There is a temple hidden in what I think it called Namsan (South Mountain) in Busan. It is strange that the mountain is called that, because it is in Northern Busan, but that is completely besides the point of this post. This temple is known for having rather large, impressive rock carvings. These carvings are the reason I went to Busan.
For the trip I packed my camera backpack with my camera, lenses and all the extras, like clothes and a a toothbrush . I estimate that this all weighed about 7 kg. Not much, but if you have to carry it, along with a lose tripod for 24km, then it starts working on your legs and shoulders. With this background information, let me give you a quick run-down of how I managed to rack up those miles.
I arrived at the bus station, first time ever, and walked back and forth a few times trying to figure out where I was supposed to go. When I finally found the subway, I headed to Haeundae Beach to look for a place to spend the night. It might be because of the time of year, but the prices were way to high and I am not going to pay 100,000 won just for clean bed. I walked around for a better price. The better price didn’t happen, but the miles did.
With no place to drop off some of the stuff in my bag, I decided to just take the train back to Beomeosa to find the cable car and then the temple for the photo. Station to cable car… another mile or two. By the time I got to the top of the mountain I realized that it might rain, and that I would have to push it to get back to the cable car on time, so not only would I be racking up a few more miles on the mountain itself, but I would be doing so in a hurry. I missed my turn off to the temple and only saw a decent map telling me this when I was nearly at the bottom of the mountain. Great!
At least I now have an alternative route when I go back to get the stupid photo.
Some more walking to the nearest station, some climbing of stairs, as all stations in Busan seem to have and more getting lost looking for the apparently biggest spa in Asia. The spa did not impress me and the miles even less. My legs felt like rubber.
Clean again, I decided to go see if I can find the bridge everyone is always taking photos of. I’ve seen it before, but I still can’t remember how I got there. Needless to say, after much walking I did not get my photo, again. With a tired body and not much to do, I headed to the main fun zone of Busan for a coffee and some “people watching”. While there I also searched the internet for a jimjilbang to spend the night in.
With information on a place to sleep, I left the coffee shop and headed to the nearest station. Of course I headed in the wrong direction. Miles. When I finally reached Haeundae it was a mission to find my target location because, heaven forbid, the directions would be faulty. Miles.
Sunday was not that bad, but I did add a few more. Not nearly as much as on Saturday though. Some of that included walking about 2km just to find a bus stop where the bus I was taking would stop.
All this for almost no photos, and none that I wanted.
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