Chusok Travels

Pusan
Still unsure of where to go, my wife and I took a bus to Pusan on Saturday and then hopped on the subway to the Jagalchi Fish Market area. We stayed at the same motel I stayed in 2 years ago which was cheap, clean and in a good area of the city. After taking our room we went out for Japanese food (sushi and tempura) then walked around the Pusan Film Festival area before crashing for the night. There was no film festival at this time but it's always busy with food vendors and merchants of various goods.

The next day we went to the Jagalchi Fish Market where there are hundreds of booths selling all kinds of fish and other treasures of the sea. During my last visit to Pusan I saw several vendors/cooks (they often sell fresh fish in the front of their stall and have a table set up in the back for those who are already hungry) with a plate or bowl at the front of their stalls. In this container there would be several long, pink fish squirming with organs hanging out as if they had just been skinned alive. I told my wife about this but we were unable to find this strange sight on this visit and she was hinting that she didn't believe me. Finally, near the end of the row of stalls, there was a vendor with exactly what we had been looking for. When I showed her, she was as disgusted as I was. She told me that they were in fact eels that had been skinned alive and she guessed that this showed potential customers just how fresh their upcoming meal would be.

Tired of the smell of fish we went to Starbuck's for a couple frapuccino's and then to the ferry terminal to go to Geojedo (the second largest island in Korea). When we bought tickets, we had to write our names and passport numbers/ID numbers on the tickets...but unfortunately since I had figured we were travelling within the country I didn't bring my passport. After my wife told the official that I was her husband and that I worked in Korea, etc. he finally let me on the boat but warned me that I could be fined a million won (around $1000 CDN) if someone catches me. This was the beginning of my paranoia of the police, which would last for the rest of our trip. The only reason I could think of for this need for a passport on a domestic trip was so that they could identify who went down with the ship in the case of a mishap...not exactly a comforting thought either, especially with another typhoon on its way toward Japan.

Geojedo
When we arrived in Geojedo there were 2 policemen with metal detector wands (like they have at the airport) waiting for me...at least that's what I thought. There was another caucasian guy on the boat so I watched him get off...if they took him aside, then I might have to think of another way off the boat. They, however just watched him and everyone else pass. I took my chance and walked out with the last group...unmolested. Unfortunately my wife was not feeling well after the 1.5 hour boat ride so she was sitting on the dock by the boat after everyone else had moved onto dry land. There was just us and the policemen. I encouraged her to move off of the dock as it was still moving with the sea (and I was still sure the policemen were there for me). We went into the terminal where the tourist information office had just closed so we had no idea of where we were or where to go so after my wife recuperated from the journey we wandered around for a while trying to find a map. While passing the police station, my wife thought they might have some maps. I was hesitant to go in, but they had no reason to suspect me so I went in with her. In the office were about 10 bored looking police officers. The man behind the desk was dealing with an older caucasian man who was talking to someone on his cell phone saying "my documents are not with my now, but I left them in your car". Nine bored police officers were looking at me. It took all my energy to look natural, like someone who had his documents with him...and not run out of that office. One of the bored policemen was talking to my wife and the whole process of getting a map was taking too long. After several minutes, the police officer took us outside and was obviously pointing out directions for my wife. She told me later that they did have maps a few weeks ago but they had already given them all out. I was able to breathe normally again once we were out of sight from the police station. Finally we got a map from the wall of the supermarket, which was taken off and given to us by one of the employees.

We took a bus to Koojora Beach where an ajumma (an older woman) told us to continue on the beach road if we want to find a hotel. We did as she told us and found ourselves on a hill overlooking a beautiful sandy beach that had fishermen lined up as far as we could see in the dark, with long fishing rods and glowing red bobbers on their lines. We were very excited at this unexpected even so we sat down and watched one fisherman pull two long silvery fish out of the ocean within the next half hour. Looking back on our trip, this was one of our favorite times...we just relaxed and watched the fishing for a while, then strolled along the beach.

The next day we booked a seat on a boat going to Oedo (Fantasy Island). We wanted to take the package deal that also went to Haegumgang (a steep row of rocks that juts out of the sea) however the coming typhoon was making the sea too dangerous to make the trip to Haegumgang. Oedo is an island garden created by a rich guy in 1995 containing many species of plants from around the world. It was a nice place to visit but cost us too much money and the classical music playing from speakers in the trees took something away from the natural surroundings.

Before going to Oedo, while we waited for our ship to come in after booking our tickets, we went to the beach again for a barefoot stroll. Once again there were a few fisherment around but in the day they didn't seem to catch much that looked tasty - some bottom feeders and baby puffer fish. A few guys were casting nets out into the water which was interesting to watch but after a while we got bored of watching them untangle their nets and pull garbage out of them. The bottom feeder fish had spikes on their backs so it was interesting to watch different fisherment's techniques at avoiding the spikes while unhooking or untangling their catch...some wore gloves, others took their chances.

