After exploring Korea’s capital, today we’re travelling south all the way across the country to the port city of Busan, just a few dozens of kilometres from Japan’s main southern island of Kyushu, which we plan to reach by ferry tomorrow. Despite the distance, it’s just a couple hours’ journey thanks to the efficient (and not too expensive) Korean bullet train. Technically, we’ve already experienced Asian high-speed rail thanks to the new China-financed line in Northern Laos, but it’s been a while and that short burst of technology was very much overshadowed by the slow and rickety Thai and Vietnamese network. After our enjoyable experience on the tracks in Taiwan, we’re looking forward to our first official bullet train today!
We’re not in any hurry today and we get to the station mid-morning with enough time to get a coffee for the journey. We’ve managed to swing first class tickets for a minor extra cost, and as we board the sleek train, we get two extra-wide seats by a large window, with plenty of space for all our bags - super comfortable!
It’s a relaxed journey as we speed through Korea, and as always when travelling by land, it’s a great occasion to see a bit more of the country. Just as when we initially landed, the clouds are oppressively low, blanketing the entire land in grey mist, and it’s striking to see this very obvious sign of air pollution even outside famously smoky Seoul (there were air quality warnings in place most of our stay in the metropolis). Although we see a few forests and hills, most of the landscape along the tracks is decidedly industrial: huge factories, endless warehouses and rows of greenhouses with very little gaps. A marked contrast to the beautiful nature we could see on the Taiwanese east coast!
Soon enough, we pull into Busan after our smooth 200km/h journey. The station is sleek and modern, and full of marketing signs for the 2030 World Expo. The city is certainly taking its bid seriously: there’s construction works everywhere the second we step out, all the way from the station to the ferry terminal which we check out before heading to the hotel. Luckily, there’s an elevated pedestrian walkway between the two which lets us go over the chaos.
Back in the streets, we look for a place to stop for lunch before checking in - it’s getting a bit late and we worry restaurants may close if we leave it too long. Busan’s specialty is pork and rice soup, and there’s a wealth of little eateries specialising in the dish. Unfortunately it’s the only thing on the menu and Ollie isn’t keen on it at all - and so we continue our search, hoping for more varied options. Finally we find a little Chinese restaurant, which looks like it’s got some nice lunch sets, and no rice soup in sight. It’s a tiny room, with the open kitchen taking up half the space, but the owner is delighted to see us come in and immediately finds a spot for us and our big bags. She excitedly walks us through the menu and we end up with a mouth-watering selection of noodle soup, dim sums, fried rice, and some more of that delicious eggplant dish we first tried in Jiufen - the owner is very impressed that we know about it! Everything is made fresh under our eyes: we can see the cook preparing some more dumplings in the background; and it’s all very nice. The atmosphere is so friendly as well, with the owner trying out her few English words on us, proudly showcasing her kitchen, and the cook blushing when we compliment the food, that it ends up being a really lovely stop.
When we finally make it to our hotel, it’s another nice surprise: we’ve got a massive room appointed in the traditional Japanese style, with a raised platform for a futon, and legless chairs sitting around a low table. Best of all, we have a giant bath which I fully intend to take advantage of after our few cramped days in Seoul. We don’t end up seeing much of Busan: we’re too delighted at having a comfortable space to stay in, and it’s a drizzly day.
We also still have quite a bit of Japan planning to do - we’ve only booked the first few nights, and since we’re arriving right at the peak of sakura season, everything is filling up fast. As we watch the rain outside, we finalise our itinerary, visiting the four major islands: first Kyushu with Fukuoka (where our ferry lands) and Nagasaki, then on to Hiroshima in Honshu, a loop through small Shikoku, back to Honshu for the main tourist hub of Osaka-Kyoto, all the way north to snowy Hokkaido, and finally Tokyo. This is probably the most-anticipated part of the trip for both of us and we can barely contain our excitation tonight - tomorrow we’ll be in the land of the rising sun!
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