Back to Busan with the wheelchair

This was the second time we had sailed into Busan, Korea.  The Port had changed quite a bit with a lot of new buildings going up in the last three years.

Even though there was a shuttle bus available, we knew that we would not be able to access it with the wheelchair.  So we got to the front of the wharf and asked the Holland America rep where we could get a taxi.  All we got was ' I told you in my presentation yesterday that getting a taxi would be difficult' and he turned his back and walked off.  That certainly impressed us....as we turned around and discovered we were standing under a 'Taxi' sign.  And in a couple of minutes taxi's started turning up, although they all had gas cylinders in the boot, which made getting the wheelchair in difficult.  However I saw a girl from Busan Tourism, and after a discussion, she came up with a solution.  She rang someone who owned a Taxi van.  She then asked us to wait until he arrived.  When he drove in, she went up to him and had a discussion.  Not only had she organized us to go into the Fish Markets, she had also organized for him to bring us back for the total price of $40.00 Aus.  She also helped us into the van and gave us her number if we had any problems.  Certainly improved our day....pity all in the Service Industry couldn't at least try and help.

Anyway, we went into the Fish Markets - the second biggest in Asia.  It was certainly interesting with every sea creature imaginable there - fish, crab, prawns, eels, urchins, oysters, pippies, octopus, squid, sea urchins, jellyfish, and the list goes on.....the only thing we didn't see was sharks.  The place certainly smelt fishy but wasn't all that unpleasant.  We also went for a walk and found a street market that went for miles.....there were aisles of hardware shops, kitchen shops, fabric shops and again, anything else you could want.  Unfortunately there were not any wheelchair accessible toilets, but there were plenty of public toilets that weren't too bad.  We had satays and sausages on sticks for lunch for a street vendor.  Keeping our fingers crossed, we headed back to our pre arranged taxi pick up spot and, after only waiting a short time, our taxi arrived.  All in all, it was a great experience.