June 26, 2017 - Day #24 Fast train to Busan

June 26, 2017

Russell, Matty, and I broke off from the group and headed to Busan a day earlier. We heard many great things about Busan and was advised that one day wasn't enough. We purchased ticket on the KTX at the Seoul Station and boarded the 11am train. It took 2 hrs, 40 minutes to arrive there.  Korea's public transportation is quite efficient and Russell commented on how smooth the ride was. Russell had booked a room at Busan Business Hotel in the Seomyeon area, known for great restaurants and nightlife.  It's a nice hotel but the amenities were lacking compared to the Pacific Hotel. After dropping off our overnight bags and planned our itinerary for the day, we headed to the subway station. Seomyeon Station is a major Station and centrally located to most attractions. With Jalgachi Fish Market as the destination, we proceeded to buy our tickets (one day passes) but was confused on where to catch it. We ended up helping another man from Kenya and had a great time getting lost together. 

Busan, formerly known as Pusan, is South Korea's second most popular city after Seoul.  It's well known for it's seafood and Haeundae Beach, South Korea's largest beach.  We first arrived at the dried fish market. There were rows of vendors filling up a whole city block basically all selling the same stuff. I searched high and low for the smaller sized cuttlefish that my sister Rebecca wanted but was unsuccessful. 

Then we walked into an open warehouse of fresh seafood. It was a site to see. Old women in rain boots and aprons cleaning, gutting, and descaling fish. Most popular were eels, squids, and octopuses. Matty thought it was gross and waited outside. 

Matty only got interested when we found a live fish market. We were fascinated with the varieties of sea life, some we have never seen before. A woman allowed Matty to hold an octopus and somehow talked us into buying some seafood. We got 3 abalones, 3 scallops, 1 clam, and 1 squid. We paid 30,000 wons (~$30 USD). She brought it upstairs where a restaurant cooked it for us. Matty liked the octopus, Russell like the scallops, and I liked the clam. We all didn't care for the abalones too much. Our bill came and that was when we realized we fell for the trap. The restaurant charged 4,000 service charge per person and 10,000 cooking fee. That's a total of 52,000 for appetizers!  Oh well, we paid our bill and moved on. 

We walked around and Matty saw some dried mangoes and got it for dessert. It was so good we finished the whole bag. I finally found the small cuttlefish from one vendor. I hope it's the right on because it cost so much!  Russell was able to negotiate it down from 40,000to 38,000 for 2 packages.  The Jalgachi Fish Market had countless restaurants and an abundance of seafood.  We were continuously solicited to come into the restaurants. We were so overwhelmed, we just walked away. We were told to try eel and wanted to but after seeing them alive, dead, and cleaned, we couldn't stomach it. 

Matty was doing a lot of whining and complaining so we headed back to the hotel to drop him off.  Matty was settled for the night in bed with an older Transformers movie playing on TV. 

With Matty squared away, Russell and I checked out the nightlife. Not too far from our hotel, we found the heart of city.  There were mostly young adults out eating, drinking, and mingling. So many restaurants and bars!  It literally took us an hour of walking around before we settled into a cafe.  I had a spicy seafood ramen. Russell had Soondubu (tofu stew) and egg fried rice. My ramen was good but Russell's dinner was a miss. 

On the bright side, we were able to see the highlights of Busan, the fish markets and indulge in local seafood.  Plus, it didn't rain on us today!