Busan to DMZ

Well I am in the seedy part of town. I have arrived in Busan and am staying in a “motel” near the railway station and the docks. So what should I expect? Sailors – yes. Russian prostitutes – yes. Fights – of course.

As Korea’s second city it is no surprise that it has links with China’s second city – Shanghai. So fifty metres from my motel is “Shanghai Street”. I am sufficiently confident that the food is shit not to have tried it. The continuation of Shanghai Street is Texas Street. This is the street of clubs with lots of young women in short skirts as ‘whipers in”. These are not the Russians – most of whom appear to be “of a certain age”. There were so many whipers in at every door that I was put off from venturing in. Naturally First Direct have stopped my ability to take money out of the ATMs (they always do, even though I have a track record of roaming the world) so I was relying on cash from China. Fortunately this has limited my ability to waste money so I have not been dragged in to buy some delightful young lady or three a “cocktail” at twenty or thirty quid a go.

There was also a small street brawl as early as 9 last night.

Why did I end up in such a dump. I used the guide book of course. There are three trains a day from Andong. One arrives in Busan at 11.00 p.m. and one leaves Andong at midnight so I shouldn’t have been surprised when I inquired about a train ticket for a train at the sensible time when the response was ‘Sorry, fully booked”

The Information Centres are nearly always good so there was no difficulty in getting a bus for half an hour to the Long Distance Bus Station.  No problem, the bus is available, comfortable and quick. I got to Busan before the train that I tried to catch would have got me there.  

Busan is built on hills. Or, more accurately, around them. They are quite steep which means two things.  The city is well spread out – the “Central” bus station is about as far out of the city as Watford – it is twenty-three stops on the metro to the railway station. You can go for a good walk within the city and get some good views of the harbour and the city.

I found this place, location quite well described in the 2014 version of the guide book, one stop past the main the railway station.  It didn’t exist and clearly hadn’t for several years. So I wandered off to find the Information place at the station – that is how I ended up in Seedy City – honest.

Jagalichi fish market was a real disappointment. It is big but it is just retail. There is none of the hustle and bustle of Guangzhou’s fish market (which is largely wholesale for restaurants and hotels). I have not been to Tokyo’s fish market for a real comparison.

I enjoyed a three hour stroll on the hills but I did spend a lot of time on the metro.

Busan is a bit of a dichotomy. It is a big port and lots of the world’s big ships are built here. It is also a tourist town 

I decided to explore the tourist town bit. I went to the city’s no. 2 beach at dusk. The reason for going at that time was to see the people and then the lights on the bridge.

The tourist literature makes all sorts of claims about the lighting on the bridge. It is rubbish. However, the strip next to the beach is pretty lively so a spot of nosh and a few swift ones is not unpleasant. There is an “English pub”. Surely I should know better by now.  Crap NZ beer and whingeing ex-pats.

The beach management  managed to trump the village near Andong. Most of the bars and restaurants had their own boring music blaring out. Suddenly at about 8 in the evening, the beach-wide PA system perked up to compete. You can imagine how delightful it all sounded. After a couple of songs the beach PA played “Puff the magic dragon.” Beat that Carlos! 

Having explored the city’s no. 2 beach the next day I decided to go for the country’s no. 1 beach which is about six metro stops down the same line. The Rough Guide says that on a summer’s weekend people are packed in tighter than a Brazilian’s speedos. Well I arrived at dusk on a Sunday at the end of September and yes there were a lot of people around. Unfortunately the beach front is packed with ridiculously expensive hotels – no place for scum like me. In the side streets back a bit from the beach there were some more interesting places. There is a food street that seems to specialise in eels. They are not my favourite food and seeing them skinned alive did not move them up in my list of delights to taste.

English is almost normal here (as at the other beach). I saw a few Eurasian types in Seoul and the odd one or two in the other places but here there are loads - and I don’t mean just Russian ladies and sailors. One in ten or fifteen people walking down the road are “white”. What brings them here? There is an international film festival starting in four days but that can’t be the reason.

My impression of the area was not improved by the fact that I saw the second McShit of the trip. No prizes for guessing which beach I preferred. 

 I can believe that the city is a nice place to live – not in Winter obviously, it would be minus ten or fifteen in the day sometimes  – but I am running out of energy for wandering the streets of places so probably didn’t make the most of it.

