Busan Vacation Day 2

Day 2 of my Busan vacation ... 시작!

First up on the itinerary, Haedong Yonggung Temple. What makes this temple unique is that it is one of few Buddhist temples located along the shoreline. Most temples are located high and deep in the mountainside, and yet this temple boasts a rocky coastline view and the rhythmic crash of the waves. It took quite some time to get here from where our hostel was located, but it was definitely worth it. The serene atmosphere that surrounded the temple combined with its excellent design, architecture and music set me at ease. Transportation to the temple is simple, just take the subway to Haeundae station (line 2, exit 7) and then take bus 181 from there to the temple's bus stop. The bus drops you off at the roadway for the temple, and it takes about another 10-15 minutes to walk the rest of the way. Another plus to this temple is that it has free admission! Before reaching the temple you are met with various shops, restaurants, and street vendors selling everything from food, shirts, hats, and jewelry to other Buddhism related worship items. From there you enter a scenic stairwell leading down to the ocean, lined with bamboo, a tunnel, various Buddha statues for different purposes, and many stone lanterns.

Your first detour will be to the left of the stairs as you head in, here you will find the best photo point, where you can see the whole temple as it lines the ocean's rocky shore. There are many photo zones here, as well as places for prayer. I spent most of my time taking pictures in this area. The sound of the waves hitting the rocks filled me with peace and a sense of home. If it wasn't for the beautiful temple view I would have momentarily forgot where I was. I crawled down on the rocks near the water's edge, soaking in the heat of the sun, the flow of the water, and the fresh smell of the sea. Not wanting to fry my skin in the direct sun, I couldn't stay long. I headed into the actual temple next. To enter the temple you cross a very beautifully designed bridge. As you reach the bridge, to your right there are many Buddha statues and a wishing well (I missed :/ ). The inner temple was brightly colored and filled with people young and old who were paying their respects and praying. It always interests me to witness such a foreign form of prayer; so I observed from a distance to not disturb anyone.

Here I encountered one of the largest golden outdoor Buddha's that I have come across so far. It was very bright and shone in the sunlight. Something so bright and shiny made me wonder, "How often do you think that must be cleaned?" I also wondered what material it was made out of, as it has to withstand the salty ocean spray and not rust.

Lastly, I followed the stairs through another bamboo tunnel to a spot overlooking the temple from behind. Here there was another large statue, this time of the Goddess of Mercy, Gwanseumbosal (관음 or 관세음). Haedong Yonggungsa is one of three temples in Korea dedicated to this goddess, with the motto, "At least one of your wishes will be answered here through your heartful prayers" (Haedong Yonggung Temple, 2008).

Whether you practice Buddhism, want to get a sense of what the religion and its practices consist of, or you just want to visit a beautiful temple on the Korean coast, this temple is a must see thanks to its beauty and calming atmosphere.

Dongbaekseom Island (once an island, but not actually an island anymore...) was stop number two for the day. Nestled between both Haeundae and Gwangalli beaches, from the point of the peninsula is a panoramic view of the ocean and the beaches on either side. To the left Haeundae beach with its young, upbeat mood and hundreds of umbrellas can be seen. Meanwhile, to the right of the point Gwangalli beach is visible in the distance with its iconic Gwangangdaegyo bridge of lights. The walk around the island isn't too long, and if you go on a hot day like I did there is a cafe at the point near the lighthouse where you can buy yourself something to drink. The area is known for its camellia blooms, but unfortunately I visited during the one time of year they aren't blooming. There is also a mermaid statue located at the entrance which is made completely out of Pacific Ocean plastic. I found this symbolic, especially since I had just been complaining about the ocean's plastic accumulation problems and litter issues on Haeundae beach the previous day.

View from the point - toward Gwangalli beach 

To get to the 'island', take subway line 2 and get of at Dongbaek station, exit 1. Then, follow the road about 1km, over a small bridge, and past the Westin Chosun Hotel and then you are there.


Our final stop on our last full day in Busan was Gwangalli Beach. I found that Gwangalli beach had a much more laid back feel to it than the bustling Haeundae. The beach was a lot less crowded, much cleaner, had outdoor showers to rinse yourself, and even had stations to wash your feet. Gwangalli appeared more family friendly, but still stimulating enough for younger crowds. The nightlife here is equally satisfying, with many restaurants and norebang places lining the streets and a stunning night view of Gwangangdaegyo Bridge. Not to mention, it was quite easy to find lockers here, and they only cost 500 won. There is a service center along the beach and the man there not only could tell us the times the beach was open, but directed us to the lockers and changing areas nearby. Everything ran much smoother.

