Fwd: Busan or Pusan? Great either way!

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "Kenwood Geigel" <kenwood.geigel@gmail.com>
To: "kenwood geigel paradiseken" <kenwood.geigel.paradiseken@blogger.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 9:24:31 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Busan or Pusan? Great either way!

BUSAN (PUSAN), KOREA--Tuesday, March 30, 2010

You say Busan, and I say Pusan.
Busan. Pusan. Pusan. Busan.
Let's call the whole thing off!

If you ever have the opportunity to visit Busan (Pusan), Korea, do NOT call the whole thing off. Go as soon as you can. This industrial port was one of the best stops so far. and our tour guide was the BEST TOUR GUIDE ever (maybe the best tour guide in the world)!

Busan is a very mountainous city and the word means "cooking pot mountain." When we boarded the elegantly appointed bus with its lovely draperies with fringe, Lucy, our beautiful tour guide, informed us that this 40 degree+ weather was the beginning of the Korean spring. The city experienced snow only two days before. Lucy was charming, adorable, dramatic, spoke in broken English and was a one-woman show for our tour to the Beomeosa Temple and the Ja-Gal-C'chi Market, from now on referred to as the Fish Market. Some of the time, we did not understand her but the rest of the time, we did not care! She was that delightful!

For those of you who like travelogues, we will discuss the temple and fish market first so you can stop reading after the descriptions. For anyone who wants to know what life is really like in modern-day Korea, the last part of this entry will provide the information that Lucy shared with us. While it might not be well organized or make perfect sense, we promise that it will be as entertaining as Lucy was!

Beomeosa is one of the five greatest temples in South Korea and was built in 678 A.D. The Japanese burnt it to the ground 400 years ago, and it was reconstructed. Located on the slope of a mountain outside of Busan, Beomeosa offers a university for monks, who start their day at 3 a.m. To get to the temple, visitors have to climb many flights of stone stairs. The front gate, Ilchumun, has four beautifully decorated pillars but only one beam supports the tile roof. The gate is the border of desire, and once one passes through it, that person's desire can be controlled.

Lucy told us that we arrived at the main temple, we were not to stand facing the Buddha images but rather to stand sideways. The Buddhas have a mark on their forehead that stands for hair and three winkles that represent the three ways to enlightenment. Before entering the temple, we had to remove our shoes, which resulted in cold feet. The main temple had a colorful canopy, three Buddhas, a beautiful altar, a decorated back panel and pillars of fruits (apples, bananas, oranges and pineapples) artistically placed in piles. Several other temples are off to the sides of the main temple. Sara noticed that under the sign "fire extinguisher" on the right side of the main temple were four bottles of water (obviously an early model of a fire extinguisher). A three-story stone pagoda, which dominates the grounds, holds the sarira (the bead found among the ashes) of the cremated monks.

The fish market in downtown Busan was created by women peddlers or "Aunties" during the Korean War. The world's largest fish markets has displays that range from freshly caught whole fist and shellfish to exotic seaweeds. Of the most interest were the live octopi. Stalls for fish vendors surround the building. Inside the building, the sellers wear colorful rubber aprons and boots, and the floors are wet and slippery. Tables and benches are arranged so customers can enjoy their purchases or a colorful fish sampler plate.

Lucy told us that live octopus is a delicacy. The Koreans eat octopus raw, and there is no need to stir them because they move themselves. Macho men simply grab the whole octopus. Another favorite is the sea worm that Lucy said looks like and is similar to penises--some are small, some are big, some are fat and some are thin. The photographs of the fish market will be in a separate entry so you can enjoy 10 pictures of the hundreds that we could have taken.

Now for Lucy's words of wisdom about Korea, Busan and life past and present. Korea is No. 1 in the world in ship building with the top three industries of the country being ship building, Samsung and its car, and electronics. Busan is the fifth largest port city in the world but it used to be No. 3 after Singapore and Hong Kong. Shanghai is now third, and Beijing is fourth.

