Day 9. Yeosu – Busan via a scenic route. 12 April 2024

Woke to foggy outlook nothing to be seen initially. Breaky – took some vids and a few pics. today.

Today being Friday Alex explained that we need to arrive either before 5 or after 7pm to Busan. Lots of people working there or in companies nearby make their way home either from or to Busan for the weekend creating a traffic jam.

PICS BELOW TAKEN ON ROAD TODAY.

The itinerary has us visiting Hyangilyam Temple. Perched high on the hill above a fishing village. High above meant many stairs and a steep climb. Fabulous views from the top. Another Buddhist temple there were monks chanting and singing and of course the obligatory lanterns for Buddha’s birthday in May. There were also many forms of wishes. Some were attached for gold leaves and hung, others on paper hanging from lanterns, some written on roof tiles which are later used in the temple area – some in fences, others blocking tracks.

Then Alex took us on a bit of a country island tour as per the map.

Lots of fishing hamlets. Every available piece of land has something growing. Then once again heaps of hothouses. Lots of the islands are joined by bridge, but lots are only accessible by boat.

We crossed a pretty amazing bridge (Hwataedaegyo) to get to one of the islands and did a little tour around.

Headed back to Yeosu to see Admiral Yi Sunshin again and his turtle boat.

We did get a little lunch – from Paris Baguette.

The turtle boat was designed by Admiral Yi and designed to withstand enemy boarding and entering into hand to hand combat. The ship was covered in hold leaf.

Alex explained that Admiral Li was based along South coast. When the Japanese wanted to conquer Joseon and Seoul, they couldn’t get around the South point of South Korea. The Japanese couldn’t defeat the Turtle boat and Admiral Li. Strategically brilliant and better ships saved the Joseon people. A hero.

RF. Korea grows no coffee but exports instant coffee sachets.

RF. Korea imports crude oil from middle east and refine it here.

RF. We passed by the 10th largest steel manufacturer POSCO – established with government funding in 1968. They import ore from Australia.

RF. Dr li – first president in 1800’s.

1960 3rd president Park Jeong Hee- assassinated in 1979. He established POSCO.

RF. First female president who was impeached 7 years ago was the daughter of Park Jeong Hee (PJH).

It was a two and a half hour drive between Yeosu and Busan, so we for a LOT of info from Alex re: political history and old age pensions and Medicare.

We travelled South East to Busan, a coastal city of 3 million people. Once again there are so many clusters of high rise apartments and any low land is farmed and covered in hothouses. Some of the apartments are set back and surrounded by the mountain.

We arrived at West Busan about 5pm and then hit the Friday traffic Alex had warned us of. The mapping apps gave us 12km to go and about 50mins. So not dissimilar to Melbourne on a Friday night.

RF. Hyundai moto Navigation in car is able to deal with three dimensions left/right and high and low roads. Alex is very impressed with the new system Hyundai purchased.

Anyway the navigation system got us to the hotel via back streets and we are always interested in what’s around us.

We arrived at hotel about just before 6 to check in. Susie and I met Alex to get a bit of orientation to the area, while Suzie had a rest.

We are after a meal that we don’t have to cook. There is a choice of many many Korean bbq and seafood and hangover soup, pig trotters, tripe. We found a bar that looked hopeful. Alex left us.

Back to hotel to check options with concierge.

I was feeling lazy and opted for Italian – figured that would come served on a plate. We went for a G&T at a nice bar nearby then on to find the Italian place called Skoll. The map provided by concierge didn’t quite work out. We asked some young guys walking by for help and gathered a whole group of people. Anyway they put it into their maps and directed us via our map and showed us a photo of the place. This worked and we found it.

Ordered some sweet potato fries to share, Susie a mushroom pizza, Suzie a poke bowl and me Mama’s lasagna washed down with mineral water for all and a glass of red for Susie.

We couldn’t believe that the fries were LITERALLY potato fries with sugar and Parmesan. Our mains were delicious- the fries cracked us up and we left most of them.

Home to chores – shower, washing, blogging and bed.

I ordered some more water and after a phone call to tell me they were at the door here’s what I saw.

And then I chased to see where it went and it went to lift and disappeared.

I messaged the others and Susie took the full story on vid.