Busan – Days 1 and 2

Left Daegu to travel to Busan to meet up with the rest of the Singaporeans on Friday morning. The limousine bus from East Daegu Station to Busan station took 1 hour 10 mins and cost $9. Pretty cheap for a comfy ride all the way to the southernmost part of Korea.

Busan is a coastal city, and is surrounded by lots and lots of beautiful sandy beaches. Walking along the beach kinda reminded me of my younger days in Hawaii. The sea was so clear and blue, and not interrupted by ports, ships nor islands. It’s just one whole patch of blue that connects to the sky; looking at it made me relax immediately! First meal in Busan. Of course, the plates of food on the table are all just side dishes, and all were refillable. The main dishes weren’t even here yet! I ordered pork bone soup, which is not seen in the picture, and it cost me only $6. Orh the beautiful seaside! The sand is much finer than the ones in Singapore, and much colder too, probably because it was still spring at the time. Not much people were there, since it was on a Friday, so we had the entire beach to ourselves! Super relaxing, totally different from the bustling city scene in Seoul. The next day, we headed to Jagalchi market, which is famous for its fish products. Of course, like any fish markets, the smell there was really funky, so I didn’t stay there for long. The rest went exploring inside though, and even had live octopus for lunch!

I didn’t do too bad too. Ate their special strawberries coated with hard sugar, kinda like the Chinese 冰糖葫芦，except it is made with strawberries. Woah damn nice! And Sybil tried their Busan hottock too, which contains sunflower seeds and melted cinnamon sugar inside the fried flour cake.

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In the late afternoon, we made our way to Taejongdae Park, which is yet another park that overlooks the sea.

Along the way, we caught some pictures of the common local delicacies, such as funky-coloured corn, boiled shelled seastuff and silkworms! Argh, damn disgusting! Whenever I smell the silkworm thing, I would start to get dizzy. It’s an indescribable smell in a very unpleasant way. Totally not good at all.

The lighthouse is a major attraction in the park, and we took a tram ride (maybe $5 or less?) to the top of the park to get to the lighthouse. Woah, the sight was even better than the one at Namsan Tower. This one overlooks the sea, and I could see the cliffs, mountains, sea and boats; really beautiful! I was wearing the Korea University pullover, by the way, to show my pride for the school. Not to mention that it is cheap too!

There was a small road from the lighthouse that led to the stone cliffs on the other side of the sea, and we all went there to take photos. The cliff was really rocky and pretty dangerous too. There was only one railing that led to the cliff, and beyond that, there was nothing to hold people in the case that they fall off. Also, the road was rocky and uneven, making it hard to walk.

The most amazing this is that as we walked along the path, we actually saw women wearing high heels on the cliff. It’s amazing how these women could actually train their feet so much that they could walk even on rocky cliffs with heels on.

Once we reached the cliffs, we started taking random shots around the area. Besides the uneven ground, the wind that day was really strong too, so we were all really afraid we were going to fall off. Nonetheless, we still took many pictures in dangerous positions, cause the scenery was just too beautiful to be missed out.

 

We took a ship back to shore for $8, and everyone chose to sit on the top deck to view the scenery although we were all freezing in the cold. Woah the ferry ride was almost like taking a Viking ship, due to the strong winds and choppy water. At certain points in time we even hard to grab on to the railings with our lives so that we wouldn’t fall off the ship.

I found some excess potato chips in my bag and used them to feed the sea gulls. But somehow it attracted so many sea gulls that both Ziyi and I had to squat down and hide just in case the sea gulls were to attack us suddenly (which didn’t happen, of course).

Anyway we were all so suaku and kept screaming that all the passengers in the bottom deck laughed at us. Damn paiseh!

At night we headed over to Gwangalli beach. We had wanted to catch the fireworks that night by the beach, but we reached 2 hours late, cause we took the wrong subway line, and ended up having to reverse and take the right line all over again. It was really funny, cause we kept doing the wrong things in Busan, but we still had a lot of fun there.