Finally I had my first chance to swim since leaving the USA; I could have cried I was so thrilled. The ocean helped me with that. I love swimming and the water, but I realized I have taken Michigan's freshwater lakes for granted. Man does saltwater burn your eyes. It stung like crazy and my eyes were bloodshot by the time I got out of the water. For the first time I also had to beware what was in the water that I couldn't see. In the Great Lakes I never had to worry about much in the water aside from mussels cutting my feet, yet now all I could visualize was an encounter with sharks or jellyfish. I know that it's a bit of a reach, not everyone who swims in the ocean is in danger, but just the thought that it was truly a possibility for the first time made me anxious.

Since most Koreans cannot swim, my long stokes swimming in the deep water gained me some attention as well. I had several older women and other people strolling the beach stop and watch me for a few moments before going on their way. Salty, potentially dangerous water or not, I enjoyed my swim and was refreshed, well exercised, and at peace when I finished.

Night View of Gwangalli Beach

The mood of the beach made me feel at home, so it was a refreshing way to spend the last night of my vacation. There was a festival taking place here as well, and so there was a stage set up and some sort of zumba dance contest occurring with really upbeat music. Everyone standing around and watching on the beach couldn't help but move to the beat of the music and dance. As I mentioned before, the view was also stunning. Out of all the places I have been that had beautiful night views along the coast, I think the view from Gwangalli Beach is better than places in Yeosu or Mokpo. The bridge is gorgeous to look at and has a great light show. When the bridge lights connect to all the lights of the skyscrapers lining the street it becomes one long panorama of lights. It could almost have been a scene from a movie it was so perfect. About the only thing that could have made the atmosphere and mood any better at all would have been if I were on a magical date. That would've been wonderful, but it wasn't the case. I could settle to have good times and good food with a friend instead though, it was still an amazing evening.

Below is a video of the light show on Gwangangdaegyo Bridge. 

Busan Vacation Day 1

Gamcheon Culture Village - 감천문화마을

Summer is here! Finally I was able to take my week vacation. With shoreline beaches calling to me, it was off to Busan that I went. It was a vacation well spent. After spending about 4 hours on the bus to get there, and having a somewhat rough taxi ride to our guest house, my friend and I finally made it. We payed and escaped the embarrassing argument that our taxi driver had gotten into, and safely checked in to Yusun Guesthouse. It wasn't the fanciest guest house or the nicest, but we had a room to ourselves, WiFi, free ramyeon, and nice hosts. Plus, the rooms were named after planets, and we were staying in Uranus, so the jokes were never ending throughout the trip. The guest house also was conveniently located near the Gimhae airport.

For our first night I took my friend to the one area I was already familiar with from my previous Busan trip, Jagalchi and BIFF square (Busan International Film Festival). Jagalchi was the same as the last time I visited, lively and wet. This time however, as we were waking through one of the big fish decided to make a big splash as we were passing; I had a nice, refreshing saltwater bath. I left Jagalchi a bit saltier than when I arrived. Yay for seawater. We looked around all the street vendors selling food and tried some tasty stuff: fishcakes, skewered chicken, potato spirals, and even rolled ice cream. I always watched videos of street vendors making the rolled ice cream desert on Facebook. Finally I could be one of those traveled people and make a video of it myself. I went simple with just strawberry ice cream, but it was smooth, creamy, and absolutely delicious.

The following day we started out at Gamcheon Culture Village (감천문화마을). It was as enchanting as I had heard, although the hellish heat took some of the fun out of it. We didn't do the scavenger hunt or see the entire village start to finish, but we walked around, saw the sights and the meandering pathways from house to house. The entire village is very artistic, with murals, uniquely painted wooden fish, and crafts all throughout the paths. Aside from the stunning views, my most memorable moment at the village was the liquid nitrogen cereal that I tried. Hands down has to be one of the most exciting things I've eaten, and as a science major I could appreciate the use of liquid nitrogen for creative purposes. My curiosity had to be satisfied. It is a simple treat, cereal puffs and liquid nitrogen. You dip the puffs into the nitrogen, pick them up with your chopsticks, let them drip dry, place them in your mouth, close it tight, and crush them. When the puffs collapse they emit lots of smoke, which if you keep your mouth shut, will pour out of your nose. It is awesome. Keeping your mouth shut can prove to be difficult though, as in my case not only was it very cold, but I kept choking on the smoke. The whole experience was very fun and exciting; I highly recommend giving it a try if you stumble upon some.

Fish Say - House of Light this way

Room of Moon

Fish show you the way

Fish made of fish!

Liquid Nitrogen Cereal Puffs! 

Below is the video of the street vendor making the liquid nitrogen cereal for me. 

