The next port stop on our 11 night Diamond Princess Cruise, was Busan, South Korea. We didn’t know much about Busan before we went there, figuring it was a small (possibly dumpy) cursory stop for Japanese cruises sailing around Japan, which requires them to make a foreign port stop similar to the Jones Act Law in the United States, requiring foreign-flagged ships to stop in a foreign port when sailing on an otherwise domestic itinerary. (Example: Cruise ships sailing from Florida require a stop in the Bahamas, Mexico etc, or ships sailing from California with a required stop in Ensenada Mexico, or Canada to fulfill the foreign port stop requirements for international-registered ships. So the bar was already set in our mind for our Busan port-of-call, and it wasn’t high prior to our visit there.
Our Diamond Princess cruise ship was docked at Busan from 8am until 3:30pm, and we took one of Princess Cruises shore excursions for a half day tour there. The tour was only so-so, but I’m glad we had a look around, as it was our first time visiting South Korea, other than a long layover in Seoul on our way to Vietnam a few years ago.
IMMIGRATION: All passengers had to first clear immigration procedures at the pier before being allowed into Busan. This required everyone to first ‘leave Japan’, via a Japanese immigration officer stamping your passport, and them ‘entering South Korea’, via a Korean immigration officer’s stamp, if only for a day. This immigration process was repeated in reverse as we left Busan later in the day.
The immigration process is very straightforward in the Caribbean, and usually doesn’t involve any passport stamps, however on major international trips such as this, the rules vary widely. Sometimes the immigration officers will be onboard the ship to complete the formalities in one of the lounges, but in this case you had to go into the ship’s terminal for clearance. It wasn’t a problem, as the immigration both leaving the ship and later re-entering the ship was quite quick and easy.
SHIP EXCURSION: Our Busan tour visited three sites, including the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple (which I nicknamed the Lantern Temple), the APEC House Economic Building complex, and a shopping stop at the Gukje International Market, which I compared to a slightly better version of the Straw Market in Nassau.
We had a very nice tour bus, in fact the ceiling had what looked like mood lighting with various colored lights! Perhaps it doubles for a disco tour at night!🤣. Our tour guide was named Lucy, and she was incredibly bubbly and energetic, not to mention super polite and friendly. She explained her background as we were driving to our first port, and found out she was actually a former police officer in a prior job until she sustained an injury, and now leads tours. She still has way more energy than Steve DOS and I put together! LOL!
colorful overhead lights!
Haedong Yonggungsa Temple: Our first tour stop was to what I nick-named the “Lantern Temple”, although its official name is the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple. (Oddly enough, the tour description didn’t even mention the colorful lanterns, which were amazing.)
I knew this tour was marked as “strenuous” due to the Main Temple having 108 steps (i.e. stairs), however the tour description didn’t mention it was a very strenuous walk just to reach the base of the Temple, even if you didn’t want to climb it, which we didn’t. While my walking is ok since my knee replacement nearly a year ago (I still have a problem with lots of stairs), I do get a bit winded still from walking long distances (from my heart operation 3 years ago), especially up and down steep hills, which were quite steep with uneven terrain on this excursion. Our guide Lucy was very good, but as a former cop, she was in top-notch shape, not to mention young and energetic, which many on this tour group were not. She walked at quite a fast pace, and it was hard to keep up with her, although she did wait for everyone eventually at the designated spot. I like to stop and take photos along the way, which slowed DOS and myself down even further.
Our bus parked at the top of a hill along with about a dozen other buses, including other tour groups (not just from our cruise), so it was a busy place, but not like being back in Tokyo. At the first stop we had a little over an hour to enjoy the Temple and the surrounding grounds and gardens.
Our group meandered down the sometimes steep road/pathway following Lucy, past street vendors selling trinkets and food items. Lucy gave us all a temporary necklace with her name on it, “Lucy”, in case we got separated from each other. As we started down the busy and at times narrow path, I can see why she gave us lanyards to wear with “Lucy” on them. It would have been nice to have headphones with a short wave radio channel we could hear our guide talk like some tours we’ve been on, as Lucy quickly faded into the crowd at a a distance as we headed down the trek towards the Temple.
It was quite a walk, (and fortunately it was not rainy or it would have been incredibly slippery she said) but along the way we saw various statues, including a row of animals representing the year of the __________ (fill in the blank with your animal year). I didn’t know what my Chinese Zodiac Character was at the time (Its a Water Tiger), so I just got a photo with one of the animals there, as did Steve DOS, although he knew his was the year of the Dog.
We stopped to take a few other photos along the way as the pathway got steeper and steeper going down hill, already dreading the fact we would have to walk back up this steep hill. Our guide Lucy was so far ahead we didn’t even try to keep up at this point.
Once at the bottom of the mini-mountain it seemed like, we were in awe at the sight of all of the colorful lanterns by one of the Temples, overlooking the ocean. The Haedong Yonggung Temple is the oldest Buddhist Temple in Korea, and one of the few overlooking the ocean. It is actually a series of buildings and structures, although I only went to the Temple area which I called the “Lantern Temple area”, and did not go to the Main Temple, which was further down, although in eyesight of where we were. The Main Temple was, perhaps 1,000 feet away, and just looking at the steep 108 stairs was not an option for me. Steve DOS did walk over to the Main Temple, though, to take some photos of the stairs going up to it.
