A Fine Ferry to Fukuoka

I took the ferry from Busan to Fukuoka last night. I ended up deciding not to stay in Busan an extra day since I was in a bad mood on account of the mean rains that dominated most of the day and stopped me from visiting the mountain temple. Appropriately, I was able to go to the water dragon temple (pictured below) before I had to check in at the ferry terminal.

The ferry I took was by far the biggest boat I had ever been on, 500 meters according to some dudes I met. Speaking of them, I was sleeping on the floor of a room with six other guys in one of the boat's dormitories/ I ended up drinking with all of them them until early in the morning.  I bought some duty-free alcohol at the ferry terminal - two bottles of soju and six cans of Hite for under 8.00 USD. We drank it all. It made sleeping a lot easier, but walking up the stairs of the the pitching boat was nearly impossible. One of the guys was a 67-year-old artist who outdrank me like a champ and had to be carried up the stairs by two of the other guys at the end of the night. 

Left: Artist; Right: Oil Rig Captain; Both: Tanks

After arriving, my new friends "Mr. Jo," a motorcycle mechanic, and Jae, a well-traveled Korean in his later twenties took me to a guesthouse in Fukuoka that caters to the many Korean tourists here. It's owned by a Korean woman and cleaned by her mother. There are four-bedroom dormitories and free laundry, all at the low low price of 250 JY (~ a little more than 25.00 USD) per night. We slept there only one night, and oh, what a night.

A Day or Two in Korea's Florida, Busan

I left Seoul finally, a week later than I planned. I met a few friends for several drinks last night as a going away... thing, and took the train to Busan today at noon. The adventure begins.

The train from Seoul to Busan was 50,000 KRW and lasted about two and a half hours. The train was nice enough; there were seats for everyone. But these seats didn't recline, so I spent the whole trip groggy from the night before, but unable to actually get to sleep. You could say it was a nightmarish experience.

Arriving in Busan, I was struck by how spread out everything is. Compared to Seoul, with a population around 11 million people, Busan is small, with 3 million or so residents. It's right on the beach and dominated by the massive port, which is the fifth largest in the world. After watching the second season of The Wire, which is all about the port-worker community, I was very excited to see one in real life, especially one that was so important to creating modern-day Korea.

There are zillions of hotels and guesthouses here, and I had little trouble finding one after the owner of the one I planned on staying at didn't answer his phone. I'm at a place with the enigmatic name Popcorn Hostel, which has a microwave and no popcorn. They sell beer though, so I'm not complaining. It's 19,000 KRW a night and they lend you your very own tiny Korean bath towel. The vibe here isn't very sociable, but I'm on my computer, writing this, so I'm hardly one to talk. It's on the 11th floor of a building two blocks from the beauteous Haeundae beach, which I will visit tomorrow before catching a ferry to Japan. I wish I could spend more time here, but I already spent 90,000 won on a ticket. If I could get a refund...

There's so much to see in Busan! There's a gigantic fish market that puts the one in Seoul to shame. There are sea creatures swimming in tanks in front of restaurants that I've never seen before, even after spending a Korea in Korea. There's also an old temple nearby that's been carved out of a mountain face. I might just try to stay another night.

Additionally, there's a casino, which I am going to visit now.

Backpack Envy

It's been more of a trip getting out of the country than I expected.

Right now I'm staying in a guesthouse provided by my old school. I have until the 22nd here, when they're kicking me out and putting in another foreigner, thus perpetuating the great circle of employee turnover.

I have two big bags to mail back to Minnesota and one fat paycheck to transfer to my US account. Unfortunately, this week is a Korean holiday, and while my old workplace is still operating, all the banks and post offices in Korea will be closed so, if I don't get this stuff done by tomorrow, Tuesday, I'm stuck in Seoul for at least another five days, until I can send back my bags and go to the bank.

I should be able to do this all tomorrow. It's not like I have work. But, I don't know what I want to bring back home! Look at this bag. I just bought it yesterday for 40,000 won (~$35.00) after reading about ultralight backpacking:

27 liter bag on the right

Look at that stuff. I'm planning on being gone for 2+ months. It makes me anxious just looking at this photo. I think I'm going to get a bigger bag, one that opens up all the way like this:

Just look at that baby. You could open that zipper and pick out pants and underwear at the same time. That's what I want. Digging around for your stuff is so amateur.

Also, I'm going to get a 32-liter bag. Just imagine how much space you'll get with that extra 5 liters of space. I've heard I could go even bigger with carry-on bags, but I don't want to push it. After all, freedom comes out of detachment, and I could do with some of both. 

Setting Up for Shipping Out

One year ago, I started a blog about my year teaching in Korea, but it didn't pan out. I worried that it wasn't original enough. You know, there are around 43,000 foreigners working as English teachers in the country, and it seems like every one of them has a blog detailing their experiences with kimchi and alcoholism.

I wanted to be different from that whole crowd. But now I'm realizing that unless I end up working as a transexual prostitute on the international space station, there won't be a niche in the blogosphere that's just for me. So now there's this blog: The Adventures of a Twenty-something Middle-Class White Dude in Southeast Asia. Here's hoping this blog will be one of the good ones at the very least. 

I'm trying to go from Korea to Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and India, all with minimal planning. 

Copyright-free map courtesy of the CIA

But many of these countries are still developing (see: Third World), and are full of exciting new diseases according to the Center for Disease Control, so I'm trying to cover my bases when it comes to vaccinations before flying to the heart of darkness. 

The CDC warns about the following when going to the countries I've mentioned (excluding Japan):
-Japanese encephalitis  Later symptoms include brain swelling and coma. May cause death.
-Hepatitis A Causes vomiting and jaundice, but most people have been vaccinated for American public schools.
-Hepatitis B Can last for life and cause death via liver damage. Transferred via sex and needles. I want a cheap tattoo so this vaccine is high on my to-inject list.
-Typhoid Causes high fever and internal bleeding in some cases.
-Malaria Causes fevers and shaking chills. Can take a year to develop and may cause death if untreated.

From left to right: Lopmin (antidiarrheal); Ciprofloxacin (Antibiotic);
120 Doxycycline Hyclate pills (antimalarial)

So that's the list. I've omitted the various kinds of critters that can infect you through eating unsanitary food. I went to the doctor and they hooked me up real nice. I got a shot for typhoid, one for Japanese encephalitis, and a bunch of pills:



I'm flying off to Japan in two weeks now. Let's see what happens.