[Part 3 - Busan] My 1-month graduation trip to South Korea with Char!

At the Gamcheon Village.

In my previous post, i talked about the things we did in Jeju. We visited the Jeju Folk Village Museum, Cheonjeyeon Falls, Hallasan, Innisfree Jeju House and O'Sulloc Museum. That's basically all. There wasn't really much to do unless you have someone to bring you around and recommend places. OR! have a week there. It was a pity but Jeju will still be there. I'll be back! :D

In this post, i will share with you guys what we did in Busan! 

Busan is the 2nd largest city in South Korea! It wasn't so bustling until recent years people started posting recommendations through social media. We spent 3 days & 2 nights (5 March ~ 7 March) in Busan. We booked our accommodation through Agoda and stayed at the "Hotel The Mark Haeundae", a service apartment, which was located just behind the Haeundae beach. It was SGD$177 for 2 nights. Not too bad yea? I would say that the location is convenient in a way that the walking distance to Gunam-ro, the street that leads from Haeundae Station to the beach, was quite short and easy. (just one straight road.) That street is probably where many foreigners visit at night time for food and drinks. There are pubs, restaurants and many cafes. Basically, everything was accessible because of their train & bus service unlike Jeju where there's no train system. 

Day 3 - Busan > Haeundae Beach > Haedong Yonggungsa Temple > Gwangalli Beach 

We arrived at Busan in the morning from Jeju. To be honest, i cannot remember how exactly Gimhae Airport looks like. I only remember making our way to the train station which was just outside of the airport. There was a bit of walking distance, just 3 ~ 5 mins away. We made our way to Haeundae Station and dragged our luggages to the apartment where we walked for about 15 mins. Our check-in time was after 3:00PM thus we had to leave our luggages at the lobby as the room wasn't ready. (The lobby was difficult to find because there were apparently 2 service apartments in one building.) While waiting for time to pass, we went to had lunch and explored the area for a bit.

Our failed 360 picture. Hahaha!

Along the beach, there were actually these little blocks which was provided for people to take a panorama/360 picture. So what you do is, you put your phone on that block and you rotate it. But it wasn't smooth at all so... that's why the picture turned out like that. Hahah! So funny. We took a few times but all the fail attempts.

Towards Gunam-ro

Towards our accommodation

We saw this doggy on our way. I captured this and kind of blocked another Korean guy's view.
He was trying to snap a picture of this doggy too. Hahahaha!

Most people will probably recognise this all-year-round christmas tree

Continued walking till we reach Gunam-ro street and decided to go into a restaurant just above Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf cafe. We had 불낙전골, some kind of a hotpot with prawns, octopus, meat and vegetables in spicy broth. Surprisingly i ate quite a lot despite having bad appetite the past few days. Spicy food is always best to cure despair!

Our view from the restaurant. There's an aquarium just opposite.

Food always make this girl happy. No Food; No Talk. 

Looks nice now but once it's all mixed up... taste delish~

After which we took a stroll along the Haeundae Beach. Since it was still winter, there wasn't much people around. I can't imagine when in summer. There'll probably be human traffic. We managed to catch a performance at that all-year-round christmas tree before heading back for check-in. Shall show you guys the apartment.

Sleeping area. Window facing another building.

Many surprises in this apartment. There's this one cabinet! If you open it up, you can actually drag metal rails to dry your clothes. And then the fridge too. It's a built-in fridge into one of the cabinets as well. 

Not too bad huh? 

This is the view from the main entrance.
Yes, i brought milo to Korea.

That's our main door. To the left is the mini kitchen. To the right is the toilet.
Thank god for the washing machine!!!

Toilet

Okay! Moving on to the next location. We went to the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple! It's a MUST to go! whether you're of other religions. (no hard feelings.) It was really easy to get there from our accommodation. We walked to the Haeundae Market and catch a bus from there to the temple. All you need is a Naver Map but only if you can type Korean and understand Korean, then i'll be super useful.