Education is very important to the Koreans with 87 percent of children going to college. In the USA, South Korean students account for the most foreign students. Mothers take their children to the USA, Australia, Great Britain and Canada to study English while the fathers become seasonal birds who visit on holidays. Korea also in No. 1 in the use of Internet.

Cosmetic surgery is a very big business in Korea because it is much less expensive than it is in the USA. Korean women want big eyes but Lucy told us her beauty is natural. Korean plastic surgeons are very skilled because they have been trained to eat with metal chopsticks, which require the use of 40 muscles rather than the 20 used with wooden chopsticks. With a metal chopstick, one can pick up a human hair.

Korean dramas on television are No. 1 in Asia. Korean housewives watch the country's version of soap operas while chopping garlic. Koreans also love their movies with the annual Busan International Film Festival being the largest one in Asia. The Busan Opera House looks like a smaller version of the Sydney Opera House.

Most of the people in Busan live in apartment buildings, with a three-bedroom apartment selling for $600,000 in US dollars. However, Lucy explained a procedure by which people can rent apartments for more reasonable amounts. Apartments are more expensive than houses because the heating costs for an apartment are only about $100 to $150 a month while heating costs for houses average $300 a month. Apartments also offer 1 1/2-car garages, which is a plus because parking is very limited in Busan making Korean drivers parking geniuses. Car prices are less expensive than in the USA with Kia ($6,000), Sonota ($16,000 to $20,000), and Hyundai (up to $100,000) leading the way. Gasoline, however, is $2 a liter.

The traditional Korean lifestyle involves sitting and sleeping on a mica stone floor, because the heat is supplied through small tunnels (copper pipes) under the floor. The main reason for removing shoes when one enters a home is because people sleep on the floors. Lucy told us that while Korean girls have good skin, they have flat rear ends because they sleep on the floor. Now many of the younger people use beds for sleeping.

The Koreans are so accustomed to taking off their shoes that when the first subway was introduced, the Koreans took off their shoes when the doors opened. Every subway station was filled with shoes. They also like to eat spicy cabbage at every meal. Legend has it that if a wife is pretty, the husband will love her for one year; if the wife has a good personality, the husband will love her for three years; and if the wife can cook spicy cabbage, the husband will love her for 100 years.

Confucius influences everything. Man is heaven while woman is earth so wives must respect their husbands. In the past, wives would wash their husbands feet when they came home. Husbands used to say only three things--(1) When the husband came home and the wife asked, "Who is it?" The husband would answer "It's me." (2) "What about children?" and (3) "Let's sleep." If the wife did not provide the husband with a son, he would have a girl friend or a second wife or more.

However, Korean women are becoming more independent and control all the money. The Korean men have lost their wings and now must ask their wives for money. So men have taken to hiding money from their wives. A story making the rounds is that a thief stole a car and found $30,000 hidden in it. A passenger who took another tour told us that the tour guide told them that the divorce rate in Korea is almost 60 percent. The farmers have a difficult time finding wives because the modern women are so independent. Also, there is very little couple life because the parents sacrifice their lives for their children.

The most important person in the society is a teacher. Parents also are considered teachers so the children should treat both with respect. Students are told not to step on their teachers' shadows. Teachers with 13 years of experience are paid about $65,000 annually so very few teachers ever change jobs.

While Korea was liberated from Japan on August 15, 1975, Korea is still heavily influenced by Japan, especially with karaoke and baseball. (See photograph of the statue of a Giants baseball player.) If the players do not do well, the Busan people throw chicken bones at them. The coach of the baseball team in Korea is an American.

One place we would have liked to visit but did not have time was the United Nations Memorial Cemetery, where neat rows of stone markers commemorate troops from 16 countries who gave their lives during the Korean War (1950-1953). Passengers who saw it were very impressed with how beautiful and peaceful the cemetery is. But for a port stop of about five hours, we saw and learned a lot. Thank you, Lucy!