I had better withdraw my remarks about the good train service. I went and asked for a ticket for a train to Seoul (there are three or four an hour) and was told that the one I wanted was standing room only for 4 ½ hours. OK, when is the next one with a seat. There aren’t any – they are all standing room only. Buy a ticket for the next one. Get on, loads of empty seats so I sat in one at the front. There are a dozen or so stations on the route and the train filled up. After a couple of hours sitting room on the floor was full so it really was standing.  At each stop I was expecting someone to come up with a reservation. Never happened. Were they sorry for an old fart? Frightened of strangers? Just very well mannered? Actually I don’t think a reservation was booked for my seat – nobody came close with a piece of paper in their hand looking in my area.

I found out that there was a reason for crowded trains – Mid Autumn Festival - (unusually late, it is often in August) which a couple of people translated as Thanksgiving (in the East they don’t know that it is a Yanks only festival – sorry Canada). I could have sworn that Thanksgiving was after the harvest had been brought in successfully – not before it.

Got to Seoul and everyone got off the train – well nearly everyone. I realised too late that this was Souwon (another Seoul station that I knew nothing about) – hence some people staying on the train. It took me another 1 ½ hours on the metro to get to my dosshouse.

Korea has been at war for 65 years. An armistice agreement was signed at Panmunjon in 1953 but there has never been a peace treaty. The Demilitarized Zone – a four kilometre wide strip of land along the demarcation line has become a tourist attraction. With my usual organizational expertise I had failed to book the full Panmunjon tour so was on a half day trip. Just as well I think.  On the bus going there for fifty minutes we had a tirade of anti-Japanese and anti-North Korean rhetoric – all bound up in democratic clothes naturally. Although this guide didn’t talk too quickly she did only talk to half the people – she didn’t wait for the rest of us to get off the bus. I don’t think I missed much. Five minutes after she assured us that she could not guarantee our safety in the North the bus had an accident – minor but well timed.

The propaganda (sorry information) film that we taken to see ended up with the clarion call of “Unification, but until then the DMZ forever” Work that one out.

The best bit was going into the “Third Infiltration Tunnel.”  This had been found in 1978 (there was a fourth found in 1990) that was 70 metres below ground level and penetrated  to about 400 metres across the border line. North Koreans must be quite small because we were issued with hard hats and, apart from the usual babble, the only thing you heard was the slap of feet on a wet floor and the regular clunk of a helmet hitting the ceiling – mine got knocked off at some point. The guide told us that you could sometimes here North Koreans on the other side. What you got was a small window and another one on the other side. Personally I just think that there was a mirror.

As you probably know I am crap at photos and don’t normally bother but there is a bunch of us with identical T – shirts and we are taking photos of the T shirt in unusual places so you are getting three terrible pictures – well two, I didn’t take one of them.. The selfies are in the tunnel where you are not allowed to take photos.

Know the film?

We went to a "ginseng museum". I knew I should have stayed on the bus. The museum guide talked so fast and told us nothing apart from it took six years to grow – she padded it out to eighteen. Nothing about the type of plant, its family, where it grew – nothing. Of course she had the patter to tell us that this type was good for period pains, blood pressure, heart burn and that type was good for bowel movements, baldness, longevity blah blah fucking blah. There were about forty of us on the trip and I am glad to say that nobody bought anything.

Toothpaste. Now there is an odd subject. I told you that all hotels, no matter how cheap provide toiletries. Many of them lots of stuff – not just shampoo and soap but all sorts of slime to put on your skin. They also provide toothpaste. This is not the usual tube where you are lucky if you can get two cleanings out of it but full sized 150 ml(?) tubes and nobody knicks them! I know a good few Yorkshiremen who take it as a matter of pride to liberate shampoo, soap etc. from large hotel chains but here you just use it and leave it. A nice reflection on both trust and honesty I think.

Should you visit Korea?

It is safe, clean and cheaper than Europe but not dirt cheap.

However, those are not reasons to visit a country. The guide book and the guides say that the people are friendly. Hmmm. I did have one guy ask me if I was lost (No, I can’t be lost I don’t know where I am going.) but that was it. I would say that on friendliness they get an absolute maximum of 40%

Life. The majority of visitors don’t leave Seoul.  That is a mistake – there is no real reason to go there. Busan is a much livelier city and here is no interesting countryside in Seoul – well a bit but much better out and about.

Wildlife. I was my usual unobservant self and saw no big mammals or birds of prey. Lots of butterflies but I am used to that in China. Dragonflies – yes  - great. The odd pretty bird and one small snake. The highlight for me was watching five frogs no bigger than two centimetres long, They were of different colour schemes (including one who was very bright green – which normally means that it is poisonous) but seemed to be a group. Shy but patience was rewarded.

        

Historical sites. All modern reconstructions.

Music and culture. They try quite hard in a touristy sort of way but it certainly is dominated by western influences day to day.

So no, don’t bother visiting not unless you are in the area.