . Maybe - “A Women’s Worldly Guide to Perfect and Putrid Potties”. It was just a thought.