Day 20 | Fukuoka to Busan

Friday 1 November, 2024

Missed the previous post? Check it out here

Today we say farewell to Japan and catch the ferry back to Korea. Our ferry from Hakata terminal in Fukuoka departs at 12:30pm but we need to check in two hours beforehand.

It’s forecast to start raining from 9am so we set off from the hotel around 8:30am and cycle the 4km to the ferry terminal. Sure enough it starts pouring shortly after we arrive.

Check in is from 10:30am, immigration from 11am, and boarding from 11:30am. There are normally two ferry services between Busan and Fukuoka – the Queen Beetle and the Camellia Ferry – however the Queen Beetle service (being the faster of the two) has stopped indefinitely as there are technical issues running the service. So there have been a lot more people using the Camellia service, and today is no exception. It’s a bit chaotic!

We decide to fold the bikes away this time as it costs ¥2,000 for each bicycle you wheel onboard. On our way over from Busan, we chose to wheel the bikes straight on and pay the fee but it meant we couldn’t board until last, which wasn’t a problem as we had a private room. This time we have booked an economy ticket in a shared room, and being one of the first to board we were able to suss out where to park ourselves and our bikes for the journey.

We manage to find a table and chairs tucked in a corner which was handy as there was a power outlet, and these are like gold on these ferry trips (unless you have a private room).

We were also one of the first to our shared room so we tucked the bikes out of the way before everyone else arrived.

We spend the next six hours relaxing and wandering around the boat. Unfortunately we can’t go outside as it’s pouring rain and the water is a quite choppy.

There are the usual arcade and karaoke rooms for hire.

We also discovered there are men’s and women’s onsens available to use.

The dining hall isn’t doing meal service today but you can still use the seating area if you wish.

There are also the usual vending machines and convenience store.

As the ferry approaches the port, there are some great views of Busan despite the rain.

We arrive in Busan at 6:30pm, with more chaos as everyone tries to disembark the ferry. The whole day has felt like one line up after another, being herded like cattle. At least with the ferry coming from Japan, the lining up has been quite orderly.

After heading through immigration we decide to keep the bikes folded up and walk them to the hotel, which is a pretty big effort despite only being a kilometre away on the other side of the train station.

Check in to our hotel is pretty easy, except for the six flights of stairs we had to climb with the bikes. We normally avoid using the elevator if there are stairs available but this is one of the few times we wished there was one. It was also nice to have a bigger sized room after staying in small Japanese-sized rooms for the past two weeks.

For dinner we head out in the rain to a place called 초량밀명 (Choryang milmyeong) for 비빔밀면 (mixed noodles) which is just want we need after spending most of the day eating snacks from the convenience store.

After dinner we wander down the road into 술빙 (Sulbing) for some dessert. We get the limited edition ABC chocolate cookie snowflake bingsu which is so good we eat in silence.

A quick walk via the shady looking Texas Street, we head back to our hotel.

Tomorrow we will continue our journey through Korea by heading to Andong, and get the final stamp in our cycling passport!

Next post: Day 21 | Busan to Andong