"Everyone knows the more you wear pearls, little by little they become real....And isn't it the same with memories?" - The Madwoman of Chaillot

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

a day with Kim Young Jae and Lee Hye Won

A little after noon, we were met by a young engineer that Bill knows from 3M in Naju - Kim Young Jae and his girlfriend Lee Hye Won. What a wonderful experience! They took us to a traditional Korean restaurant first in Ulsan, near Busan. It was a complicated taxi ride because the driver's GPS sent us the wrong way twice... so we got "the scenic route". But it was worth waiting for even when the restaurant we wanted was closed due to the Lunar New Year holidays. We did find one down the road that was open and had a wonderful meal - a very crowded table full of wonderful food - I really liked every item.

















Here the table was really full!











After eating we walked to a relatively modern Buddist temple built along the sea. Most are built in the mountains but this was in a wonderful location with beautiful surroundings right on the coast. Originally built over 1000 years ago, and destroyed during Japanese occupation, and then rebuilt, the latest in 1930, it is a peaceful beautiful location not found in many tourist books but visited because of the belief that you will get a wish answered if you pray here. It is approached after going down 108 steps and then a bridge.















































Drinking the water in this underground area to have a long life





Young Jae and Hye Won were wonderful hosts and tour guides and took us then to the shopping area of Busan where we purchased a gift for Christina! It was an interesting and very large shopping area and we could have done much clothes shopping - if we had any room in our suitcases to bring things back!

















The Jagalchi Fish Market was next - where we saw an amazing amount of fresh fish for sale! Hye Won told me that tomorrow this would be very busy in the morning as people purchased their food for their traditional family meals for the Lunar New Year.












Next we were escorted back to the Haeundae beach area and said goodbye.






The streets are very lit up in many colors.











Young Jae and Hye Won had given us a wrapped gift which we looked at when we got back to the hotel - it was a beautiful tea set!! I now wish we had gotten them a larger gift - they were just wonderful tour guides and hosts to our visit to their beautiful home town areas!











Thank you so much for a wonderful day!

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