Visualising our wonder and ignorance of things Korea, just upon arrival
Japanese came in rather handy at the Busan sea craft port’s tourist information booth, where within a matter of minutes Duncan and I were pointed to good places to eat and shop on a street we returned to a few times during our stay, and a sauna hotel where we overnighted for the whole trip. The attendant gave us maps of the city in English, too.
I was a bit nervous about travelling without much of any plan at all, but once we got outside the port I felt much better: The streets looked just like Japan, as if we’d just stumbled into Fukuoka, except most of the signs were in Hangul instead of Japanese. The streets even had the same yellow guide lines textured for the blind, and twenty-four hour convenience stores of local brands but much like 7-11, Family Mart, and Lawson.
Interestingly, we noticed that they drive on the right side of the road like the States.
A few blocks walk took us past Jungang-dong station and onto the expensive Gwangbok-ro shopping street, where we looked around for a place to get dinner. It was around eight o’clock in the evening but most of the bright fashion shops were still open, and we noticed that they seem to stay open fairly late. We looked around for a couple restaurants circled on our map by the port information booth lady but settled on a random, decent looking place that luckily served a rather traditional Korean menu, though expectedly for a higher price.
The subway system was super easy.
Afterward we went to find our jjimjilbang (sauna hotel) to stay for the night, so we hopped on the subway where I was shocked at not only how similar it was to the system in Japan but also about its user-friendliness. At the very least the station names on all signs were in Korean, English, and Chinese, and the ticket system was a touchscreen that offered these languages and maybe more.
Unlike Japan there’s nobody watching the ticket gates, or so it seemed, but you insert your ticket to both enter and exit and the fare is determined by zone. The subway lines in Busan don’t branch off to multiple destinations, and special music plays at the few intersection transfer stations, so it’s quite easy to get going in the proper direction. On the train-cars themselves, depending on the station announcements came in multiple languages as well.
Busan is definitely a mix of the first-world and third-world, which one can see in the large lower income housing districts in the distance at various parts of the city or notice otherwise, for example, in the walk from the nearest station down to the beach where our jjimjilbang was located. The lingering smell of sewer and the less pristine shops are quite characteristic of Southeast Asia.
Once one gets down to Gwangan Beach, however, immediately the scene becomes wealthy again with pricey cafés and beautiful neon lights beaming from the buildings and the massive Gwangan Bridge, decorating the night sky.
Our recently finished, towering hotel, which cost us just 10,000 won (758 yen, US$8) per night for the 24 hour sauna, glowed with wide neon lights on the exterior of each floor.
Gwangan Beach at night: "neon fireworks"
The new Hotel Aqua Palace.
Gwangan Bridge, much like the huge Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo.
Closeup of the prettiest night lights building on Gwangan Beach.
When people say touristing in South Korea is cheap, they aren’t kidding.
Subway day pass: KRW 3,500 / 265 yen / US$2.95
Subway locker: KRW 1,000 / 75 yen / US$0.85
Café breakfast: KRW 7,000 / 530 yen / US$5.91
Huge fried chicken lunch: KRW 7,500 / 568 yen / US$6.30
Delicious street food dinner: KRW 1,500 / 113 yen / US$1.30
Bottled water: 2L KRW 2,000? / 151 yen / US$1.70
Hite beer: KRW 3,000? / 227? yen / US$2.50?
Jjimjilbang overnight: KRW 10,000 / 758 yen / US$8.46
Average Day Total – All Travel Costs: KRW 35,500 / 2,692 yen / US$30
That’s the same cost as one overnight in a youth hostel in Japan.