Village Hours:  March - November (9:00 - 18:00), December - February (9:00 - 17:00)

As the village is a residential area, they ask you only tour at specific times.

Follow the transportation directions located here. To get to the bus stop from the subway station, exit the station and go straight, following the sidewalk until you come to the first bus stop.  You shouldn't need to cross the street. The bus I took was green in color, and it will have a sign in English for the village. 

From the culture village our next stop was the Busan Trickeye Museum (10,000 won). I had been to the one in Seoul, but was pleased to see that they weren't completely the same. This one had some different murals than the one I had already been to. It was a lot of fun acting like idiots and taking ridiculous pictures in the museum, especially since everyone there was doing it. From there we went to Centum City, Asia's largest department store. Let me tell you, it is indeed large. It was HUGE. I couldn't even imagine trying to see everything in there. I also am not sure I would want to, as the prices were pretty large in there as well. I prefer the cute things I see on the street, but if you are looking for some high quality brands Centum City might be the place.

This ladies and gentleman, is a Starbucks "Real Corn Frapucinno."
Yes you probably are wondering the same thing as I did, "What in the world is a corn frapucinno...!?! Is that even edible?"

Well I am here to tell you that yes, it is edible. If creamed corn is your thing this is the drink for you. It tastes like blended cream corn, with corn chunks, and whip cream topped with cheese powder. It was the cheese powder that didn't sit well with me, it just, did not belong. Personally I don't think the drink was bad, just too much corn in drinkable form for me in one sitting. I couldn't finish it. However, for 6,000 won you can satisfy your curiosity and get a tall sized drink.


To end our first day in Busan, we hit up Haeundae Beach. Haeundae is like THE place for young people. It was filled with people and umbrellas covered the sand. They had the beach separated into sections, swimming, water sports, etc. I wanted to swim more than anything, but unfortunately it was nearly impossible for us to find a locker for our things, and we weren't comfortable leaving our valuables unattended on the beach. While we searched for lockers, swimming time on the beach ended, as you can't swim once it begins to get dark. Instead we walked along the sand, wading in the water and listening to the music from the stage nearby. Turns out we came to Busan on a festival weekend, so there was lots happening down on the beach. That being said, the beach was trashed, literally people had left trash everywhere. It was my first time seeing such a litter covered beach, so it bothered me a bit. Every time I saw someone throw their trash in the sand or straight into the ocean I'd go off about the Pacific Garbage Patch and their contributions and...yeah...can't help it. It irritated me. Like either throw it away properly or don't buy it.

The sunset was pretty though

Once the sun set we hunted down some samgyeopsal for dinner. Someone handed us a flyer for a restaurant on the street, so we decided to try it. The waiter showed us the menu, and it said samgyeopsal 9,000 won. So I said that we wanted one serving of it. He paused and we had some brief back and fourth, eventually he used a translator app just to be sure we understood him, and told us that one serving was 3 slices of meat. We confirmed "three for 9,000?" He said yes. Now, either there was a mistranslation or we got ripped off. The food came, and it was delicious. The strips of meat were thick and tasty. I was very satisfied with our meal until I went to pay. I was charged 27,000 won. Otherwise understood as, 9,000 / strip of meat... I am not really sure what happened. The menu said 9,000; I didn't see anything specifying per piece of meat, and the waiter confirmed 3 for 9,000... and yet the bill... I don't want to assume I was ripped off either though so I just let it go. Mistranslation is possible. I thought 9,000 was a really great deal for the meal, but still 27,000 was a bit much.

To end the night we went back to Haeundae, where we had heard IU (yes, super famous singer and actress IU) was supposedly going to be a guest performance on stage for the festival. We had heard correctly! We were not anywhere near her, but with the big screen for the stage I was able to see her perform some of her music. For FREE! I like IU as an actress, but I had never listened to her music before. She sings well. It was also really amusing to see everyone sprinting across the beach when they realized why a huge crowd had gathered. I am glad I had the opportunity to see her perform, especially since she is super famous. We were very lucky, in the right place at the perfect time.

IU on stage

After IU, I also saw another of my personal favorite acts. Park Jong Won, the magician I first saw when I traveled to Yeosu, was also performing on Haeundae Beach. I made sure to get a great seat to watch his show and I was impressed once again, even if it was the same act. He is truly a talented entertainer. This time I made sure to record a different part of his act, the light sticks.

Follow Park Jong Won on Instagram @thepjw13

Once he finished up with his show my friend and I had to run and get to the last subway before they closed for the night, so our adventure for the day ended there. It was a long and eventful day. We saw many places, tried many new things, had the chance to be goofballs, and see some really great people perform. Overall it was nearly perfect.