Busan the smelly, vibrant and crazy city.We were up again at the crack of dawn for our 7am docking in Busan, South Korea. The first few photos are taken from the balcony and so show the very aft of the ship as we are moving forward into port.
The most noticable thing about Busan in comparison to Nagasaki was the heat. It was no where near as hot. Busan is slightly North of Nagasaki so we had expected this slight dip in the temperature. The other difference was that it was raining....a lot!  
Busan has a sub tropical climate and a good deal of rain. It is surrounded by lush green mountains and nestles itself between these mountains and the sea. There are around 3.6 million people who live in this very busy port city.  

 
We started off our day by exploring one of the many markets which can be found in the city. The first one we found was okay. Similar to Nagasaki, it seemed to be catering for the locals rather than the tourists but, later in, we found a vibrant and bustling local market which catered for everyone. Yay!
 
I have to speak about the fish market...it was one of the places on our list to visit becaused it is, apparently, world famous. We found it by smell rather than sight. It is difficult to put into words just how pongy this place was but, I will try to describe it for you. Imagine market stands lined up opposite one another so that they form tight alley ways, barely enough room for people to walk between them. The stands stretch on into the distance for around about one mile and each stand is teeming with hundreds of different fish. Some of the fish were dead, very dead because they were frozen. But many were alive, kept in shallow containers, buckets or whatever seemed to be at hand to keep them in. Those lucky enough to be at the top of the pile in these containers could just about swim, moving in tiny circles above their not so lucky friends.

 
It was very hard picking your way through the narrow openings between the market stands. A feat made no easier becasuse the basic rules of the road do not apply to vehicles, mostly, motor scooters. We worked out quite quickly that the scooters were delivering fresh fish from the fishermen at the port, bringing it to the market stands piled up on boxes behind them where their pillion would normally sit. These scooter men did not wait or stop for man nor beast. If you were in their way, they moved you. On more than one occasion Dave and I had to jump to one side, almost joining the fish in their containers, to get out of the way.  
In Busan, what you think is a pedestrianised zone is actually for pedestrians and motorbikes/scooters. 

  Even whilst standing at a zebra crossing waiting for the lights to change, you will be lined up next to motorbikes who will cross with you and then continue their journeys on the pavement. It was pandamonium. Motorcyslists will also not stop at a zebra crossing when the cars do. They will simply pick their way around the pedestrians and continue on.  
Anyway back to the fish....we walked the entire mile or so between the market stands and, at one point, I squealed like a girl when a squid made a bid for freedom, leaping out of his bucket and trying to roll his way across the gap between stands. He was quickly scooped back up, rinsed in some standing water and then plonked right back into the bucket. I felt a little bit sorry for the chap...it had been a valiant effort.  

 
After we got to the end of the fish market we realised there was nothing much at the end of it but the thought of walking back through the aisles of teeming fish was not something which appealed to either of us. We picked our way along the main road, again taking our lives into our hands because Busan is extremely busy and the roads very fast. Finally, we made it back into an area where there were plenty of taxis around.

 
Dave and I decided that we would escape the craziness of the city for a while and go to visit one of the many temples which are dotted around Busan. We picked one by the coast, Haedong Yonggungsa temple. You will all know of course that the primary faith in Korea is Buddism. 

 
 The temple was beautiful and as peaceful as the city had been loud. It was set right on the coast, built into the mountains in places and had various different statues for people to go and pray at. Getting to some of the statues was tricky, the terrain was so difficult in places that it was neccessary to have skills akin to that of a mountain goat. This was not a trip that everyone would be able to undertake but David and I managed it without too much difficulty. We spent a good few hours wandering around the temple site and visiting the different god statues. There was a monk in the main building, a tiny but amazingly decorated place, chanting and singing.  


  It was such a nice sound I videoed him for a while. (that was allowed!) We didn't go in to the temple itself because there seemed to be plenty of people who turned up with the intention of praying and neither dave nor I felt that it was right for us to infringe on their peaceful time. The temples look incredible from the outside too so we did not miss out on anything. Some of the buildings were so small, you could barely fit two people inside.  
We both enjoyed looking at all the animal god statues that were were lined up like chess peices along one of the pathways. Little little had a good chat with the monkey god of course.  
After the temple, we took another taxi ride back into the city and found a decent market which sold everything from the Korean flag we had been looking for, to street food which smelt amazing. The way to eat street food in Korea is to gather at the stand selling it, they then hand you a plate and some chopsticks and you eat it right there with them. We tried some Dongnae Pajeon which is like a savoury wrapped pancake, usually filled with seafood but ours had minced pork, herbs and all kinds of other loveliness in it. You dip it in the soy sauce that they provide and then hand all the utensils back once you are done. It was so good! I felt quite proud of myself for trying it too. 

 
After a refreshment break where Dave enjoyed a beer and I had a rosemary tea, we headed back to the ship. Another brilliant day...lots and lots of walking and David is flat out snoring as I type! Tomorrow, thank goodness, we have a day at sea and can rest up before the next port of Taipai. 

 
Little little says hello and also she wanted me to mention that she is a legend and is more important than the monkey god.
O_o