Saturday was bright and sunny with just a touch of coolness in Busan, South Korea. The difference between Japan and Korea is evident the moment we stepped off the bus. Everything seems to be louder, faster and more congested.
Our first destination was the Beomeosa Temple, one of the three major temples in South Korea. It was quite a climb up to the temple but it was worth it. The views were excellent and there was a lot of excitement around the temple in preparation for celebrating Buddha’s birthday on May 5.
I was surprised to see that it is an active temple for worshipping and training. The activity though was all about the birthday celebration. You can see from the photos a sample of the thousands of paper lanterns displayed throughout the temple grounds. Each lantern has a small LED bulb (yes, I checked them out😊) so the view at night must be spectacular.
A monk was saying prayers in one portion of the temple and it was interesting to see that some worshippers went inside the tiny room and others laid out a mat near the door. Not sure what the difference was.
From the temple we made our way to a bustling market and then to the fish market. The fish market was crazy with people buying and the vendors negotiating passage through the aisles as they constantly brought in fresh, live fish.
Saturday night was the AzAmazing Evening event. It’s a signature presentation by Azamara and features significant cultural performances. The evening was supposed to be held in an outdoor venue, but with evening temperatures hovering around 10 degrees C, the ship brought the performance on board.
We were provided with VIP seats right at the foot of the stage and had a direct view of the classic Korean dances followed by 4 drummers and then children from two schools of Taekwondo performed for us. The ladies were elegant and looked like they were floating across the stage. The drummers were interesting in that they were dancing, playing, and moving their heads which caused a ribbon attached to a swivel to do crazy stuff.
The star of the show was the children. It was just crazy how they could spin and jump so high to break those boards. The best part was the younger students who were so engaged. Several routines were supported by K-pop songs that the girls and boys were singing to themselves as they were going through their practice. There are several links below that have the videos of all three performances.
One final revalation was our phones sounding alerts several times during the day. The alerts were about potential brush fires due to high winds and low humidity. That wasn't the revelation; it was the fact that the Korean government had every phone pinpointed and could push a message to the phone based on proximity. It makes one wonder what else is being monitored...
