On the third day of the land tour, we visited the second largest city in South Korea – Busan. It is the largest port in the country and the sixth in the world! Most of your Hyundais, Kias, LG’s and Samsung’s are probably shipped from this port. Like most of the cities they have modern sky scrapers dotting the landscape.
The group briefly stopped by Jinjuseong Fortress where we admired the view of the river from the ancient fortress. Justin gave us a history of the place and how a gisaeng (a Korean geisha) sacrificed her life to kill a Japanese general. At that time (around the 1500’s), Korea was under Japanese occupation.
Our tour guide, Justin Choi highly recommended the fish market where they cook you fresh shell fish and other sea foods. We did and we ordered a boiling hot pot with various shell fish and octopus! We also tried their fried bream. One Korean gentleman noticed that we didn’t know which condiment to use so he approached us and pointed at the containers and how to use them!
Needing a restroom break, we stopped outside Busan and stopped on the white sand of Haendae Beach and admired the beautiful view of the harbor.
After about five hours on the road (luckily the bus has a big screen television, we watched Korean historical movies with subtitles of course), we checked in another nice hotel in Gyeongju. But this time, the weather was getting nasty –snow flurries and temperature dipping!
Most of us wanted a break from the spicy Korean food so were all elated when we passed by a Burger King sign on our way to our hotel! After dropping off our luggage in our rooms we braved the cold weather and walked to the fast food restaurant despite the snow falling. After all our trouble to break the monotony of the daily menu we were disappointed with our Burger King orders – they were still spicy and not the American taste we’re used to!
The following day (4th day), we drove to see the Seokguram Grotto which was located on top of a steep hill traversing icy winding roads to reach it. Trini and others slipped and fell but fortunately no serious injuries occurred. Trini and I decided not to continue on to the temple as we were concerned of the slippery path so we went back to the village and did some souvenir shopping.
Then we went to see the Bulgoksa Buddhist Temple and passed under the “scary” colorful four guardians. Next, we visited Andong Hahoe Village with their thatched roof huts. We looked inside a house commemorating Queen Elizabeth II’s visit here.
After the day’s tour, we headed to our hotel in Pyeongchang (where the 2018 Winter Olympics was held). We had a fantastic view of the snowy slopes just outside the hotel.
We’re now back in Seoul and everyone heaved a sigh of relief! Finally, Trini and I are going back to Las Vegas, Nevada! No matter how nice the places you visit around the world – there’s no place like home!
Until the next adventure of these senior travelers….
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