My last night in Fukuoka turned out to be a bit of an anti-climax. I went out to find some bars with an American guy who I met at the Khaosan Fukuoka hostel. We walked for quite a way from our digs an spied a bar upstairs just before the bridge over to Nakasa island. After one beer we were ready to move on as the place was dead (it was a Sunday though), and the barman charged us 200 yen on top of the drinks just for being in the bar. Not much money but as always, its the principal of the thing, nowhere in or outside the bar was there any indication of any bar charge. We left and crossed over to the island, which is quite a seedy area, lots of girly bars and drunk business men wandering around. I realised that I had left my umbrella in the bar (amazingly it wasn't raining when we left), so I went back for it, after which we couldn't be bothered to walk back through the same area so we just went back to the hostel. Probably a good thing because I hate trying to pack my stuff up and travel with a hangover.
The next day I caught the bus to the ferry terminal easily enough. I was told about a departure tax from Japan, and indeed I was charged 700 yen "surcharge" when I went to collect my ticket, and a further 500 yen for a ticket to use the terminal facility, i.e. get through immigration. I got my own back though, as I'd bought the ferry ticket at the reduced student fare and nobody checked on my (non-existent) student status. The ferry trip on the Beetle was fast but a little boring. As it goes so fast its not allowed to go out on deck, in fact they insist that you remain in your seat, strapped in, in case they have to brake to avoid a whale or something. There was no one sitting next to me to talk to so I just used the time to try and learn Hangul, the Korean alphabet.
Immigration in Korea was easy. I had booked a hostel, Zen Backpackers, in the Seomyeon district of Busan, so I wandered out of the ferry port and used the force to find the nearest subway station. It was a bit tricky buying a ticket, as there was only vending machines and no real person. Although the machine had a button for English language, the display kept flipping back to Korean. I put my newly learned reading skills to good use an bought a ticket to what I thought at least was the right place and luckily it was. Finding the hostel was a bit trickier. The owner of Zen, June, had emailed me a map which I had dutifully copied down. However after following the directions I could not see any sign for the place. I spent a while wandering around, asking people who spoke no English for directions, and generally getting hot and fed up. At least it wasn't raining.
I noticed that there was another hostel nearby, Blue Backpackers in a bright blue building, and figured that any hostel owner must be able to speak some English. The lady owner was very nice and took me over to the huge apartment building nearby, which I had been walking around and randomly taking the lift up to various floors, and put me on the lift to the 15th floor. June (who is a man, not what I expected) couldn't understand why I had gotten lost, and it turned out that I had not noticed some additional directions on the map for getting to the right lift and floor in the building. So, my fault, as always, but a sign somewhere in the building lobby might have been handy.
That night I went out for dinner with another guest, a very young looking Taiwanese lad, at a traditional Korean restaurant. The place had floor seating on these weird chairs with no legs, just a seat and a backrest, and a barbeque pit in the centre of the table. I feared a meat feast, but it was mostly fish, tofu, and various vegetables and kimchi, with a stone pot of extremely hot rice. We had a couple of bottles of Korean lager to go with it and some soju, which is a Korean spirit I had been warned about, but I didn't think it was too bad. Certainly not as face-wrenching as the Lao-Lao whiskey. After the food, which was very good, we retired to a Hof bar, which I think is just what Koreans call their modern-style bars, for a couple of bottles of stout. It was a brand I'd not seen before but it was good. My Taiwanese friend kept me talking about what things are like in England (he had never been to Europe) and was getting increasingly red in the face, probably from the booze, so we went back to the hostel.
The next day I was up and out about 11am after I sneaked in some yoga in the lounge area while no one was about. I went to Beomeosa temple, which just looked like every temple I'd seen in Japan. But my main reason for going there was that I had read about a hiking trail that leads from that temple, over some hills to another, much nice temple. I spent the rest of the day hiking, including going up a mountain and getting a good view for a change, and trying to find a place that would give me just a rice dish and not some sort of barbequed goat meal. I failed in the food quest and just had to make do with a tasty mango ice pop and a disgusting packet of corn chips. The walk I did passes through the site of an ancient fort, Geumjeong, although the only parts remaining of it are four stone archways which served as gates. It was nice to be out in nature for the whole day, sans rain, after my last couple of hiking trips which were wet and miserable. Eventually I made it to Seokbulsa temple, and it was quite a good one, on top of a hill with some Buddhas carved into the rocks nearby. On the way back down I noticed some Korean people were using the random exercise machines which were just sitting in the forest.
After such a healthy day, I ruined it all by going on an all night drinking session with some lads from the hostel (from Wales, London and the states), with the aim of staying out for the football which was on here at 3.30AM. Highlight of the night for me was our impromptu darts tournament, played on some high-tech dartboards which electronically kept the scores. Rather than having sharp metal points, the darts have blunt plastic ends and stick between the plastic protusions on the surface of the board. (Somehow I won, and no one was more amazed than me)
I'm still in the same hostel, but moving over to Blue Backpackers tomorrow. After they were so nice to me when I arrived, even though I was staying at a rival business, I thought it was only polite to stay with them. As its the World Cup final this weekend, I thought I might as well hang around here as the area has masses of bars and food places. After this I want to go to Gyeongju, which sounds like a cool place, mountain hiking and temple visiting.
