The Lonely Planet (often referred to as The LP) has become my Bible and Korean survival guide. For anyone who has traveled abroad, you are probably familiar with the books. They have handy pocket-sized phrase books to get you through foreign places with awesome pick-up lines like, “Can you help me cross the street?” There are also the more practical phrases like, “Where can I find some [insert drug or food]?” and my personal favorite, “Slow down tiger!” Before I left for Brazil last year, Jessica gave me the Portuguese phrasebook with all of those little verbal gems conveniently tabbed with comments such as, “Something you should NEVER say”. Anyway, in addition to helping people awkwardly speak a foreign language, LP offers handy guide books with maps and recommended places to eat, sleep and see.
While in Busan, Kim referred to the LP Bible for activities. The plan was to visit a temple that was supposed to be a 15-minute walk from the cable cars. We successfully found the cable cars and enjoyed the ride up the hill.
Once there, we set off in the direction of the temple… or at least we thought it was the right direction. After a 30-minute walk to South Gate, the LP started loosing some credibility.
A sign in Korean mapped out our various paths from that point and none of them led to a nearby temple. To salvage the day, we scrapped the original agenda and decided to continue down a trail to see where it took us. This wouldn’t have been an issue, if all of us had prepared for a hike (instead of a short walk) and had eaten lunch.
Regardless of the ill-directions, the LP took us on a beautiful hike and the view at the end was worth the dehydration and discomfort.
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