Asia 2008:
Day 6 - Busan, South Korea

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Asia 2008: [Day 1 - Tokyo] [Day 2 - Kyoto] [Day 3 - Kobe ] [Day 4 - At Sea] [Day 5 - Nagasaki] [Day 6 - Busan] [Day 7 - At Sea] [Day 8 - Dalian] [Day 9 - Beijing] [Day 10 - Beijing] [Day 11 - At Sea] [Day 12 - At Sea] [Day 13 - Shanghai] [Day 14 - Shanghai] [Day 15 - At Sea] [Day 16 - At Sea] [Day 17 - Hong Kong]

	Saturday, March 29: The approach to Busan, South Korea (also known as Pusan) took us past lots of container piers, with nary a Maersk in sight.
	Once we got to our ship's berth, we realized why: we were in the land of the mighty Hanjin.
	Our morning tour was on this fancy motor coach.
	Our first stop was at the Busan Tower.
	After a long wait (since all the tour buses showed up at the same time), we made it to the top.
	The views were worth the wait, of course.
	Here's the harbor. What's that down there? Let's put a coin in the telescope and take a look.
	Why, it's Maersk, of course!
	This view shows the park below.
	Back at the base of the tower, these school children on a field trip were happy to smile for the Americans with cameras.
	This dragon would look terrific in our front yard.
	Busan's government is investing in the tourist industry, and this building was just recently added to this park for that reason. It shelters a huge bell inside.
	Ah, yes, the awkward posing for a photo taken by a stranger.
	South Korea also has two Asian things we love: vending machines and blooming cherry trees.
	Our next stop was the fish market, or more accurately, the World Famous Fish Market.
	We headed into the first building via this sheltered outdoor escalator with colorful seafood paintings beside it.
	This building was for wholesale buyers of dried seafood. We saw table after table of dried sardines, fish, squid, and seaweed, and a kind vendor offered us a bite of something chewy but unidentified.
	Exiting the second floor of the indoor dried seafood market, we took in this view of the outdoor vendors. We didn't quite have the nerve to try the cooked seafood offered by the street vendor at the left.
	Mmmm, more seafood. Squid? Octopus? Fish fillets? They're all here.
	These funny little orange things are called sea squirts.
	The indoor fish market features tub after tub of live seafood. You can see several aquariums of live eels in this shot.
	Here we have live crabs and sea squirts. Our guide told us there was a restaurant upstairs where you can take your purchases to be prepared for your gastronomic enjoyment. Alas! We were on a tour with a strict schedule and had to move on.
	Our final stop took us nearly 20 minutes of driving to reach, even though it was just across the street from the fish market.
	This area is called the International Market, and it's basically a series of stores selling electronics, souvenirs, and counterfeit brand clothing/accessories. Vendors are fairly aggressive, so we didn't want to linger, but we did pick up a few cheap sets of earphones and some South Korean Christmas ornaments.
	Street vendors sell dried squid and full meals, cooked before your eyes in the street.
	A movie theatre had a poster for an upcoming feature film. Our Korean translation skills are limited, but we're guessing the upper case letters mean "Indiana Jones." (Click here to see the Chinese version.)
	Sadly, our tight tour schedule did not allow us to visit a Korean McDonald's.
	We spent the rest of the day relaxing on board, watching movies in our cabin, before getting dressed up for our first formal dinner. Tom looked quite dashing in his tuxedo.
	Come to think of it, we both looked pretty dashing.
	We got one last photo of the lights of South Korea as we sailed away that evening. Day 7 >