World Cruise - Day 63 - Mar 15 - Busan, South Korea

Nothing special for sunrise this morning, very hazy outside.  Although the temp forecast is quite good, expected high of 63 (normal for this time of year is 48), so maybe the haze will clear up during the day.  It’s pretty warm out, it’s actually amazingly warm out.  Krissie asked me to open the balcony door to cool off the room and it’s stayed open most of the morning.  So it’s at least 10-15 degrees warmer than yesterday, which is an unexpected surprise.  We’ve had incredibly good weather wherever we have been on this cruise.

In our sail into Busan, there was this interesting building on the side of a hill:

Then as we passed it, got a view of it from a totally different perspective:

I have no idea how you get there or what you do once you’re there (much less how they built it), but it’s a pretty cool structure.

At the end of the day yesterday in Hiroshima, we still had some yen left, so what we typically do is try to spend whatever local currency we have left at a local market to buy some supplies for onboard.  For example, we might buy a bottle of wine or some NA beers for the cabin or toiletries.  So yesterday we bought some NA beers (Japan has several different varieties—Kirin makes two varieties, also Suntory and Asahi).  Here is a pic of the NA beers I bought yesterday:

After buying the NA beers, we still had about 140 yen left (just under $2) and we needed to buy one more item.  I wanted to buy a dark chocolate bar for 105 yen, but Krissie said that we get free chocolate onboard and we don’t eat it all.  She’s right—we get two chocolates each evening on our pillow and I have several leftover in the desk drawer.  So she suggested a bag of nuts that was about 100 yen.  This is the one we picked out:

It looked like hazelnuts.  They are actually chestnuts.  I opened them and tried one, it was one of the worst nuts I’ve ever eaten in my life.  Yes, they are chestnuts, but no, they are not roasted, they are either raw or boiled.  So they are soft and chewy.  Yuck.  Now I know why chestnuts are typically roasted.  You typically see chestnuts being roasted by street vendors in India and other countries.  I want my chestnuts roasted, please.

At the end of the day yesterday, Krissie said: “I’m tired and ready to go home.”  I thought she was referring to wanting to go home to Bainbridge Island, but when I asked her about it, she said she meant “home” as in the ship.  She thought about it and said it had taken 62 days, but finally she was considering the ship to be her home (at least for a season).  We both are looking forward to getting back to Bainbridge Island, but we’re also looking forward to the remainder of our cruise.  We don’t think we would do another world cruise, although we do have a 49-day cruise around South America already scheduled for Jan 2013, so about half the length of this cruise.  And we’re hoping to do a 7-day cruise before that cruise with other family members, which would also include 14 days in between the two cruises in Florida, so in all it would extend to a total of 70 days away from home.

When we arrived at the pier, they put on a cultural show for us, including this dancer:

We took the shuttle into downtown, then starting walking to the fish market, but got distracted by these doggies in the window:

That one in the back with the brown hair is a poodle.  The white one closest I think is a Pekinese?

We spent most of the remaining portion of the morning (we didn’t arrive until 10a) at Ja-Gai-Ch’I Fish Market in downtown Busan.  It is Korea’s largest seafood market, also known as “Aunt’s Market” because it was run by women during the Korean War.  It distributes approximately 50% of the total seafood in Korea.  It was different from Tsujiki Market in Tokyo in most of it was outside (while Tsujiki is all under a permanent roof), but many of the same creepy crawly sea creatures.  So instead of inundating you with another 30+ photos of more creepy crawlies, here are the top 10 or so:

The things above look like they have roots, but they are alive and moving.

This is a collection of several types of seaweed and kelp.  The kelp is the stuff we try to avoid when we are on the boat, since it will foul the prop.  Here they harvest it, sell it and eat it.

These are tiny octopi.

I have no idea what these are, but they look like sea snakes.

These are really long thin fish, not sure if they are eels or not?

I think these are some type of crab?

I have no idea what they are, but they were moving in the box.

I was going to call this a manta ray, but I think it’s called a kite?

More big crabs, although these aren’t on water like the others.  Most of the fish/seafood was kept alive in water by the sellers.

I got a kick out of watching this sequence take place.  This octopus tried to make an escape from his tub:

…only to be grabbed by his seller and pushed back down.

…after the octopus was back in his tub, she went back to her breakfast (note the variety of different dishes of fish and seaweed):

This woman was selling small octopi, which seemed to be pretty common there.

These women are shelling the oysters and clams, every once in awhile shucking one into their mouth and eating it.

As we walked from the fish market toward the other market area, I noticed this label on a jacket for sale outside a store:

I wonder what The North Face would think of that.  And no, that’s not Gore-Tex, either (it’s Wind-Tex, but the same label).  I guess if you change the name slightly, you can still rip off the logo?  Most of the stores sold knock-offs, so you had to be very careful shopping and just expect that things are not the brand that it says on the label.

Then we went to the nearby shopping areas, including Gukje (which kinda sounds like “Gucci”), Nampo-dong, Gwangbok-dong and Bupyeong Markets:

Krissie bought some Korean ginseng while we were there.  It is 100% ginseng, not the typical 10% extract that you normally buy.  It is the consistency of thick molasses.  She also got some 100% ginseng powder.  It was interesting seeing the locals eating in the middle of the shopping streets:

…although we ate more conservatively at a nearby underground shopping area, with some wonderful spicy Korean beef stew and rice:

The shopping area had a food arcade like you might find in an American shopping mall, although it was all Korean food and most of the places had counter seating:

Remember the chestnuts we bought in Hiroshima?  This lady was making them out on the street, but I think maybe she was just boiling them, not roasting them?

The shopping area is known for its bronze statues.  I particularly enjoyed this one and the guy said it was OK to take his picture, so he was apparently OK with sporting rabbit ears:

Back in the shopping area, you could see more people eating in the streets and you can also see the prices for the various dishes on the yellow placard ($1=1,120 Korean won):

And then there are the two pictures I didn’t get today that I wish I had been quick enough to take: 1) the barista at a coffee place with his index finger inserted far up into his nose, doing some serious excavation work, he took it out, inspected it, then put it back in again; and 2) a sunglasses vendor had out his lint-free cloth that he uses for cleaning the sunglasses, except he was pushing it into in his ear, apparently doing some earwax cleaning.

Back onboard, we are getting ready to set sail for Shanghai.  These ladies were singing for us before we left:

…and then these guys were playing their flutes and drum:

…and this lady was playing an instrument that was maybe a sitar?

I love all of the local cultural shows, which give a really interesting flavor of local dance, songs and traditional outfits.

It’s funny how we still use the term “set sail” even though we have no sails on this ship.  We also talk about the “sail in” and “sailaway” in the same way.

I tried giving away my boiled chestnuts at dinner tonight.  I got four different people (Ken, Sara, Edward and Gloria) to try them, but no one would take the rest.

Entertainment tonight was Bayne Bacon again:

He’s very talented on the piano and very funny.  Strange to hear such a Texas drawl from a concert pianist.

Tomorrow is a sea day on our way to Shanghai on Saturday.