Busan: Seokguram Grotto, Bulguksa Temple, Jagalchi Market and Gamcheon Villagge

 June 29, 2023

Today we left Gyeongju and are headed to Busan via bus.  Busan is a port city located in Southeastern Korea and is Korea's second most populated city.

The terrain between Gyeongju and Busan is tree covered mountains/hills.  It is a stark contrast from the metropolitan area of Seoul.  On our way to Busan we stopped at a few sights.  The first one was Seokguram Grotto which as our tour guide Mr. Kim says contains "the most beautiful Buddha statue in the world".  The second stop was at Bugluksa Temple.   Both sites required some much needed walking, but it was well worth the workout as the sites are just amazing.  Hopefully, the pictures do the places justice.  Unfortunately, we they don't allow pictures of the Buddha statues at these locations.

The next stop before reaching the hotel is the Jagalchi Market.  This is one of Korea's largest fish markets.  The market was as we expected with lots of unique fish and sea creatures that can be bought.  At the market our tour guide arranged for us to try some fresh uncooked octopus.  The octopus was so fresh that the tentacles were still moving.  Max and the other boys dared each other to trying some.  They did, not wanting to be outdone or miss out on a new experience I gave it a try too.  It was covered in sesame oil so it tasted fine, but was very chewy.  Some of the others in the group mentioned the octopus has suctioned on to the inner parts of their mouths.  Luckily Max and I didn't have this problem.  As you probably guessed, Dede passed on this experience.

The last stop was a quick stop at Gamcheon Village for some shopping and refreshments.  Gamcheon is a small little tourist village located on the side of a hillside.  The village was quickly developed during the Korean war by people fleeing to this area of Korea since it saw little fighting during the war.  The city leaders have since supplied paint to each little house to give this village a colorful appearance.  

The food has been amazing.  We had a late lunch at a buffet that specializes in sushi.  At night we just walked down to the area of small street vendors.  This part of Korea specializes in Hagfish (looks like an eel).  None of us had the guts to try Hagfish after watching the vendor skin and de-head the live Hagfish right in front of everyone.  Seeing the skinless eel like fish squirm around on the cutting table didn't appeal to us, but it must show Koreans how fresh the eels are before cooking them.

All for now.  We stay in Busan for another night.  The weather has been HOT and HUMID, but now we are running into a few rain showers.  We're hoping our baseball scheduled for tomorrow night doesn't get cancelled due to rain.

Kurt

Not sure if this link will work.  Dede had a technical malfunction while videoing Max trying the Octopus, so we had to borrow this from someone else on the tour.  https://www.facebook.com/reel/605209828085623/?s=fb_shorts_tab&stack_idx=0

Picture

Boys' High School, Train to Gyeongju and Anapchi Pond

 Tuesday, June 27

Today was another busy day!  We traveled south by high-speed train to the city of Gyeongju.  We had some delicious lunch at the train station on arrival.  Max and I were zipped off with half of the group who wanted bulgogi stew for lunch and Kurt landed in a completely different restaurant with the other half of the group who wanted a Japanese-style pork cutlet and noodles for lunch.  

Next we traveled to a local boys' high school for a few hours of entertainment.  A class of about 25 students had planned a program and some treats for us.  They were juniors in high school, but here they are called "second graders" because there are only three grades in high school.  (The first graders are sophomores and the third graders are seniors.).  Sean and Max were team captains for a game of charades. This gave the high school boys a great chance to practice their english and we got to laugh as Max and Sean tried to act out words like 'giraffe' and 'marathon' for the teams to guess.  In Korea, students attend school from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm.  Getting into college is very competitive!  So, being able to host our group was a fun break for them (although there were a few quieter boys in the back studying their text books).  We ended the event by sharing a gift of some American hats, t-shirts, and candies with the students.

From there we stopped in a local shopping area where we could try on hanbok (traditional Korean dress) and get our photos taken.  One of the local shop owners got a laugh out of a few of the guys (Kurt included) because the Hanbok store hadn't bothered to give them Korean pants to put on over their shorts so they looked like they were walking the streets of Korea without any pants on.  

Dinner tonight was amazing!  We were brought to a restaurant that had pots built into each table.  They made a dish called, dak galbi, which consisted of chicken, cabbage, sweet potatoes, green onions, and rice cakes in a delicious sauce.  We watched as they made the stir fry style dish before our eyes.  It was served with lettuce leaves and sesame leaves so you could eat it like a wrap.  They also served an ice cold soup that was like a pickled kimchi broth.  It was perfect for the hot day and made my tummy happy!

After checking into our new hotel for the night, we took an optional trip to a place called Anapchi pond (also called Wolji pond).  It was a gorgeous lantern lit landscape that despite the small crowds of people felt so peaceful.  Max and Kurt stayed with the tour guide while I wandered more slowly and took some photos... that may have been why it felt so peaceful.  

Dede

Agency Visit Day, Shopping at InsaDong, Cooking Class, Karoke

 June 26th

Today we visited the agency where I was from and reviewed my file!  It was kind of emotional but meaningful because I learned a lot.  I also met my social worker who was really nice and said I was and still am handsome, lovely, and energetic!

Love, Max

Sorry for the delayed posting.  The past two days have been jammed back with activities.  Monday, was out last day in Seoul before we checked out of our hotel in Seoul and started our nomadic journey to the southern tip on the peninsula.

Monday started with a visit to the agency that helped with Max's adoption and is the place where Dede and I stayed during our last visit to Korea.  The agency has changed a bit since our last visit.  The guest house and baby floor is no longer open.  The babies waiting for adoption are now located in other locations across Korea.  The building now houses services provided by Eastern Social Welfare Society in addition to their pre and post-adoption services.   We met with the President of Eastern, some of the social workers and walked around to see some of the familiar areas of the building.  Hard to believe that was just ~12 years ago.

After visiting Eastern we had some time for some much needed shopping.  We visited the very familiar shopping area of Insadong.  Its a quaint little shopping street with many local artist shops mixed in with the typical tourist shops.  

After about an hour of shopping all forty of us took a cooking class and made our own supper. We made beef bulgogi.  It was delicious!  It is good to know Max and Dede know how to make it now; maybe I'll get a night off from cooking when we get home.  😀

The day finally wrapped up with the adoptees going out for a night of Karoke (noraebang in Korean) and the rest of us going out for beer, soju and soju-itos (mojitos made with Soju instead of rum is awesome)!

-Kurt

An attempt to recreate our first family photo.

The chair that he sat on in some of the first pictures we received.

President of Eastern

Reenactment of a past photo.  Max's legs are a little longer this time.

Us with another family from MN that was also in Korea to get their son 12 years ago.

Insadong

Insadong

Beef Bulgogi - Steak, carrots, mushrooms, onions and rice cakes

Soju-ito Time!