Pebble Beach
We took a bus as far as we could down the coast to Pebble Beach (that's what the Korean name means). We were hoping to make our way to Haegumgang but after 2 hours of waiting for a bus heading in that direction or even a taxi, we figured we better just take the next bus out of there...so we were off to Tongyeong on the next bus.

Tongyeong
Unfortunately the next day was the day everyone celebrates Chusok, so we took a cab downtown and found it to be dead. We found a kimbap (rice rolled in seaweed) shop and ordered lunch, however the kimbap in Tongyeong is unique and what we received was unexpected. Usually kimbap is rice rolled in seaweed with egg, ham, pollock, and veggies inside. Tongyeong kimbap is just rice and seaweed with some kimchi as a side dish...not exactly exciting. This was also the only dish that the restaraunt served. Unfortunately it seemed like the restaraunt owner and his wife were not on speaking terms and a heavy air hung over our tasteless meal. (I supposed that his wife wanted to celebrate Chusok like everyone else rather than work).

After lunch we wanted something tasty so we stopped at a Mini Stop (even open on Chusok) and bought some ice cream. We then hiked up to Yi Sun Shin's statue. He was the general who fought off the Japanese in 1596 (I think that's the year) using the famous Korean turtle battle ships. The statue was smaller than we expected but the view from the top of the mountain of Goejedo and Tongyeong was nice.

Unfortunately it started to rain when we were on the mountain so we took a taxi to the Mireukdo Tourism Area. We were told it was a good place to go but it's basically a marina and a fancy hotel so that was quite disappointing. We did find a "sports centre" in the area so we went bowling, played ping pong and some arcade games before leaving for Jinju later that day.

Jinju
The plan was to catch a bus onward to Gwangju or Jeonju (our final destination) but we arrived in Jinju at 7:30 and the last buses for our destinations were gone by 6:30. Resigned to stay in Jinju for the night, we took a cab to the Jinju fortress. The cab driver tried to get us interesed in some night clubs and seedy hotels but we insisted on going to the fortress. We wanted to visit the fortress the next day so we planned to get a place close to their so we could just walk there the next day. As we got close to the fortress we saw many huge lanterns floating in the river that runs through Jinju. Apparently we caught the first day of the Jinju Lantern Festival. By chance we had a chance to catch the festival with hundreds of hand made lanterns (and hundreds of patterns such as kimbap, skulls, cartoon characters, milk cartons, ships, people and whatever else struck the imagination of the people of Jinju) and at just the right time, in the evening. I won a stuffed bear at a carnival game for my wife...a pink ugly bear that just reminded me of my failure to get a stuffed Snoopy. She liked it though so we kept it...for a while.

The next day we went to the fortress and looked around. The fortress at Jinju was defended with 3800 Korean soldiers against 20,000 Japanese soldiers in 1592. Six months later the Japanese returned with 90,000 soldiers and slaughtered all the soldiers and civilians which together totalled around 70,000 people. After the defeat a Japanese commander was being entertained by a Korean professional entertainer (a cultured prostitute?) when she lured him close to the river's edge and hugging him, fell into the river. Both the woman and the commander drowned. Now the most notable figure and hero of Jinju is a prostitute. Her image was on hundreds of lanterns at the festival and a 20 foot high version of her bobbed up and down in the middle of the river. We even got to see the very rock the two fell off of to their deaths, named "Righteous Rock". As one writeup at the fortress stated, without the help of a prostitute, the rock would never have become righteous.

We also visited the museum in the fortress, which explained in more detail the events surrounding the Jinju fortress. Unfortunately most of the explanations are in Korean so we went through it pretty fast. When we finished walking through the museum, my wife went to the washroom. Meanwhile, the museum employees were looking at me while I was putting my camera back in my bag. Feeling a little paranoid yet again, I quickly got our stuff together and couldn't wait for my wife to get back. When she returned, they told her how cute they think her pink bear is. They were very taken with her bear so she gave it to them (I told her it was ok as I didn't like it anyway). It was a nice feeling to give someone something they really wanted...especially when it's something I don't want anyway!

We thought we better get to the bus terminal before 6:00 so we could catch a bus home. Of course the day after Chusok the bus terminal had lineups out the front doors. After we realized that we were at the wrong bus terminal, a taxi driver told us that all buses were sold out but he could take us home for the special price of 150,000 Won...about 150 dollars Canadian. My wife gave him a disgusted sound and waved him off with her hand. We took another taxi to the other terminal where we caught a bus (no problem, not even close to full).

Jeonju
When we got back to Jeonju, we ate dinner and took a taxi home...when we paid the taxi driver I had 1000 won left in my wallet...about $1.