April 18, 2023 Busan, Republic of Korea (South Korea)
The 7 a.m. temperature was 13° C, wind was north at 3 km per hour, cloudy with haze in the distance, which is usual for most of the ports this cruise. It was 15° by 8 a.m. The BBC weather had 25° C as the high for Seoul today.
We ate breakfast up on Deck 9’s Lido buffet, which is eight flights of stairs up from our Deck 1 stateroom. After breakfast, we walked several circuits of the Promenade Deck(3). We watched the German cruise ship, Mein Schiff, proceed under the Busan Harbour bridge.
We could see large bags of garbage were being unloaded from the ship into a large container, while cardboard went into another container as a fuel truck loaded fuel on the dock side. On the other side of the ship, a fuel ship also delivered fuel. There were several trucks delivering supplies to the ship as passengers left the ship for independent or ship organized tours. A staff person was directing traffic.
The Korean Customs personnel were set up in the theatre, where seats by the stage had been reorganized to make room for tables and chairs for six Customs agents to process the passengers going ashore. They started at 7:30 a.m. and our fourth group was called on the ship’s speakers just after 8 a.m. We threaded from the top rows of the theatre, sitting for about five minutes while others made their way down to the lower theatre. Our passports were glanced at and a sticker was attached to the back cover. That was it for Customs. We joined the line to exit the ship down the stairs to the lower deck “A”, through the usual security checkpoint to record the passengers leaving the ship then down the gangway for a 700 meter walk to the busses. As we approached the gates to the parking lot, all passengers had to walk through an open ended tent with thermal imaging cameras for a temperature check, then we could board our bus.
With a full bus, we started about 25 minutes earlier than our tickets had said. It was a 50 minute drive to the Geungangsa temple. The bus crossed several bridges including the Busan Harbour bridge, the seven kilometre bridge and the Diamond Bay bridge. The bus travelled on a toll highway. Our guide explained that southern Korea is 70% mountains. The Korean population hope to unify again one day.
Korea was founded in 2330 B.C. and has been invaded by China and Japan many times. Its religions are Buddhism that came from India via China and Confucianism. There are 12,000 Buddhist temples in Korea which has a population of 50 million. The Busan/Pusan region has a population of 3.3 million. In April 2023, Busan was awarded the 2030 World Expo and they are already starting preparations.
As we drove through the area, there were hundreds of 30+ storey apartment condominium buildings. The average cost for a 90 square meter apartment is $600,000 US. Very few buildings had balconies, although they had railing covering sliding glass doors. Complexes of six or more buildings had their street number displayed near the top of the building in four meter high numerals, which could be seen clearly several kilometres away.
At the temple, we were greeted and directed up two stone staircases to the temple. Each staircase had an arc of colourful paper lanterns. The Temple was covered in colourful paintings and its name was written in gold letters over the maon entrance. From the entrance you could view two of the three golden Buddhas inside, where a monk, in a grey robe, sat in mediation as the group removed their shoes to enter the temple and sit on chairs to see the Korean tea ceremony. The tea is grown and dried on the temple property.
The tea ceremony was about 20 minutes long, then another 20 minutes for serving the tea to the group. Beside the monk was a large metal pot with a lid, another open metal pot with water in it, a low table with its contents covered with a cloth, a white china tea pot and five floor cushions. The ceremony began with a brief welcome, translated by our guide. We were instructed to sit up straight in our chairs and focus on the moment. Concentrate on the sound of the wind, the water being poured into the large pot and breathe slowly.
Every ten seconds a chime sounded until five women quietly entered. One carried a white tea pot with a bouquet of flowers in it while the other carried small bowls. The large metal pot was uncovered and stirred then water from the smaller open metal pot was added. This water was ladled into the waiting white teapot and taken to the three women who were seated on the floor cushions with small bowls in front of them. Occasionally the monk struck a dried bamboo stick against his hand to indicate the next step in the ceremony. The water is only heated to 80° to 85 F for making the tea and steeped for three minutes. The ceremony continued with the women drinking the tea from the bowls, then hot water was poured into their bowls and a small yellow chrysanthemum was added to each bowl before the women emptied their bowls into a larger one they shared. This was to clean the bowls and for the purification of the mind. Then they proceeded to depart going through some of the formalities in reverse. The group was then given small trays with a Korean cookie and a bowl, all different designs. The women came and filled the bowls with tea, which could be refilled, then the bowls were filled with hot water and a small yellow chrysanthemum was added again to clean the bowls. As the trays were collected each person was given a special postcard as a remembrance of the event. There was about ten minutes left to explore the rest of the compound. We could take photos with the monk, who could stand after sitting on the floor for the whole ceremony. Nearby was a giant drum standing beside a large bell which was struck by a large pole.
