By Hydrofoil to South Korea

November 4 Thursday
After the precious coffee at Gratie bakery and a few of their delicious pastries, we packed up. The young woman at the Fukuoka hostel took our photo just before Mary and I got into the taxi (she is going to put it on their website) and headed to the International Port for our hydrofoil to Korea. The numerous bureaucratic procedures, fuel surcharge, and the cost of departure tax had me wondering why anyone would purchase the weekend round-trip tickets, in spite of their being cheaper than our tickets for a longer stay. We boarded the Beetle, an enclosed pod that slipped out of the harbor and skimmed softly and smoothly but speedily over the blue water, past steeply rising island mountains, under a brilliant blue sky. It was surprising how fast we were traveling - a ferry journey of 8 hours took us less than three.

As we approached the skyline of Busan port, the sky was milky white. Jennifer and Miriam, Dennis' mother, met us and Jenn drove us through the city until, in a small lane, a man rushed out and ushered Jenn's car down a narrow, pedestrian-crowded street to the entrance to a parking garage. Jenn stopped the car and we piled out, leaving the parking to a valet.

Walking the market streets, we saw squid hanging in curtains of tentacles, chestnuts roasting in a churning mass of black coals, decorative socks, Korean silk. At a small upstairs restaurant, we ate bulgogi - which came as a bowl of various colorful ingredients - strips of marinated beef together with vegetables, rice - dark, white, green and red... which you mix together into a delicious combination.
Walking market streets back to the car, I was interested in the stores selling luggage of all sizes and shapes because the zipper on mine had jammed. But prices were not Third World! Reluctantly I admitted that I could get a better price on luggage in Bennington!

Mary on steps

We drove back to Ulsan on very modern expressways with tolls, about an hour's trip, past a lot of industry (including the huge Hyundai plant) to Jenn's condo in a high rise. There her little Boston terrier had an energetic frenzy of greeting us, sniffing, and gnashing the dog toy Mary had brought him.

Jennifer took us to a Korean cafe where we had a typical and delicious lunch of beef strips, vegetables and egg on a bowl of rice. Then, on the hour's drive back to Ulsan, we got an idea of the intensity of traffic, the extent of industrialization in South Korea.

written by

chertop on November 4, 2010 from Pusan, South Korea

from the travel blog: Japan and South Korea 2010

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