Busan

Last weekend we finally made it to Koreas 2nd largest city. We left the Gwangju bus terminal at midnight and arrived at 3 in the morning. We quickly found a motel and woke up the next morning to lovely sunshine. A walk on the beach was just what the doctor ordered, reminded us so much of home. Then we headed off to Jinhae where the annual Blossom Festival was just opening. Unfortunately we hit the festival about a week or two early and so there weren't too many blossoms out. Enough to get a nice atmosphere though and we did enjoy a great air show by the ROKAF which was pretty impressive. In true Korean style they even made a heart with the smoke from the jets.
We then had a few rainy days so we went to the Busan Aquarium which was located on the beach and four levels below the ground. It was awesome. We took a boat ride over the main tank and saw the sharks and turtles up close. For those of us who haven't fed sharks by hand it was pretty exciting. =)
Other highlights included an unexpected arrival of a very popular Korean movie star (Lee Jun Ke) who has just recently been in a big-hit movie and a TV ad. The kids at school were SO excited when we told them and we've had to make millions of copies of the photos we took for them.
We also visited the UN cemetry in Busan where the many soldiers who died during the Korean War are remembered. Included are the kiwis, 43 of which died during the war and are buried there. We left a tiki for our visit. In the photo you can see Mark standing by the impressive memorial donated by NZ. The stone used was located in the Coromandel.
Our last day included a trip to Beomeosa Temple. We were there late in the day and lucky enough to experience the monks playing the drums at the end of the day. In the late afternoon with the wind swirling around it was a very spiritual experience.