The next day I caught the bus to the ferry terminal easily enough. I was told about a departure tax from Japan, and indeed I was charged 700 yen "surcharge" when I went to collect my ticket, and a further 500 yen for a ticket to use the terminal facility, i.e. get through immigration. I got my own back though, as I'd bought the ferry ticket at the reduced student fare and nobody checked on my (non-existent) student status. The ferry trip on the Beetle was fast but a little boring. As it goes so fast its not allowed to go out on deck, in fact they insist that you remain in your seat, strapped in, in case they have to brake to avoid a whale or something. There was no one sitting next to me to talk to so I just used the time to try and learn Hangul, the Korean alphabet.
Immigration in Korea was easy. I had booked a hostel, Zen Backpackers, in the Seomyeon district of Busan, so I wandered out of the ferry port and used the force to find the nearest subway station. It was a bit tricky buying a ticket, as there was only vending machines and no real person. Although the machine had a button for English language, the display kept flipping back to Korean. I put my newly learned reading skills to good use an bought a ticket to what I thought at least was the right place and luckily it was. Finding the hostel was a bit trickier. The owner of Zen, June, had emailed me a map which I had dutifully copied down. However after following the directions I could not see any sign for the place. I spent a while wandering around, asking people who spoke no English for directions, and generally getting hot and fed up. At least it wasn't raining.
I noticed that there was another hostel nearby, Blue Backpackers in a bright blue building, and figured that any hostel owner must be able to speak some English. The lady owner was very nice and took me over to the huge apartment building nearby, which I had been walking around and randomly taking the lift up to various floors, and put me on the lift to the 15th floor. June (who is a man, not what I expected) couldn't understand why I had gotten lost, and it turned out that I had not noticed some additional directions on the map for getting to the right lift and floor in the building. So, my fault, as always, but a sign somewhere in the building lobby might have been handy.
That night I went out for dinner with another guest, a very young looking Taiwanese lad, at a traditional Korean restaurant. The place had floor seating on these weird chairs with no legs, just a seat and a backrest, and a barbeque pit in the centre of the table. I feared a meat feast, but it was mostly fish, tofu, and various vegetables and kimchi, with a stone pot of extremely hot rice. We had a couple of bottles of Korean lager to go with it and some soju, which is a Korean spirit I had been warned about, but I didn't think it was too bad. Certainly not as face-wrenching as the Lao-Lao whiskey. After the food, which was very good, we retired to a Hof bar, which I think is just what Koreans call their modern-style bars, for a couple of bottles of stout. It was a brand I'd not seen before but it was good. My Taiwanese friend kept me talking about what things are like in England (he had never been to Europe) and was getting increasingly red in the face, probably from the booze, so we went back to the hostel.
The next day I was up and out about 11am after I sneaked in some yoga in the lounge area while no one was about. I went to Beomeosa temple, which just looked like every temple I'd seen in Japan. But my main reason for going there was that I had read about a hiking trail that leads from that temple, over some hills to another, much nice temple. I spent the rest of the day hiking, including going up a mountain and getting a good view for a change, and trying to find a place that would give me just a rice dish and not some sort of barbequed goat meal. I failed in the food quest and just had to make do with a tasty mango ice pop and a disgusting packet of corn chips. The walk I did passes through the site of an ancient fort, Geumjeong, although the only parts remaining of it are four stone archways which served as gates. It was nice to be out in nature for the whole day, sans rain, after my last couple of hiking trips which were wet and miserable. Eventually I made it to Seokbulsa temple, and it was quite a good one, on top of a hill with some Buddhas carved into the rocks nearby. On the way back down I noticed some Korean people were using the random exercise machines which were just sitting in the forest.
After such a healthy day, I ruined it all by going on an all night drinking session with some lads from the hostel (from Wales, London and the states), with the aim of staying out for the football which was on here at 3.30AM. Highlight of the night for me was our impromptu darts tournament, played on some high-tech dartboards which electronically kept the scores. Rather than having sharp metal points, the darts have blunt plastic ends and stick between the plastic protusions on the surface of the board. (Somehow I won, and no one was more amazed than me)
I'm still in the same hostel, but moving over to Blue Backpackers tomorrow. After they were so nice to me when I arrived, even though I was staying at a rival business, I thought it was only polite to stay with them. As its the World Cup final this weekend, I thought I might as well hang around here as the area has masses of bars and food places. After this I want to go to Gyeongju, which sounds like a cool place, mountain hiking and temple visiting.
(picture: carvings at Seokbulsa)
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