The last day of August saw us sliding through the Kannon Straights which was a day ‘at sea’. It was lovely to be able to sleep in and relax for the day spending time at the pool and generally just being slothful.
We had made reservations for dinner at Sabatini’s before leaving NZ. Which meant that we would have to pay a small amount for dinner. The ship offers several dining options that are included in your fare, and they have all been very nice. But on this trip we have enjoyed several of the other restaurants which are also very nice. We enjoyed our Italian at Sabatini’s so much that we rebooked for their Frescobaldi Tuscan experience with wine matching in a couple of days.
Arriving in Busan Korea the shoreline was in contrast to what we have been experiencing when approaching the port.
Extremely tall buildings towered along the hillsides. Everything had a very ‘new’ look to it.
There was no relief from the heat and humidity, but our guide told us that we were lucky because only two weeks previously the temperature averaged at 42 degrees celsius!
Our first top was Songdo Skywalk which is a 365 metre bridge that walks out over the ocean providing lovely views of Songdo Beach.
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| A bronze whale statue emerges from the sea |
Songdo beach was the first beach that was open to the public in Korea. Opening in 1930 it was a time when Korea was ruled by Japan, and that meant that only Japanese people could access the beach, no Koreans allowed! Japan occupied Korea from 1910 to 1945 when Japan surrendered in WW2 bringing an end to its rule over Korea.
The bridge was really nice and there is also a cable car that takes you from one side of the basin to the other across the water to another sky walk. Unfortunately we didn’t get to do this.
Our next stop was Gamcheon Cultural Village which was located in the nearby hills. The drive was not very far, but our bus had to negotiate very narrow windy roads. Our driver was quite an aggressive driver and I can’t count how many times he tooted at others and how many tooted at him for cutting in! Even the tour guide gasped a couple of times at his driving!
There was also a real difference in the vehicles in Busan compared to what we have seen in Japan. Japan has loads and loads of small chubby van like cars, the sort of thing that Postman Pat might drive. In Busan the cars were all large and sleek and expensive looking. In the short time we were there I saw three Bentleys.
Up in the foothills the houses change from very tall apartment blocks to quaint colourful house crammed together and perched on the hillside. You could almost imagine that you were in the Mediterranean.
The Cultural Village was actually not particularly ‘cultural’ it had a narrow road lined with small shops that mainly had touristy stuff. And the place was packed! One highlight was the ‘outdoor air conditioning’ which had ist coming from pipes and actually was really cool, cool in a temperature manner!
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| Cooling system. |
I had a bit of a problem with sweat running into my eyes and it got so bad that I couldn’t see! That and the glare had me incapacitated for a short time. Finally I found a better hat that had more of a sweat band in the brim and … it is a visor, so no hat hair!
The next stop was the fish market back down by the port, we all trudged through, probably interrupting the daily lives of locals coming to buy their seafood. It. was much like any other outdoor fish market we have been to in the past.
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| Fish drying in the sun. No flies!!! |
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| Cuttlefish |
Finally our guide took us to the normal markets where she just walked us through so even if there was something you might be interested in you couldn’t really stop. So we peeled off with another couple of ladies and found a lovely air conditioned coffee shop with wifi and clean toilets. And there we sat until it was time to meet the bus!
Nagasaki
The next morning we awoke as we were cruising into Nagasaki.
Our tour this day was a nice short tour of only 3 hours and it took us to the main event for us. The Peace Memorial Park and Museum and Ground Zero.
The beauty of a tour is not just being escorted and driven, it is also being the receiver of lots of information about the history and the area today.
Nagasaki was hit with a plutonium nuclear bomb on the 9th of August 1945, just 4 days after Hiroshima was hit with the uranium atomic bomb. Because of the more hilly terrain the impact from the bomb did not spread as widely, however it still managed to kill more than 70,000 people and then another 70,000 died as a result of injuries and illness.
We both enjoyed the Nagasaki museum more than Hiroshima, even though it was more graphic. Both museums have thousands and thousands of paper cranes (origami) hanging as a tribute to the small girl,l, Sadako Sasaki was a survivor of Hiroshima at 2 years old but succumbed to accuse leukaemia at 11. She made 1000 paper cranes in accordance with Japanese legend to grant her a wish to get well. She has become a symbol of peace and hope and school children still make 1000 paper cranes and hang them in her honour.
Walking up from Ground Zero (a park at the bomb epi centre), back to the Peace Memorial Park many statues had been erected from different countries in support of peace. One caught our eye because it looked like a giant cheese grater, it said ‘Remember winter, spring’s welcome consolation’ then I saw more writing and it was in te reo Maori! It was our tribute, and then I noticed it was made up of little kōwhai flowers! It was certainly quite special to be so far from home and find a little bit of us.
Back on board we lounged by the pool with a beer and pina colada! The Frescobaldi Tuscan dinner that we had booked was delicious, as were the wines, but not the grappa! And we toddled off to bed ready for a sleep in as we have another day at sea tomorrow!
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