Seoul and Busan
South Korea being one of the country that I wanted to visit in year 2015;
I manage to search for a relatively affordable airfare from Skyscanner apps, booking via Asiatravels agency; it is a 2hrs transit flight in Ho Chi Minh before proceeding to Seoul. Vietnam Airlines. It cost about $498.00sgd round trip.
After going thru some findings and online searching, I manage to grab hold of a few places of attractions the directions to there. It isn't difficult to get around in Seoul and Busan, just with the help of Metro railway map in hands, many places are easily reachable.
Busan attractions that we visited includes Busan International Film Festival, Jalgalchi Fish market, and Beomeosa Temple.
Seoul attractions: we visited Gwangjang Market, Sinchon, Hongdae, Gyeongbukgong Palace, Bokchon Hanok Village, Lotte Mall, Itaewon and Seoul Tower.
Arriving in Incheon International Airport, we transited to Busan via KTX fastrail (please buy tickets online 1 week or earlier prior to departure date as it is always full) cost about $176sgd for economy class to and fro Busan and Seoul.
http://www.letskorail.com/ebizbf/EbizBfTicketSearch.do.
It took about 3 hours to reach Busan where we changed to Busan Metro station (outside and opposite exit of Busan KTX station) and proceeded our way to Haeundae Station where our hotel are located. Haeundae Beach is 1 of the most popular beach in the world and is just a stone throw away from our hotel, but sadly it isn't the appropriate time to visit as it is still quite chilly during May so no bikini babes and beach boys around.
During Summer, this stretch of beach will be filled with umbrellas and beach goers
After check in to 2ne1 hotel, we took a stroll by the beach taking some pictures and chilling out at a cafe nearby enjoying beer and fried chicken wings. Korea has 1 of the best wings i ever had, tender meat and delicious crispy skin to savour before allowing them to go down our throat with gulps of cold chilling beer... Heavenly...
I couldn't really figure out what seasoning does they use... but it is simply delicious
Wandering around Haeundae and visiting local stores, we decided our dinner to be the all time popular choice; Korean BBQ..!! We also notice that pork here taste more delicious as compared to pork back in Singapore. Dinner was great with laughters and neverending of food orders and SoJu (Korean Rice wine 1,500krw in convenient stores). Feeling great after a good dinner we stroll around before retiring back to our hotel for a good night rest; getting ready for tomorrow long day of activities.!
How soundly we slept after good food the whole day, we woke up lazily around 930am in the morning to get ready and prepare to move off for a day packed with activities.
The place where we had out sumptuous breakfast
Very localised restaurant settings.
The awesome Seafood stew that we shared
Always starting off a new day with a satisfying and delicious late breakfast, we ate at a nearby store that is famous for their Seafood Stew; it is quite similar to steamboat back home but different soup base and variety of food. Very happy after food, we make our way to the oldest temple Beomeosa Temple via Busan Metro Rail and alight at Beomeosa Station.
Satisfied face after meals...
Beomeosa Station
Hilltop meditation hall
rocky path up to the meditation hall
entrance to meditation hall
rocky pathways
Having photofun
Instead of taking a bus to Beomeosa Temple from Beomeosa station, we took a cab instead to cut short of time. Beomeosa Temple which is built in 678AD still stands strongly and is filled with heritage structures. It has a rocky pathway at the rear of the temple leading us up to the meditation hall at hilltop. A quiet place for serenity and will be perfect for meditation.
Wishes of devotees being hung up
Zen Hall which I accidentally sneaked into after hopping over several rocks.
Entrance of Beomeosa Temple
We spent quite a few hours at Beomeosa Temple before leaving the place the have some local snacks and coffee along the way downhill. Fortunately we manage to grab a taxi while strolling downhill after our snacks to go to Jalgalchi Fish Market. Taxi fare is quite reasonable and is similar to taxi fare back in Singapore.
Lorry stores that sell 'lok lok' similar
tables set up by the road, just sit and eat
Sticks of local delights boiled in Soup.
Jalgalchi Fish market is reputated and is a must go place when you visit Busan, as it is filled with fresh and live seafood and is also a real fish market that local goes to do their marketing. Along the stretch of stores are restaurant serving seafood, sashimi, fried fish, crabs and all sorts of local popular seafoods. Jalgachi Fish market is about 200m from Jalgalchi Metro Station.
stores along Jalgalchi Market
Fresh fishes on sale...
Sashimi, minutes ago they are still swimming in the tanks.
likewise for the fried fishes...
Also, Korea has their places of attractions direction indicated and displayed in their metro stations, so as long we get to the right station, we will be able to get to the right place.!!! Simple right? Haha
Another attraction of Busan that is situated just opposite of Jalgalchi Fish market is Busan International Film Festival aka BIFF. It is a whole street of vibrancy with street stores and shopping departments and cafes. There also a few bars for drinking and chill out too.
Entrance to BIFF aka Busan International Film Festival
Street store selling local food
My friend..!!
Beautiful night streets...
Time passes fast when there is lotsa of activities packing back to back. Waking up on the 3rd day in S.Korea, it is also the day that we check out from Busan and head straight back to Seoul. We were literally crawling out of bed to get prepared and hurried to check out of our hotel and head straight to Haeundae station to take us back to Busan KTX station. It is running late! Timing were marginal but with our team cooperation, we broke up to perform different task concurrently. Buying breakfast and collecting KTX tickets and eventually make it just few minutes before the KTX departs for Seoul.
relaxing and browsing magazine in KTX fastrail
Another 3 hours ride ahead, having our packed local Korean breakfast on the train before we arrived at Seoul Station. Seoul Metro is not directly connected to Seoul KTX station, we have to venture our way out of KTX station and find our way to the Metro station jus few minutes walk away. Not a difficult task, and very soon we are on our way to Hongik University station where our apartment is and just opposite Hongdae streets.