Part of the Temple Complex section where I stood was adorned with colorful lanterns, and also mini displays (as in in tiny displays) of people and objects all around it, as well as larger statues, and smaller temples as well. We enjoyed walking around this huge and beautiful Temple area, with scenic ocean views, and the colorful lanterns (possibly a temporary exhibit?) literally added some modern day color to the ancient Temple area.
DONUTS PLEASE! After staying perhaps 1/2 hour around the Temple area, we started walking back up the steep hill to the bus. Quite a few people like us were stopping on the way to catch their breath as it was a long and steep incline back to the top. Once at the top, Steve DOS, and our friends Ben and Tom made a stop for some of the recommended (by Lucy our guide) homemade donuts, which were battered and fried at this busy outdoor, partially covered venue. I videoed a bit and took photos of the guys as well as the ladies making the donuts.
the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple.
I didn’t order a donut for myself, (they come in a cup as they’re hot) but tried some of Steve’s, and it was actually quite good. And hot!
As our bus group slowly caught up with everyone and my friends enjoyed their donuts, we took a couple more photos, including one of DOS and myself with the Cherry Trees and this gate entrance.
STOP 2: APEC HOUSE: Back on the bus, we headed to Stop number 2, passing skyscrapers and a tower along the way. Once there, the park-like corporate subdivision, turned into another long walk; this one a long loop thru a partial forest, coming out near some Trade Buildings which were part of an International Economic Forum, the APEC House.
On the walk to get there, however, we passed a large Westin Hotel, and I told Steve I would stay there for half an hour or so and get a soda at the bar, while they walked on the loop ahead. We would catch up later on the walk back to the bus. Smart decision on my part! The Westin was beautiful, and at 11am, the bar was empty and the very nice hostess pointed me to a window seat overlooking the ocean below from the floor-to-ceiling windows! I told her I just wanted a quick soda but she was so nice and accommodating. I had an enjoyable 1/2 hour to myself, and Steve DOS said I didn’t miss anything along the way when he returned.
STOP 3: Gukje International Market. Our last stop was to an outdoor covered mall area that went for blocks. Like the other two stops, we had a bit of walk to get where we were going; this time thru the center of the Busan Downtown area at lunchtime. We saw lots of the locals out and about as well as absorbed a bit of the Busan atmosphere before arriving at the mammoth market.
Slightly nicer than the Straw Market in Nassau, Bahamas, each street seemed to have a specialty type shop of items to sell, from tourist souvenirs, to lamps and lighting, to kitchen products, luggage, clothes, musical instruments, hats, food, you name it! All of the shops of the same type, (i.e. hats or souvenirs etc) seemed to have the same type things, but we browsed in a few before I saw a couple caps that were nice. I try to collect caps from every port we go to worldwide, and have quite a collection back home! But as we were going to buy the caps, I saw a couple colorful brim-type hats that I thought would be cool for a formal night sometime/somewhere on some ship so we bought those as well. The shop owner was super nice, and Steve DOS bought another magnet or two as well.
After our shopping excursion, we made our way back to the bus pickup area (now in front of the Stanford Hotel), thru the busy shopping area; full of locals and tourists alike. The half day tour in Busan went fairly quickly, and wasn’t really a great tour, but seeing the Temple with the colorful lanterns was nice, and learning more about South Korea, and specifically Busan was very interesting, even if it was a quick whirlwind lesson of facts and trivia we learned on the bus throughout the tour.
While waiting for the bus back to the ship, Steve DOS and I noticed several young Businessmen dressed in suits and ties greet each other and have a quick meeting in the hotel lobby as we sipped on a coffee waiting for the bus to arrive to the hotel pick up point. Korea is a very respectful culture, and they do indeed bow for each other as they are greeting each other, and again upon leaving.
We also noticed this respect (and bowing) several years when we took Korean Airlines from Atlanta to Seoul, and connected onward to Vietnam, where the Flight Attendants bowed at the beginning and end of the flight to the passengers.
On the way back to the ship our guide, Lucy, explained how Korea is still a male-dominated culture, such as the male normally receives the inheritance such as in her family, and the top jobs are predominantly held by men, although this is gradually changing somewhat. The divorce rate is fairly high as well, and I looked up this article on Korean gender inequality on Wikipedia for more information; apparently it goes back to its roots in Confucianism.
Busan is actually quite a large city of some 3.5 million people, second in size in Korea to Seoul, and according to the Busan Wikipedia link, is the sixth largest shipping port in the world in terms of cargo, with some 43 berths. It has ties to the film industry, and is sometimes referred to as the “Cannes of Asia” during the International Film Festival. Unlike Japan, which is almost exclusively half Shintu 48% and half Buddhist 49% with only 1% Christian, Busan is diversified in religion with approximately 29 percent Buddhist, and 21 percent Christian, with 5 percent other religion, and the remainder having no religious affiliation. Busan is indeed quite a large and modern city with great health care facilities, universities, and sports such as American Baseball! Busan then, is not just the token port we thought it was for a cruise stop from Japan like we envisioned in the morning before our tour; it was pleasantly delightful and interesting!
Here is a photo of us with Lucy at the end of the tour before we headed to Immigration and then back on the ship. And also a photo of the modern city taken aboard the ship once we were aboard, prior to sailing.
