Day 3:
I woke up surprisingly early at 6.55am! But another round of sauna and spa session freshened me up nice and warm. Today will see me taking the KTX to the second largest city, Busan.
After locking my luggage at the train station, I proceeded to tackle Geumjeong Mountain Fortress. Along the way, I stopped by for lunch. As it was a small township, everything was in Korean. I innocently pointed to a photo of kimchi toufu soup. What I receive was an amazing 9 course lunch set! An uncle even treated me to a bowl of Makoli, a local sweet rice wine! At this point, I was thinking my kimchi toufu set the night before was cheap at 7,000Won. This huge set with fish cost only 5,500Won!
After a fulfilling lunch, I took bus 90 to Beomeosa Temple and turned to the hiking trail to the North Gate. It was a 1.6km tough trail with no clear demarcated walking paths! Armed with my SLR and a day's worth of clothings and stuff, it was an arduous walk. Along the way, I simply had to stop and sit down. Then came along this friendly Korean family who sat beside me and cut me a slice of the local sweet apple (skin and seeds removed on the spot!)
I continued on to the North Gate and decided to track to Geumsaem natural spring. Yet another under developed trail with mud and rocks. I couldn't complete the trail as the final part requires rock climbing skills against steep cliff sides! Hence, I tracked back to Beomeosa Temple.
Beomeosa Temple is a thousand years old temple and was named after a fish in heaven. Unfortunately, most of the buildings were newly reconstructed.
One thing very interesting about Korean subway is that they will play some tunes before announcing the arrival of the train.
Dinner was Ginseng chicken and it wasn't fantastic. Service was also not very good either. Feeling tired, I took a cab to my choice of sleep: Vesta spa. The cab along cost 1500Won! However, the spa is worth going to, with the sweeping views of the Gwangalli bridge and Night views of the city. The thing about Busan jimjilbang was no English signs. I accidentally walked into the female section and saw the naked arse of an ajuma!! The sleep wasn't fantastic though, hard floors and noisy people around. I had to lose my eye mask and ear plugs today.
Can't wait for next morning when I will be soaking in hot pools overlooking the beach!
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