Saturday 16th July - arrive in Busan. For such a large city, Busan has a very relaxed, holiday feel to it. But first things first, we needed to stock up on toiletries and snacks so we headed to Home Plus. This chain of supermarkets has some connection to Tesco so a handful of familiar products were on the shelves. As a result, Chris is now currently enjoying a cup of Tesco Finest Assam tea with breakfast! 

For our first evening we headed out to one of the seven beaches around Busan - Gwangan Beach. This lovely beach is backed by dozens of restaurants and bars, and looks put across the waters to a huge bridge, which is lit up at night. 

We stayed at Blue Backpackers, which was okay. It's a little out of the way but near a subway so it's not too bad. The staff are really friendly.

Sunday 17th July - Taedongdae and Haeundae Beach. We went for a stroll around Taedongdae, which is an island just off the coast made reachable by a large bridge. The book made it sound like a lovely wooded area, but in actuality the path around the park follows a large road, which a long road train full of Koreans chugs along at regular intervals. Still, the sun was out and the park gave lovely views of the sea. At the far end of the island is a lighthouse with rocks below that you can walk along. This being Korea, there are no barriers at the edge, or even warning signs, so Koreans were quite happily posing for photos whilst teetering on the edge of the cliffs! The walk back took us past a small temple set in beautiful gardens, with all the flowers in full bloom and butterflies flitting about. It was very tranquil.

We then headed to Haeundae Beach, probably the most famous beach here. Photos of it during peak times show it completely covered in parasols and you can barely see the sand! Fortunately we're not quite there yet so it wasn't too bad. The beach seems to close at 6 though. An announcement declares the sea to be closed and that all swimmers must leave the waters, which they all dutifully do, the parasols are all folded up and packed away, and everyone heads home. In the space of half an hour we went from being surrounded by holidaymakers to sitting alone on a deserted beach!

Monday 18th July - Beomeosa Temple. A famous temple in Korea, we were a little disappointed with it. It wasn't particularly big and it wasn't especially pretty. Apparently it demonstrates certain types of architecture, but that was wasted on our untrained eyes. It was pleasant enough though. 

In the evening we met up with a Korean we were put in touch with through a friend of Lindsay's, called Charles. Before we knew it we were whisked away to a Korean restaurant and plied with raspberry wine, whilst about a thousand Korean dishes were laid out before us. There was so much food, and every time we cleared one dish, it seemed three more appeared in its place. Eventually they seemed to stop bringing things out and we gladly laid down our chopsticks... and then they brought out more food! We tried all sorts of things, from baby octopus to stingray. It was a very interesting experience!

Tuesday 19th July - Around Busan. We met up with our Charles again and he offered to show us around. We started at Democracy Park, which has amazing views over the whole of Busan. There is also a museum dedicated the the history of Busan and the protests in the years following the Korean War calling for democracy in Korea. It's only in the last twenty years or so that Korea has had a democratic government, and this is the result of years of protests and demonstrations by students and civilians. The ruling government did not take kindly to these and there were lots of photos of tear gas being used on protectors, examples of forbidden books, and a mock-up of a solitary prison cell used to break the spirit of arrested protectors.

Charles then took us to the famous fish Market in Busan, Jagalchi. There are streets full of vendors selling nothing but fish, and every manner of fish at that! And opposite each stall is a small restaurant selling barbecued fish. We had lunch at one of these restaurants and the fish was delicious! As well as the street stalls there is a massive indoor fish market. Here you choose some live fish and then take them upstairs to a restaurant for them to cook for you. It doesn't come much fresher than that! Finally we went to Yongdosan Park, which has an an observation tower. 

Wednesday 20th July - Haeundae beach. We did nothing today but sit in the beach! There were people regularly walking up and down the beach selling boxes of fried chicken, so that was lunch!

Thursday 21st July - headed to Jeju. We left Busan for the island of Jeju, a popular destination for Korean holidaymakers and honeymooners. Instead of staying in Jeju city we opted to stay in the southern part of the island at Seogwipo. Passing through Jeju city we were struck by how small it seems compared to the huge cities in the mainland. Seogwipo is even smaller! 

We're staying at Jeju Hiking Inn, which is conveniently located for most things. The manager is really helpful and gave us maps and told us which buses to get and where as soon as we checked in. 

Friday 22nd July - around Seogwipo. There are a couple of waterfalls in walking distance so we followed the costal trails and visited these. 

Saturday 23rd July - Manjangul lave tubes, Udo island and Seongsan Ilchulbong. A busy day, suggested by the hostel manager. First stop - the lava tubes. We weren't sure what to expect, but the lava tube turned out to be a massive cave going back 1km formed by, guess what? Lava flowing from a volcano.  It was dimly lit and cold drops of water fell from the ceiling in places. It was also very cold inside and although very impressive we were glad to get out!

We then got the ferry from Seongsan to Udo island, a tiny island off the east coast of Jeju. There are several modes of transport you can hire to get around the island. We declined the bicycles, scooters and golf carts and went for the quad bike. It was such fun racing along the coastal roads with the sea air in our faces. Along the way we stopped for lunch and at several scenic spots to paddle in the sea. But we only had the bike for two hours so after that we headed back to the ferry and Seongsan.

At Seongsan we went to the Ilchulbong - a massive volcanic crater linked to Jeju by a strip of land. Whilst you can't walk inside the crater, you can climb the stairs on the outside for some impressive views of the crater. 

Sunday 24th July - Jungmun, Cheonjeyoen waterfall and Jusangjeolli rocks. Jungmun is a resort area, full of huge luxury hotels and museums on topics like chocolate and teddy bears. We went there to see the Cheongjeyeon waterfall (yes, more waterfalls!) at the top of these walls was a lovely pool enclosed by rock cliff walls, which you can paddle in. Further down the river are a couple of cascading waterfalls. There is also a large bridge over the river, decorated with nymphs. But the bridge is barely visible because of trees, it seems a bit of a waste! After that we went to the Jusangjeolli lava rocks. These hexagonal rocks spill out into the sea, and are the result of lava flows. 

Monday 25th July - back to Udo! We intended to climb the dormant volcano in the middle of Jeju today, but decided it was just too hot to attempt the 8 hour climb. So we went back to Udo! We were going to spend some time on the white coral beaches, but it felt too hot even to do that. So we hired a quad bike again! It was just as much fun and a brilliant end to Jeju.

Tuesday 26th July - back to Busan. We're just here for one last night in Korea as our flight from Jeju didn't tie up very well with our ferry to  Japan. 

So we're off to Japan tomorrow. It's exciting! Having seen how different China and Korea are, we don't know what to expect from Japan.

Farewell from Korea!
Lindsay and Chris