South Korea #11 – December 2014

Coming to the End of a Great Adventure is always a little sad. We headed south toward the megapolis of Busan. With a growing population of 3.6 million, we had no reason to drive into the city center, and in any case, we probably would not have found a parking place for The Turtle V. Aside from being the only city in the World with an United Nations Cemetery (see South Korea Blog 2), perhaps the most interesting claim to fame in the records of Busan is that on October 2, 1274, Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan and the head of the Mongol Yuan dynasty, felt that Japan would be easy to subdue. With over 20,000 Mongol troops on board 900 ships sailing out of Busan Bay, the attempt to conquer Japan was a failure.

One last night in The Turtle V in South Korea

We continued west to the Port of Masan from where our expedition truck would be loaded for its journey home to the Port of Long Beach, California. We spent our last night in The Turtle V camped on a wharf in a small fishing village overlooking the glassy waters of the East Sea. In the morning, fishermen were busy hauling in their catch and tending the numerous abalone beds in the bay. By parking in front of a small café we had Internet connections. This morning we tackled the job of preparing the truck for its homeward voyage. It basically involves removing anything that can be easily stolen like our PIAA auxiliary driving lights and the front Total Vision camera. The cab was emptied of easily pilfered items and all doors were double locked except the driver’s side.

Propane Tanks

Propane tanks were turned off and the propane compartment was double locked. We had learned from discussions with customs agents that many ports and shipping companies require propane bottles to be emptied and purged. However these pertain primarily to those big visible tanks mounted on the outside of motor homes and trailers. Our twin Manchester tanks are locked in a vented compartment so the question never even arises.

 

Busan, Chinese Quarter

Dropping the truck off and double-checking all the paperwork was a pretty quick process set up days before by Wendy Choi, Aero International Co., Ltd. (wendy@aerointl.kr). Suddenly we were tourists on foot. Fortunately Korea has excellent transportation systems so it was a quick ride back to Busan where we would spend a couple of nights in a cute hotel in the Chinese Quarter, waiting to make absolutely sure there were no problems with shipping. This gave us time to do some last minute shopping, wander around town like real tourists and sample some more of Korea’s interesting cuisine. We still resisted the overpriced snow crabs.

The End of a Great Adventure, almost!

With confirmation that the TARAGO freighter of the Wallenius Wilhemsen shipping line was headed east toward California, we hopped on the Panstar ferry for the overnight trip to Osaka, Japan, a country that had long been on Monika’s bucket list. If we didn’t do anything else, we had to see Kyoto and the Snow Monkeys.

A Snapshot of Modern Busan

Filed under:
South Korea, The Silk Road by Turtle Expedition