Thursday, September 27, 2012

BUSAN WEEKEND - GUKJE, BIFF & JAGALCHI FISH MARKET

BUSAN WEEKEND - GUKJE, BIFF 
& JAGALCHI FISH MARKET

That morning, Dong-Hui drove us off of Young-do to Gukje Market driving along Busan’s industrial waters.































Gukje Market is the largest outdoor market in Busan. It was early so most of the stalls were closed, but the business sold all sorts of things from clothes, to handbags, to shoes, to duty free liquor and cartons of cigarettes

 













































Duty free liquor and cigarettes
















Also at the end of the market is where all sorts of interesting eats could be found.
















Crab on a stick

















We then made our way to BIFF Square. BIFF stands for the world renowned Busan International Film Festival. It is in the part of town where much of the fanfare and premieres are held. 

BIFF Square
















It was also in BIFF square where I got to sample the delicious treat called hoht-dttohk. It’s basically a cinnamon-sugar filled donut with sunflower seeds and peanuts stuffed inside.

Fry it up

and stuff it.
We then went to Jagalchi Fish Market.




Live octopus
 


We rode the elevator to get to the top of Jagalchi Market and enjoyed the view of Busan from nine stories up.








Shortly after this photo was taken, I ended up parting ways from my gracious host and said good bye to Jee-Sang, saying to him,  "maybe we'll see each other again in another nine years."

BUSAN WEEKEND – YOUNG-DO


BUSAN WEEKEND – YOUNG-DO

Young-do is an island outside of the city center of Busan. “Do” (pronounced: doh) means island and sometimes county.

After a very full day we retired to the very residential Young-Do where Dong-Hui lived. He showed us some of the local view points where we could see the lit boats floating on the ocean and could catch a glimpse of the city.

Glass-bottom viewpoint walkway
Busan - no flash
On Young-Do we settled down with some late night eats at a local outdoor restaurant that specialized in all things seafood. 




We had scallops that we cooked over a fire on the half-shell.




After the scallops were finished we put the aluminum dish one which was a seafood melange of mussels, shrimps and all sorts of other seafood.


We ended up sharing a bottle of soju and a bottle of beer and talking about old times and old dorm mates from college.


That night Jee-Sang, Eun-Joo and I stayed in a motel on Young-do

The next morning, we all woke up on the earlier side of things and decided to walk around and explore Young-do.


Young-do

Young-do

Young-do


We came across the Dongsam-dong Shell Midden Museum. Either it’s free or they didn’t mind that we were walking around freely.



A shell midden is a place where the early pre-historic peoples of Korea would discard their used shells after they were done eating their contents. I would like to think that Koreans today honor their pre-historic forefathers by following the proud tradition of throwing your garbage where you please.
  
A replica of the shell midden- Behold: Pre-historic garbage!
Joking aside, this shell midden museum also contained information and artifacts from these ancient people’s lives.


Model of how the pre-historic Koreans lived



These were commonly found- are a linked to some deity
I wish I could tell you more but the brochure I picked up is only in Korean.

BUSAN WEEKEND - GWANGALLI BEACH & BLOWFISH SOUP

BUSAN WEEKEND - GWANGALLI BEACH 
& BLOWFISH SOUP

I arrived in Busan earlier than Jee-Sang and had to wait for him at the bus terminal a bit. He arrived with his girlfriend, Eun-Joo. Then together we headed over to meet with Dong-Hui. Dong-Hui had police baton training for about an hour, and since he was out ride, we waited and watch in the dojo as the law enforcement professional honed his police baton skills with the aid of his particularly aggressive  instructors.


Baton training




Fake knife


After the dojo, we left for Gwangalli Beach. 






Once there, we decided it'd be fun to get a speedboat tour of Gwangalli Beach.












The boat tour went under Gwangalli Bridge which Dong-Hui told me was location made popular due in part to the large number of suicides it was responsible for each year. Jee-Sang joked to Dong-Hui that it was going to be his job to fish out dead bodies, to which Dong-Hui just solemnly agreed.


Gwangalli Bridge















Gwangalli Bridge
















Our fearless driver was whipping around, doing donuts at around 30-40 mph.


Our fearless driver





After our boat tour we decided we would rent some kayaks. Once we got bored with the kayaks we took out a raft. We sort of paid a set fee and were just allowed to have at it with all the boats, kayaks, canoes, etc. As the sun set we formed a plan for the evening. We all felt gross and sandy. We were also soaked, because Dong-Hui had tipped us into the water a funny joke. I didn't find it that funny, but he was high spirited and he also taught me how to propel a raft single-handedly.  We decided first we would jimjilbang, then we would go to dinner. 

Note: The jimjilbang that I had previously written about was this jimjilbang. This one had a view of the ocean.


Jimjilbang in the Busan hills


After a relaxing soak, we were all ready to eat. We went to a highly popular blowfish restaurant that Dong-Hui had recommended. Blowfish soup tasted like regular fish, but it was very bony.
























Pictured (l-r): Eun-Joo, Jee-Sang, Dong-Hui, Me
















After dinner Dong-Hui drove us to get an amazing view of the vibrantly lit Busan downtown.
Busan - No flash needed - also that bridge is Gwangalli