Arriving in Busan
It was a very quick intercity bus ride from Gyeongju to Busan taking only 50 minutes. The metro ride from Busan’s bus terminal to Indy House hostel, on the other hand, took about an hour.
Busan is a big city of about 4 million spread over several valleys and it must take over an hour (perhaps nearly two) to get from one end to the other by metro. My schoolboy geography lessons suggest that it is a rather industiral city with shipbilding but I think it has grown to be a rather delightful city with many buildings on its beaches and bordering forested hills or reserves.
Asia’s Largest Spa
The English couple that I met yesterday recommended two “must see” or “must do” activities in Busan. The first is Spaland (and the second is the fish market).
Spaland is the largest in Asia and possibly the world. It is only a short hop on the metro from my hostel. It comprises several hot pools of different temperatures fed by springs, different types of saunas at various temperatures, rest areas, movie rooms, cafes, restaurants and centres for massage and mani/pedicure rooms.
The order of events is as follows:
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- Put your footwear away in a numbered locker.
- Undress and keep your clothes in a separate locker with the same number.
- Now that you’re completely naked amongst all the Koreans, have a long shower and a scrub using a pink abrasive towel.
- Then you’re free to soak in the various pools or enjoy the sauna.
- When you’ve had enough, you can put on the supplied short and t-shirt to wander through the co-ed areas for more saunas, to watch a movie or just lounge around.
- You can go back the naked area for more pooling and saunaing if you wish.
- At the end, you can groom yourself before getting dressed. I see the hairdryer is used for more than hair on the head … pubes, butt crack, armpits etc. That makes sense … Korean towels are the size of handtowels and doesn’t dry you off completely.
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- Gwangalli Beach near my hostel at Gwangan.
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- The co-ed (non-nude) rest areas of the spa.
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- The co-ed (non-nude) rest areas of the spa.
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- The co-ed (non-nude) rest areas of the spa.
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- Would you believe this is the rooftop of Shinsegae department store.
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- Would you believe this is the rooftop of Shinsegae department store.
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- View of Busan from the rooftop of Shinsegae department store.
Pleasant Detour
A wrong turn in the subway meant that I went in the opposite direction. To remedy this I got off at Haeundae station … unlike at some stations you can’t change side without coming out and paying again.
So I surfaced and walked to the famous Haeundae Beach. It had a nice esplanade with many posh hotels and restaurants lining it. It is certainly seems as the place for nightlife, judging from all the neon! It got a preview of interesting seafood for sale around here. It would be something I’d see more off tomorrow at the bag seafood market.
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- Haeundae Beach by night.
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- Haeundae Beach by night.
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- Interesting seafood.
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- Don’t know this one.
Korean Shoebox Apartment
My hostel (Indy Guest House), named after Indiana Jones is brand new. Each dorm room of four bunks has a bathroom attached. Judging from the intercom, remote release for the ground floor door, letterbox, kitchen (locked off) etc … the room appears to be converted from an apartment. So a Korean shoebox apartment can be just one studio bedroom plus kitchenette and bathroom.