Seoul KTX station
Our apartment in Seoul
Another stewwwwwww
After checking in, and some moments of slacking, we cross over to the opposite streets of our apartment which is Hongdae street. There we saw many students idling and strolling around as well as many street performers. Student can be seen just sitting down anywhere in the middle of the crowd, brings out their guitar and plug in to portable mics and amplifiers and started performing! It is very nice and pleasing to see that arts and cultures are been well appreciated here.
Students performing on the streets
Guitar everywhere
young lady singing
Our early dinner
After having an early dinner which is spicy seafood stew, we made our way the Gwangjang Market. Gwangjang market is famous for their street food as well as the crowd and very local crowd intense place. People can be seen seating on benches just right in front of the stores, tourist blending in and dining happily as well with the locals. Gwangjang Market is located just the exit (8) of JongNo (5) Ga Metro station.
The station to GwangJang Market
Hashbrown like pancake.. very nice..!! must try
Locals and tourist enjoying
live fresh seafood to be eaten with rice wine.
some shellies......
very localised and populated scene
Snacking around and snapping around, our next destination Sinchon and back to Hongdae. These 2 streets are very popular among students and youngsters and we really seems overaged. Ending our night with fried chicken wings again before retiring back to apartment to rest for a long full day of activities tomorrow.
Very late yet very crowded..!!!
Happily eating fried chicken... really nice
Scene outside Ho Bar
Morning and breakfast is Japanese ramen and our first destination is Gyeongbukgong Palace. It is situated at Gyeongbukgong Metro Station, exit from ticket counters, it will bring you directly to the palace entrance, no reason to lost your way right? Hahaha
Japanese Ramen for Breakfast..!!
at one of the entrance of Gyeongbukgong Palace
March past ceremony at 12 noon
Me..!!!
one of the few taken together shots..
Grand entrance of Gyeongbukgong Palace
Walking thru the palace and museum to witness the evolution of Koreans from way back last time till current as well as their cultures and habits; actually are very quite similar to Chinese. We do see many Chinese writings around in the palace.
miniature in museum
Next destination is Bukchon Hanok Village, On the way there we manage to find a nice store selling Ginseng Chicken Soup and so we dash in to had our fill...!!!!
Ginseng Chicken soup place
GINSENG CHICKEN SOUP..!!!
I loves their kimchi... it is really so fresh everywhere...
Pancake....
Walking further down the road is arrival at Bukchon Hanok Village, here we see many traditional housings and lotsa of visitors too. Walking around at these time of the year is optimum as it is cooling and comfortable, around 18-23degsC.
Roofs of Hanok Village
the refurbished wooden doors...
Traditional houses
Leaving Bukchon Village is shopping time! Where we grab a taxi and headed straight to Lotte Mall but only to find out that the road from our location is closed! Fated not to save time, we alight and walk our way there, weather is around 19degsC, cooling and nice to walk and take pictures...
Occasion going on... street performance
March past..!!
Lotte Mall is a place where we can buy some facial products and sorts. It is a 1 stop departmental store. Visa wins over cash payments at Lotte Mall where we are offered a 5% discount from retail price but later we found out that my OCBC 365 Credit card gave as high as 15% discount at some outlets!!😱😱😱
resting in the middle of the road is ok..!!
After some shopping spree, we headed to Itaewon (red light district in Seoul) to see see look look. Prior to that is BBQ and Stew for dinner and this is 1 of the best meal taken so far, even much better than the ones we had before! After a long chatty dinner we stroll along Itaewon night streets with our hands full of shopping bags, isn't as fanciful and colourful as compared to Thailand, it is much more of the quiet scene and behind close door kind.. Decided not to stay there for too long, we headed back to our apartment in Hongdae to unload our stuffs and rest for the night..
nice BBQ pork..!!
tasty stew...
heee...!!!
Time flies and we left just 1 more night in Korea, needing to wave goodbye to my beloved pork and wings and the heavenly fresh kimchi... We checkout of our apartment and make our way to Gangnam to check in to Gangnam Western Premier Hotel for the last night.
1 last destination of the trip and that will be the iconic Seoul Tower. Seoul Tower is located near Myeongdong Metro station. Seoul Tower is on top of Mt Namsan and it is really a hefty long climb up to the peak...
Seoul Tower
At Seoul Tower, we saw the mystical love locks place which couples lock their "loves" together and maybe throw away the keys.? There is alot of them there! Of course we did not lock ours and chose to grab some souvenirs and have a tea break session again before descending down for dinner.
Love Locks
snacks before descending hill
slurpys....
yummmm
our Last dinner in South Korea...
We had been eating non stop but we did work out alot too! Alot of hiking and walking vs alot of nice food and endless kimchis.
Ending our night with a nice Korean traditional massage near our hotel before retiring for the night for an early checkout to train to Incheon International Airport.
Very foodly trip, and kimchi definitely taste hell much more better in Korea as compared to other places in the world, pork taste deliciously different too as well as their famous fried wings and beer habits.
Looking forward definitely, travellor never stops, next trip gonna be Phuket & Bangkok adventures...!!!!
For more informations:
http://www.letskorail.com
http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/m.html