We took bus 100 to the temple that took us 45 mins. 

도착해요! We arrived! Not yet actually...

Had to walk around 700m before really reaching the temple.

It's really all about walking in Korea if you don't have a car. But it was worth the walk. The view was spectacular and you can never get such a view in Singapore. Never ever ever! Dangerously beautiful.

So much fooooooooooood~

IT IS EVERYWHERE~~~~~

No idea what this is. Side dishes?

All the Zodiac animals

An introduction to the temple. We didn't read it because i was too excited for the view!

Welcome welcome!

This was just the front part of the temple. As we made our way further in, we came across this pagoda and there was a lady praying in front of it that seemed a little weird. So i took a closer look and realised that it was to pray for road safety. It is called the, "Traffic Safety Prayers Pagoda". We kind of laugh to yourselves but felt kind of bad because it's probably a Korean culture thing which we don't know of. Now we know. And then on our way in, we saw another funny thing, the touch-the-belly-for-a-son, "Buddha of granting a son". LOL. 

The door to the temple

Walk through this mini cave

So pretty~  

There were many people standing on the bridge trying to throw coins into that bowl.

Goddess of Mercy overlooking the sea

Mini little Buddhas.

Fortune Buddha 

That view

I remembered me and Char walking into some underground cave to drink, what they call, the spiritual water for good health. It was a good experience. I have never drank spring water through those shared plastic scoops. Apparently, most of the temples in Korea have such things!

Haedong Yonggungsa Temple

Walked to the other side of the temple and couldn't help but to capture this spectacular view. (i have no other vocabulary to use.)

So pretty i'm gonna die~

So peaceful

Just to remind myself that i wore pajamas to the temple.

Closest to sea

Proof shot!

Another fail 360 hahaha! 

Next stop was Gwangalli Beach. We took the same bus back to Haeundae Market, walked to Haeundae Station and took a train to Gwangan Station. Took a long stroll down to the beach through residential area and came across Orchard Hill. Haha!

The sky that day look like it was painted. 

Anyways, we were supposed to have seafood for dinner at the Millak Hoe Fish Center but choose to skip because i was telling Char how intimidating it was once you step into the fish market. All the ajummas and ajusshis will shout out to you and all that. Indeed, the moment we stepped into that place, we got out the next minute. Hahaha!

Market at the bottom level, restaurants at the top levels.

I was really picky when it comes to dinner because of my appetite. I was really horrible, in the day, i feel hungry but when night fall, my appetite got lost. I ended up without dinner while Char had a burger from Mom's Touch. Mom's Touch is a burger chain that serve really good burgers. Better than Singapore's Burger King and other fast food chains that sell burgers etc. The fries were awesome! It's battered with pepper, really crispy and in fact, you can never get any soggy fries in Korea. So when you're in Korea, please try it. It's not common to see it in Seoul, i realized. Isn't it?

The Gwangalli Bridge lights up at night. Tried my best on this photo.

We ended the day with some shopping at the GS25 just downstairs our apartment and we grabbed some food, drinks, laundry softerner/detergent and other rubbish.

Day 4 - Gamcheon Cultural Village > BIFF Square 

Yeah, we visited only two places in day 4. Char & i, we are champions when it comes to chilling. We really do know how to chill thus we take a really long time to leave places. Keke! Okay jokes aside.

In Day 4, we visited the Gamcheon Cultural Village. We got there by train. Busan's train is really convenient, almost alike in Seoul. We stopped at Toseong Station and decided to walk since it's walkable but ended up taking a taxi because it was uphill all the way. We gave up. And! initially, we wanted to take a bus up but realised that the both of us lost our T-Money card with about 25,000KRW in there. Ugh!

We arrived at the top and decided to fill our stomachs before exploring the village. The view. was. awesome!

