The next morning, we boarded our two buses and headed for Busan! We had a late start for some reason. Then, after we'd only gone a few blocks, we pull over because a guy on our bus feels sick. We wait for a taxi to come to take him to the hospital, later finding out that he has a kidney stone! Oooh. So, we had an even later start. We are supposed to visit a tea farm, but instead skip that and go straight on to our second "experience," Nak-An Castle. This is a traditional village that people visit to get a sense of what it was like centuries ago. We tour around the village. Then we had an experience making a traditional fan by gluing strips of paper onto a pre-made fan. Next we had an experience dyeing cloth with pigments made from nature - green tea, gardenia flower, clay, etc. That was actually pretty fun! It got us in the shade for awhile at least - it was sooo hot that day.
My cloth drying - I tried a little tie-dye!
Scenes from the village.
After a sweet-potato-heavy lunch, we went to the Sun-Chen Bey bird place. Here, we walked along wooden decks over a reed-grass area looking at nature. Amongst the reeds, we could see little crabs all over the place! The weather had turned cooler, and it was quite nice walking in the area with a cool breeze blowing.
See the crabs?
Next we drove on to Busan! Busan is a port city, known for shipbuilding and fish markets. We were scheduled to go to what our itinerary says is "the most bigest fish market in east northern Asia", then eat dinner then go to our hotel. After our long day we were wishing we could just go straight to the hotel, but alas. We got to the fish market around 7:30 pm (late). When we got off the bus, the fish smell was immediately overwhelming - it hit you in the face, oh! It was a crowded market, and all 60 of us were supposed to walk down this narrow street together. I wasn't enthusiastic about this at first, but the fish market was really amazing. Stall after stall was stacked with fish, some in tanks, most layed out on tables. Every fish imaginable. Then we went through what was I guess a restaurant area, where you could pick out your fish and have it prepared right there.
We didn't eat dinner at the fish market though, and instead went to this tourist restaurant. Then we checked into our hotel. But this time, instead of getting my own room, I had TWO roomates! Christina, Tori and I checked into our room on the 17th floor. The room was actually very swank - modern, the kitchen hidden behind a smooth wall, very nice bathroom - except that it was a little cramped with three of us. Oh well.
Stay tuned for the next episode!
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