Purplelake: Day 9 - May 18, 2019 – Busan

We had been really fortunate this trip so far weather-wise in Korea until today. It was windy & pouring and we had to cancel our plan to visit Taejongdae (a clifftop park with a lighthouse and great sea view) this morning. Instead, we did a bit more shopping at Daiso and chanced upon a restaurant that serves the best tasting soondubu-jjigae (soft tofu stew) in our opinion. Our plan is to take the early afternoon KTX high speed train to go back to Seoul. Our hotel is only one metro station away from Busan KTX Station. KTX is Korea Rail’s version of Shinkanzen but the similarity stops at the pointy nose of the front engine car. KTX is way way slower and the carriage is narrower. Their seats are also smaller and less comfortable. KTX covers the 325 km journey from Busan to Seoul in around 3 hrs, making the average speed about 110 km/h, hardly in the league of high speed rail. After the initial stretch outside Busan mostly inside tunnels, it feels like ordinary train for the rest of the journey. This really comes as a surprise considering the "high-tech"-ness touted by the country and the image it tries to present to the world. One thing for sure though is their on-time performance is at least on par with Japan. This includes their metro systems.

We found the best tasting Soft Tofu Stew this morning. It's a bargain at 7900W which includes bulgogi.

Busan Train Station waiting for KTX train to Seoul

Seats are quite small and need to be reserved at extra cost

When it is busy, it would be standing room only for passengers without seat reservation!

The weather cleared up nicely as we approached Seoul. After checking into the same room (just at a higher floor), we went shopping in the Gwangjang market for the dried persimmons. We struck up a conversation with the store clerk who is a young Chinese foreign student studying in South Korea. She used to worship everything Korean which was a major reason why she picked South Korea for her university education. She now has a change heart after 3 yrs. One big complaint she has is how her Korean classmates have such small close circles of friends and this has prevented true and deep friendship with her Korean classmates. There are also some underlying racial discrimination against Chinese (and other ethnic groups). This jived with what another Chinese shopkeeper told us last week that it is really hard to become Korean citizen no matter how long you have lived in the country. On top of everything, the applicant has to prove s/he has an unattainable high net worth as well.

We found a street inside Gwangjang market that has hoards of people lining up outside several restaurants that serve beef tartare and raw octopus

Menus also available for take out

Eat in prices listed. Must be a hit for all the crowds!

Since rain is forecast for tomorrow in Seoul, we decided to explore the Gangnam area this afternoon. Gangnam is a newer suburb of Seoul with a strong focus on finance and retail. Its claim to fame is from the hit “Gangnam Style” by Psy. Gangnam literally means "South of the River" and is a huge district. The blocks are every bit as big as those in Beijing. It is here we finally tasted Korean Jajangmyeon and only in a Chinese restaurant. Funny thing is here in a Chinese restaurant, the waiter (although Chinese looking) does not speak Chinese (with only very limited English) and they have no menu in Chinese (just a small table top version all in Korean)! After a few minutes, he managed to dig out an old menu in Chinese and English but the prices were no longer updated. Since this old copy of menu showed all the traditional fancy Chinese dishes like shark fin soup etc., maybe this restaurant has to abandon all the authentic Chinese dishes to just serve noodles and other quick eats to suit the locals' tastes (since everyone in the restaurant was slurping up noodles loudly and nothing else)?

On transit back to our hotel inside a metro station, we came across a street performer playing beautiful violin all from memory. He only had a smart phone playing accompaniment for his solo performance. What a treat to end the evening!