Cue slow-motion and dramatic music a la Amazing Race

Alright this blog is starting to look very disjointed Memento-style with posts from the past and present being posted in turn, but I guess I'm going to forge on.


The day we were supposed to ferry over to Fukuoka, you all know that our boat had to turn around back to Busan. Here's why:




We get back to Busan around 11 a.m., and the situation is grim. The next high-speed ferry won't leave until 2 days later. The regular speed ferry is already booked. We don't want to ride an over-nite cruiser. So we taxi over to the airport to catch the 4 p.m. flight to Osaka.

We get to Osaka and realize that we are not going to make it down to Nagasaki unless we take a 2-hour taxi ride from Fukuoka. We are forced to cancel our hotel (but thankfully did not have to pay a cancellation fee owing to the graciously understanding hotel staff), and come up with an alternative plan to stay in Beppu, entirely skipping Fukuoka, Kumamoto, and Nagasaki. I guess they will have to wait until the next trip...

We got to Beppu past midnight... a whole day of traveling.

Seriously. Sucked.

Phil: "At least we got to go on the Green car (executive class) of the bullet train."
Steven: "Oh, shut your trap."

Julie's Take on Gyeongju and Busan

We stayed at Commodore Hotel in Busan, which Phil says is now one of his favorite hotels ever. It was nice -- I say four stars.


After a good night's rest, we headed to Gyeongju, about 1.5 hours away. On the train, there was a suited guy selling socks. We were amused when he was giving his sales pitch, but then surprised when people started to actually buy them!



When we arrived in Gyeongju, we headed to Tourist Information, where we were greeted with something like the following (I didn't hear it so not sure of the exact words):

"Welcome to Gyeongju. We commend you on your journey."

Very cute. :)




There were two UNESCO sites, and we went to Bulguksa Temple first, which was of course burnt down by yours truly's people during the invasion.


Serious aside: All of these references to the Japanese invasion are sobering. I wasn't educated in Japan, but I wonder what percentage of the people are aware of the extent of destruction that was caused in the history of Japanese imperialistic ventures.


Alright, back to the temple. Here's a picture of a stone staircase -- the 33 steps represent the path to Heaven.



Here are the boys in front of one of the numerous halls.



Look at all these stones built up into hundreds of mini-towers. I wonder if this is a rock garden?



The boys taking a rest before heading to the second UNESCO site in Gyeongju -- Seokgulam Grotto.




I actually do not have any photos of the grotto (they were prohibited) which had a Buddha statue surrounded by all kinds of deities like bodhisattvas, disciples, and gods.

But I do have an amusing video of Phil and Steven being greeted by hundreds of schoolchildren on a field trip. "He-llooooooo! Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello!..."




Hungry and tired from the hike, we decided to return to the city area of Gyeongju. But when we got off the city bus...


Steven: "Where's the Lonely Planet?"

Phil: "Didn't you have it?"

Steven: "I thought I did..."

Phil: "Maybe it's in the bookbag."

Steven: "(after looking) Nope..."

Phil: "Did you leave it on the bus?"

Steven: "If I had, Julie would have seen it because she was sitting next to me, and she got off after me."

Julie: "Uh... I got off the bus pretty quickly."

All: "... it's on the bus."


But then you know what?


Since we were at the city center (the last stop), Steven was able to find the bus about 200 meters away! It was a mini miracle. :)



Finished with Gyeongju, we went back to Busan for a night tour on a city tour bus.

Phil and Steven, looking excited:



Unfortunately, the mood quickly turned sour when we realized that the bus did not provide headphones for the English translation of all the announcements. (We cursed ourselves for leaving our mp3 players at the hotel.) Plus the bus wasn't stopping anywhere so that we could take photos. The boys were very disappointed. But I was actually kind of happy that we didn't have to do any walking: we've been doing a lot of it!

And I got a pretty video of the night lights of Busan:


Thankfully the bus did stop once to help with the boys' mood. But they still felt this way about the tour:



That's all for Day 3 in Korea.

Salty, Spicy, and Raw Busan... Still

Travel updates are to come, but for now, know this:

Phil, Steven, and Julie are stuck in Busan, after their high-speed ferry did a U-turn back to the salty, spicy, and raw city that is Busan. (description provided by Lonely Planet.)

After considering all options like staying in Busan until the ferry is available on the 21st, going on an over-nite ferry, and taking a plane, we are going to try getting a plane to Osaka.

Wish us luck, y'all...