Busan's Santorini

Our lunch (따로내장국밥) Pig's Stomach soup 

The view was really therapeutic. I really love it because of the colorful buildings. Colors just make you feel happy! I would call this an Arts village because there were many artworks around if you explore the area. You may think that it's just a tourist attraction but no, it's not just that. There are people actually still living in those houses. In fact, Gamcheon Village used to be a village for refugees who seek for safety during the Korean war back in those days. I remembered grannies sitting around and actually telling you which way to walk. Haha. Super cute. They're probably from those days?

The map of the village that states the must-go places
(It was drizzling a bit that day)

Ceramic human faced bird.

I have no idea why is there such an artwork

Fish

Salvador Dali - Clocks inspired building 

C'mon, just kiss already~ 

We finally met the little prince on a planet called, Earth. (with his fox)

Char looking for money on the floor. >.<

Hanguel~

Small alley

Little walkway 

Cherry Blossoms slowly blooming

They're still using this!

Village facing the sea.

There were little museums as well 

old school coin game machines

More views~

Avant Garde Cafe

Cafe seatings that faces the village

Selfie~

The Avant Garde Cafe (not sure if this was the name hahah!) is situated just at the entrance of the Gamcheon Village. We spent nearly more than an hour there taking pictures and enjoying the view. I would love to go back there if i ever have another chance to. Once we were satisfied, we left and headed to the BIFF Square. There was really nothing much there. It's just another Myeongdong to be honest. I didn't even take much photos. Hahaha! This is all i've got! The only thing we did there was to have a pancake.

And then we went back to Gunam-ro to further explore before heading back to our apartment. We had ramyeon + mandu party and we had to do our laundry. Doesn't sound like we're on holiday. Does it?

Day 5 - Haeundae Beach > Ulsan

The next day we slept in, packed our luggages before heading out to the beach area. We went for lunch in some restaurant and then chilled at Hollys Coffee for an hour before returning to the apartment for check out. The hotel receptionist was really nice to help us call for a taxi. Thank god we weren't late to catch our train because the taxi driver took so long to find the building. Before we flew to Korea, we actually pre-booked all our KTX Train rides so thats why we couldn't afford to miss it because their timings are so darn accurate. It's really convenient as well. You just have to visit Korail's site and make your bookings. Once you've reach the station, all you have to do is to show them your booking reference and then they'll issue you the train ticket. Ah! We managed to drive through the Gwangalli Bridge as well. Keke!

If only i can do this in Singapore too.

KTX Train! that took us only 20 minutes to get to Ulsan. 

Only cost 8,400KRW!

You may be wondering where we placed our luggages? There are actually storage space at every entrance of the train. So we just left it there and you don't have to worry about it getting stolen. In fact, if your luggage is not THAT big or there's no space at the storage area, you can place it at the front of your seat where your leg rest is. No problemos~

In Busan, we didn't really learn much about Korea but we managed to visit a few places within the 2 days. I guess beaches to us Singaporeans is really nothing compared to the Koreans. I have a few Korean friends who get excited to the thought of beaches and the seaside because they don't live near them. Whereas in Singapore, we're technically surrounded by the sea and we get to see it most of the time. (But i got really excited while i was at the temple because there's no such place in Singapore. Like the cliff, deep blue sea etc.) Seafood. Busan is well known for its seafood but it was a pity we didn't get to eat them when we're there. I've always wanted to try eating in a tent, or some restaurant by the sea, barbecuing seafood, eels, clams etc but i never got the chance to. We didn't even visited the Jalgachi Market! Once again, regrets. BUT! Busan will always be there. So... i'll be back! Keke!

On a side note// I don't know if i've said everything i wanted to say for this part because as i wait for these pictures to upload, i get really bored and i tend to shift my attention to something else. Or like sometimes i just give up waiting for it to upload and i close the window and stop writing. LOL! Horrible.

In Part 4, we move on to Ulsan, industrial sites and more industrial sites. This place is somewhere not many tourists will go to. I'll talk more about it on the next post. (I love ulu places.)