Since I wasn’t used to the sleeping situation, I didn’t sleep perfectly. In addition to the floor, I had a blanket under me and blanket over me. And there was an “ondol” heated floor where pipes ran beneath the floor providing heat to the room, which seemed like a nice way to keep warm. However the floor was still very hard so I think it would take a couple days to get used to sleeping on that. Following the schedule, everyone was woken up at 4AM exactly after a night of rain. And then there was some ceremony for a while and then breakfast at about 6AM. Since it was a Sunday there was a formal breakfast called Paru-Gongyang with very strict rules on making sure you eat all the food and clean your dishes a certain way. Then I had time to walk around a bit and take some pictures, including going up on this cliff. Later we had a organized tour of Gameunsa, Sea Tomb of King Munmu (on the beach), and Girimsa. At the last place some Korean ladies gave away some food to us, just being nice. Then we returned to Golgulsa and had lunch. Soon after I left and took a bus headed for Busan.
I decided to make a stop at Seongnamsa on recommendation from the French guy a few days back. Half way there at a place where I was supposed to transfer buses I noticed it was getting really dark and looked like it would rain (it later did) so I aborted. (I did see a Pizza place and you can get a nice one for $5—too bad I wasn’t hungry!) After some difficulty getting a bus ticket back (I had to buy two until I got the right one), I was on my way to central Busan and the guesthouse I stayed in for my first night in Korea. Except this time the door was locked and no one was home. I decided to take a walk around.
I checked out a PC Bang (similar to an Internet cafe) and tried one hour for $1. They have Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+, 1GB RAM, nVidia 7600GT. It appears they allow you to download and install apps and games. I notice all of Blizzard’s games are mounted on virtual discs: Starcraft, Diablo II, and Warcraft III. Now they don’t let you use your own laptop or plug in any USB devices or memory cards. Everything is based around games here. You hardly see anyone do anything else. I noticed they let you stay from 10PM – 8AM for about $5. So that’s plan B if I can’t get in the guesthouse.
I kept going back and checking the door even calling, but no luck. I walked around and didn’t see any other signs saying motel or anything in this area. So finally at midnight I chose a quiet PC Bang and decided to spend the night there. Better than being out on the street.