Tasmania to Tokyo – Busan, South Korea – Day 60

Tasmania to Tokyo – At Sea – Day 59 can be found here.

Today’s Chronicles can be found here.

Day 60! Where has the time gone? And yet it seems a lifetime ago that we first landed in Sydney.

There is still much water to pass under our keel, so I hope I do not tempt fate by saying that we’ve loved every moment of it, but we’ll be ready for it to end when the time comes.

Busan today! We were initially booked on Temple by the Sea, which has since been rebranded as the Highlights of Busan. They both share the same tour code – BUS-E – so I’m hopeful that we’re not missing anything as the result of this change.

We’ve already been processed by South Korean customs, so disembarkation should be as simple as showing our QR code and having our bags scanned.

It turns out to be even simpler than that, as there’s no one at the terminal to either scan bags or check passports.

As a result, we are the first aboard the bus, 30 minutes early. We hope that this is setting us up for an early departure, but alas we wait all the way until 9 am before we leave and we then have to double back to the cruise terminal to pick up two passengers who arrived late.

Long suffering sigh.

Off to Haedong Yonggungsa Temple:

Perchance for some fish liberation along the way!

Our son has added one request to his time in South Korea, which is to track down a Dalgona cookie – the honeycomb cookies cut into shapes that were popularized by the Netflix show Squid Game. He asks our guide for help, and she says there should be some shops selling them on the way to the temple – lucky us!

The entrance to the temple is protected by the 12 Zodiac animals:

The temple claims to have been first built in 1376, though that claim is disputed. The temple’s real claim to fame is that it’s set in the hillside next to the ocean, which makes it remarkably scenic.

A statue of Bodhidharma, founder of Zen Buddhism – he is said to have fallen asleep seven years into his nine years of wall-gazing and cut off his eyelids to prevent it from happening again.

The temple was destroyed during the Imjin War, then rebuilt by Monk Ungang of Tongdosa Temple in the early 1930s, then renovated extensively in 1974.

The coastline comes into view – it’s every bit as scenic as promised, though the site itself is busy

Haedong Yonggungsa Temple received its name from a dream of Buddhist Monk Jeongam in which Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva ascends to heaven on the back of a dragon.

I head down a walking trail to the lower rocks where I’m able to get wider shot of the temple:

There is a wishing pool here, where people can toss coins in and make a wish. Our daughter successfully lands a coin at the top level!

You can also write your wishes on roof tiles, in exchange for a donation:

There are hundreds of bright lanterns:

And still more wishes written on gold cards – quite a few ask for BTS tickets!

There are several altars, and practicing monks:

You can enter the rooms if you remove your shoes, but I prefer to observe from a distance.

We apply some of what we learned in Angkor Wat – for example, recognizing when the Buddha is calling the earth as a witness:

We then take a bit of time to just enjoy the site, looking at the many shrines and statues:

It’s only when we reach the top of the hill that we see exactly how the temple stands in contrast to South Korea’s emerging modernity.

But soon it’s time to bid farewell to the temple – and its many stunning statues – and be on our way:

On the way back, we pick up a dalgona cookie for our son:

And both kids get stuffed animal keychains for the KPop Demon Hunters character “Derpy”:

There are also a range of food vendors near the parking lot, so I decide to try out the Korean take on the venerable corn dog:

And – it’s quite good. Very spicy, though!

We then reboard the bus and head out to visit the APEC house – some 20 minutes away – located in Dongbaek Park. The parking lot is a brief, somewhat scenic walk from the parking lot:

The camellias are starting to bloom:

We enter the park itself:

And we’re surprised to spot some wildlife – including a roosting heron:

We soon reach the APEC house:

APEC stands for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, which consists of 21 member nations. The house was used for the 2005 leaders summit, and has since been maintained as a kind of open museum.

The views are impressive too:

From here we charge off on our own and summit the hill to see the statue of Choi Chi-wan, a famous scholar:

Mostly it was an excuse to climb the stone steps up the hill that the tour group wasn’t going to climb:

Plus – park cats!

Grumpy, grumpy park cats

There are also some interesting paths along the waterfront:

But soon it’s time to return to the bus.

And the verdict? For some reason, Silversea doesn’t consider this to be one of the included excursions despite it having all the hallmarks of one – bus tour, large group, no meal. So instead we paid a total of US$556 for a bus tour. Ouch. For comparison, we paid less for our private KPop Demon Hunters Tour – including private van and tips.

(We did politely inquire about this when we got back on board – but Silversea says it’s the same tour we initially booked. We gave it a 7 on the ranking and have asked once again that Silversa publish tour size expectations when describing their excursions. Unlikely that’ll happen, but worth a shot!)

Time to re-board the ship:

Off to bingo – no winners amongst us, but we did get to play with two cards this time.

Then on to trivia, where we correctly recall the goddess who transformed Arachne into a spider (Athena) and the organ a snake uses to smell (tongue) but learned that the most popular dish in Australia is roast lamb (and not meat pies) and that bananas start to spoil below 13 Celsius (not 20 Celsius). Our performance is sufficient for second place!

La Terrazza for dinner tonight:

Does this mark the end of the duck ragout, and the dawning of the era of lamb ragout? What thinks you, @fletcher?

A small cognac shrimp as an appetizer:

Followed by the breaded veal chop for my main:

While my wife had her favourite, the lasagna:

Plus – the chocolate torte for dessert:

The city looked beautiful, so I returned to our stateroom to grab my camera:

They even have a kind of urban campground here, right outside the cruise terminal:

But there’s more urban than camping:

Back through the ship – it’s Saint Patrick’s Day today, so everything is green. I manage a quick snap before the music starts and Dolce Vita begins to fill up:

Then back to the room, where we bid a final farewell to Busan:

A question arises in terms of which flavour of KPop Demon Hunters rameon we ended up with as a gift from Sally, so I attempt to use our iPhone to translate:

With mixed results:

Hmm. Let’s try once more:

That translation did not at all help clarify what flavour we have. Although clearly the sodium level is a concern. Perhaps I was too harsh on those unwilling to use online translation!

Something to ponder during our long sleep as we head into the last of our relaxing sea days.