The other destination on the excursion was Beomeo-sa Temple which is one of the greatest shrines in South Korea. It was about a 25 minute drive to the hill top location on the eastern edge of Geumjeongsa Mountain.
The bus let us off at the entrance with a wide paved road and path to the first set of stairs up to the shrine. It was a ten to fifteen minute walk to the first gate. The five stone staircases had almost 100 stairs. Neither wheelchairs nor walkers could navigate the stairs. There was mist and a light rain during the hour exploration of the temple. During the Imjin War (1592-1598) with Japan, it was burned, but rebuilt in 1613. Some of the main buildings date back to that time. There are three gates in between the flights of stairs. The first is One pillar gate where, from the side, the four pillars holding up the roof look like one. Next is the four guardians gate. The final gate is the Burimun Non-Duality Gate aka Liberation gate built in 2012. There were signs that included English explanations. We only found a Drum shelter, but no bell shelter. There was a large boulder with Chinese writing on it near the temple’s Daeungjeon Hall which is a well-preserved example of Joseon Dynasty architecture. There are three temples built in 1906 – Palsangjeon, Dokseongjeon and Nahanjeon halls. In Nahanjeon hall there are 16 statues of Buddha’s disciples. This is the most prestigious Buddhist monastery of the region. Beomeo-sa Temple is famous for its temple stay program where participants can experience daily life in a temple and have time for self-reflection by escaping their busy modern life. We needed to use our umbrellas when the rain got heavier.
On the drive back to the ship, our guide told us that Korea used the Chinese symbols until the mid 1400s when the king after much research with scholars created the Korean alphabet, that simplified writing. Today the Korean alphabet has its own computer (typewriter) keyboard. There are still many old writings in Chinese, but for daily use, the Korean alphabet is used.
When we returned to the port, we were confronted with a large parking lot with a snaking line of over 1,000 passengers waiting to clear Korean customs and return to the ship. It seemed that all of the tour busses returned together. Fortunately, the rain had passed and the temperature was 20° C under the cloudy sky. It took almost 25 minutes to get to the area where all that was done was to look at the passport and key-card and we could proceed to the ship. But, the 700 meter long dock was also teeming with passengers and it took a little under eight minutes to reach the gangway. There, as we entered the ship, we showed the key-card, the backpacks and bags were X-rayed and the people walked through the metal detector, as usual. It was 2 p.m. and most people were going to the Lido buffet for lunch, so we climbed to Deck 10 to the Explorations Café in the Crow’s Nest Lounge and ordered an Americano and Latte and a brownie for lunch in a much quieter space. Even though we had stopped at our stateroom to freshen up, we could still find a table, before a few dozen more people arrived. We chatted with Pat and Pete, the dancers from the evening Ballroom dance hour for a while.
The ship was scheduled to depart at 3 p.m. but there was one person missing and there were several announcements asking the person to call Guest Services. The Ship finally left at 3:30 p.m. giving the horn blast signals for departure from a port. As the ship moved into the Korea Strait, the sea was rougher. The captain warned that the stabilizers could not be used until the ship was well clear of the harbour. The rocking of the ship was minimal, but there were white caps on the swells. The captain had said the ship would be travelling at 19 knots for the next 40 hours to get to Otaru, Japan for 10 a.m. Thursday morning. The voyage from Kanazawa yesterday was only about half the distance.
We had dinner with two couples from Nebraska, that did not know each other but knew a lot of people in common from their school years. As we entered the dining room there was a large cake celebrating 150 years of the Holland America Line. After dinner we spent time ballroom dancing before going to the evening show featuring Steve Marshall a magician and comedian.
Total steps 13,055 and 40 flights of stairs – a record for this trip.
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