Busan, South Korea

July 29, 2015 -- Busan, South Korea (7:00AM~2:00PM)

Sky: Cloudy first then sunny

Temperature: 27.5C

Today we have about half a day in Busan. We planned on just taking the complimentary shuttle to town and wander around. I had been to the airport in Incheon a few times and spent a transit night at a hotel there once. Those were my only experiences of Korea so this would be a real treat visiting the port of Busan in the southeastern part of Korea. About fifty years ago, dad and mom visited Busan while holding big revival meetings there and we have heard a lot about this place. 

Diamond Princess docked at 5:05AM that morning.

Weather was not the greatest as we got off the ship. The building in the middle of the picture is the National Maritime Museum, the closest thing of interest near the port.

Exit of the cruise terminal

View of the Maritime Museum as we exit the terminal. There is also a nice park which we did not have time to visit.

Shuttle buses waiting nearby.

On the comfortable shuttle bus. It was about a 20-minute ride, depending on the traffic flow.

Shuttle stop in front of the Phoenix Hotel.

Phoenix Hotel which is closed down already.

One of the entrances to the underground shopping street. We made the mistake of walking further up before crossing the street to the fish market.

Once we crossed the street we had to backtrack and looked for the market which was actually just near the shuttle stop.

It was OK though, we got to see more of the city by walking into this area.

Here it is, the Jaglchi Market. There are many, many vendors all around this big building selling fresh seafood and more.

One of the street vendors.

Runaway octopus!

Inside the Jagalchi Market there are rows and rows of stalls selling live seafood.

Definitely fresh!

Huge prawns the size of my palm. I did not touch the prawns, BTW.

Don't know what these were though.

After walking around the fist floor of the fish market we came out to the back of the building facing the harbor.

The back side of the market.

Then we went up to the second floor to check out the restaurants. Looking down from the stairs on our way up.

The restaurants were just opening up. I suppose they closed in a hurry the night before and the place looked pretty messy with trash all over the place. Definitely not wanting to eat there even though they tried to get us in. It was still early and we were not that hungry anyway.

We stayed at the market for a while since they had WiFi there. Then we walked towards the Lotte Department Store thinking they open at 10. I have read a review that talked about the opening ceremony at Lotte in the morning and I didn't want to miss that.

We walked on the street level, which was another mistake. There was so much construction work going on that we had to zigzag through the streets to get there. Suggestion: Go underground and walk along the shopping street. Safer and more interesting.

Then we found out that the store actually opens at 10:30 instead of 10. We waited until they opened, and there was no opening ceremony! Oh well...

From the front of the store, we could see Busan Tower that is at Yongdusan Park. If there is a next time here, I would go to the BIFF Square and Gukje Market, and even the Yongdusan Park first, before coming to Lotte.

Once it was opened we found a very pretty mall inside.

With a 'dancing fountain'.

A Krispy Kreme in the basement and the basement connected to the underground shopping streets.

We love food and there are plenty of food places down at the basement. After trying out a few fried things, we came to this place...This is a must try, everyone! She fried the dough, then cut it open on the side and filled the pocket with the stuffings. One hot delicious snack.

Korean 'pancakes stuffed with brown sugar'. Actually more than brown sugar, it's a mixture of nuts with brown sugar. Eat it fresh and hot. Just delicious! Only 1000 wan each.

After our food adventure, it was time to go back to the shuttle stop.

By then, we couldn't find our group of eight at the agreed upon meeting place at the agreed upon meeting time. I was a nervous wreck. ChC and I decided to walk back to the Phoenix Hotel and see if they would be there ahead of us. We went down to the underground shopping street to find our way back. This can be a problem if you don't know your way around because it can be very confusing but we got back OK. We kept texting but received no responses. As we watched bus loads of passengers leaving for the port, we just waited nervously in front of Phoenix. Finally, they all showed up before I breakdown. What happened was someone in the group decided that I had changed the meeting place and took the liberty to have everybody else waited at the new location. Without passports (the ship collected them), it would not be fun for them to find their ways to our next ports if they miss the ship here.

Looking back, we made several mistakes here that day. Unlike being in Japan where I can at least read some Chinese characters, here in Korea I did not understand a word or character. It was as foreign as can be. Again, if there is a next time, I will know exactly what I will be doing. Next time!

By then, there was a huge old line formed for the shuttles.

Yep, I took these pictures on the bus. ChC went on the bus before ours but we arrived back at port before theirs.

Streets of Busan

Harbor

Back at port

Quite a few vendors set up by the pier. They had some good bargains too for last minute shopping.

Back on the ship from our balcony.

Looked a lot like Hong Kong.

For lunch we had lobsters from the Lobster's Grill. It was difficult to find a table at Horizon Court because almost everybody was there for lunch that day. This lobster was huge, but it was a little dry for my taste and drawn butter was not available.

And then, for dinner that evening...

Loved the rolls!

...lobsters again. A smaller version but moist and delicious. I guess we picked the wrong day to have lobsters.

Another dreadful morning tomorrow. We have to get in line and go through immigration again! Good thing we have a long day in port.