Walking and Hiking Tours of Busan

Annapurna Base Camp https://youtu.be/ iz7yQjVeT2k

Bio:  Michael is a Canadian English professor, but traveller and trekker at heart.  He has been living and working in Asia since 1997, having called Pusan his home for six of those years.  When he is not binge watching television or eating out with Taiwanese wife, Carol, he is hiking in the beautiful mountains of Pusan or visiting one of the local markets. Walks with Michael The Jeonpo Cafe Street and Antique Market Walk by Michael Lesser On a typically crisp Pusan winter day in January, my friend and I took off walking from the Seomyeon subway station towards Hwamyeong San (Mountain), along Seo-Jeon Road.  (Please note that if you aren't interested in the scenic route, you can always get off at Jenpo Station or the Busan International Finance Centre Stations on the Green Line #2).  Along the way, you can find the urban pipe markets, shoe cobblers, as well as motor-boating engine stores.  Quite an eclectic group of stores and mark...

We had always wanted to visit Sarak-San​ (Mountain) and the Korean DMZ, but after 20 years of living in Korea and/or Asia, had never made it to the two most popular tourist destinations in South Korea, so, with some time off and a flight departing from Incheon (Seoul) a week later, it was primetime to finally go!! DAY 1) Tuesday, woke up early and went to the Kimhae Airport, where we caught our early flight to Kimpo Seoul Airport on Cheju Air. It's actually not that bad for a discount airline.  45 minutes later, we bought our Kimpo-Sokcho bus tickets and ate breakfast at Steff Hotdog.  The three hour bus ride was scenic, asides from the horrendous bus driver and/or the other drivers.  I only wish I hadn't of gotten a front row seat exposing me to the windshield (a case of ignorance is bliss would have been great in this case).  One nice note: the roadside stop had excellent peeled potatoes roasted in butter, akin to french fries in a brown bag from an Ottawa ...

We had always wanted to visit Sarak-San​ (Mountain) and the Korean DMZ, but after 20 years of living in Korea and/or Asia, had never made it to the two most popular tourist destinations in South Korea, so, with some time off and a flight departing from Incheon (Seoul) a week later, it was primetime to finally go!! DAY 1) Tuesday, woke up early and went to the Kimhae Airport, where we caught our early flight to Kimpo Seoul Airport on Cheju Air. It's actually not that bad for a discount airline.  45 minutes later, we bought our Kimpo-Sokcho bus tickets and ate breakfast at Steff Hotdog.  The three hour bus ride was scenic, asides from the horrendous bus driver and/or the other drivers.  I only wish I hadn't of gotten a front row seat exposing me to the windshield (a case of ignorance is bliss would have been great in this case).  One nice note: the roadside stop had excellent peeled potatoes roasted in butter, akin to french fries in a brown bag from an Ottawa ...

We literally had our first pure staycation, ever.  It happened to be in Busan in the middle of June 2017.  This is our story. The previous week, Hite Beer and HomePlus delivered three cases of beer (12X500ml), since I had bought a case and the handle broke, which ended up with three beers meeting a grisly death and I cut my hand.  The Hite Beer guy took my phone # & we'll go out for a few later in the summer.  He majored in English at KSU. He also suggested the Hite-Jinro factory tour in JeonJu City (famous for bibimbap) for free.  They pick up 30 friends at 7am in Busan by bus and return by mid-afternoon, which includes booze and bibimbap. WEEK ONE: 2017 SUMMER VACATION BUSAN Carol had such a long and busy year, so I insisted that she stay in Busan for a week, ALONE (not to be a tour guide).  She was reluctant, but agreed.  At the end of the week, she said it was such a great idea.  She went out during the day with April Quimpo quite a b...

We invited our best of friends to our place on Saturday at 2pm for drinks, food and fun.  I prepared beers (see Hite beer story later), lots and lots of wine, our home supply of spirits and a new one for me: soju fruit punch.  The day before, I went to Homeplus, where I bought a 6 litre glass container (normally used to make soju wine or berry wine), as well as 1.5 litres of grape drink and 1.5 litres of pineapple soda.  I mixed the two, along with 2 litres of C1 soju (Korean sweet potato fire water [17%]), along with bananas and apples, it was like a Korean sangria, actually.  I put it in the fridge for 24 hours.  Kevin Smith, Rae and Arthur arrived first and we talked about the apt, JinJu Mansions, as he had lived in this complex 25 years prior.  We were looking outside and saw Sarah Noye out back, who was looking fervently for Lulu, one of her dogs.  I scrambled into action, ran downstairs and found Lulu beside the cars and a building.  Sarah ...

I've always wanted to Blog, and after reading Desta Old's WordPress Blog last night, I thought about all of the long emails I have written and thought, hey, I can copy-paste a few of those here to share with you.  This one is an email I wrote about moving to Korea.  Note that this email was written on April 14, 2015, while in Mongolia, so excuse some errors, R.E.: information and knowledge. Dear Friends and Family, Big news awaits us.  Grab your iPad, as this is going to be a lovely sit-down or lie-down read. We tried really hard (and are still trying), to earn our Canadian Provincial teaching license, kinda like the "lawyer's 'bar'" for teachers.  Well, that process, starting in December, has had it's fair share of bureaucratic bumps, so to speak.  From asking me to prove that I am a native speaker of English, to Carol having to return to Taiwan to get documents, to her having to take an English exam in May, all things are headed to...