To compensate for missing the fireworks, we bought actual fireworks for $1 per stick at the beach and set them off at the seaside. In the following picture, I am holding a tube of fireworks, which can set off maybe 10 fireworks consecutively. It was the first time in my life that I set off fireworks, and it was a remarkable experience. Activities on the final day will be posted another time!

Daegu

Finally, mid-term examinations have ended! Not sure if I was lucky, but out of everyone I know, I was the first to end my papers. In fact, 2 whole days ahead of the rest of the Singaporeans! Of course, all that came at a cost: 4 mid-term papers on Monday, and 1 on Tuesday. And being such a procrastinator, you can imagine how a terrible stage I was in on the Sunday before the mid-term papers!

Since I ended my exams early ahead of everyone else, I decided to travel out of Seoul alone, all the way to Daegu City, which is almost 4 hours away by limousine bus. To save money, I managed to source out a young family who was willing to host me in their house for 3 nights for free via couchsurfing.com, as recommended by Chin Keat.

My limousine bus to Daegu. Costs $22 for a single trip.

Finally arrived at East Daegu Station nearing 9pm!

Before meeting my hosts , I had my reservations, since I had never seen or talked to them in person before. However, the moment I met them, I could tell from their honest looks and warm welcome that I would be really safe during the period I were to stay with them.

My hosts, Daedong and Jaeyoon, are a pair of newly-weds (2.5 yrs) who happen to work in the same company – a Korean Oriental Medicine Hospital. They moved to the current home when they got married and adopted a stray puppy from the streets a year ago.

On the first night, I was treated to Daegu Samgyeup-sal by the couple, where I also tried soju for the first time. Surprisingly, soju didn’t taste as strong as I had imagined. And Daegu samgyeup-sal differs from the other regions in that pig intestines and potatoes are also served.

Daedong형’s house. Here’s the cute dog, named “Mong”, which stands for dream.

My own private room! Way more comfortable than my CJ dormitory.

The bed even comes with a heating mat, so that I will be kept warm at night.

For the 3 days I was there, I managed to climb 2 mountains, Biseuksan and Gat Bawi. Woah, the mountains were much harder to climb than I had expected! I thought that it was similar to trekking, where I just had to walk up a trail, but it was not the case! There were undergrowth, and rocks that I had to climb over, and it was hard! I was basically panting and resting every 2 minutes. Of course, I pretended to take pictures so that others would just think that I was enjoying the scenery.

Personally I feel coming down was the worst part of the climb, cause there is basically nothing to hold on to, and the slope is so steep that I kept thinking I was going to fall. Whereas the experienced climbers could walk naturally like on even ground, I had to keep squatting, and climbing with my hands, and hugging trees so that I wouldn’t trip over some rocks or sand. Really very embarrassing!

This elderly couple called out to me when I was going down, so I naturally said I didn’t understand Korean. However, they still signalled to me to come over, and shared their lunch with me! Of course, I tried to carry on a conversation with them in Korean as best as I could, but it probably lasted 2 minutes. For the rest of the conversation, I just kept saying yes although I understood nothing they said.

I also went to Daedong형’s university, Keimyung University. Woah, the school is really beautiful. Apparently, the school is named top 10 most beautiful campus in South Korea, and has been the filming locations for several dramas and movies. In fact, this is THE SHINHWA HIGH SCHOOL that Jandi and the F4 people attended in the Korean version of "Boys over Flowers"! I only found out after my friends told me it looked familiar to them. Checked out online and it's really true!

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My host family was the highlight of my Daegu trip. Every morning, Daedong형 would prepare breakfast for me to bring out on my journey. Not only that, he would take me to his workplace and print out a bunch of places for me to visit and then walk me to the bus stop to catch my bus. Throughout the day, he would also call to check that I was safe and enjoying myself.

An example of my daily breakfast, including donuts, bread, bananas, yoghurt drinks and choco-pies.

In the evening, the couple would bring me out to explore downtown. I went to Jungang-ro (city area, much like Seoul Myeong-dong) and Costco, a warehouse-like American franchise.

Jaeyoon누나 also prepared dinner for the whole family, where I has my first opportunity of eating home-cooked Korean food in a home setting.

Makori (막거리) – A kind of fizzy fermented rice wine

And those who know me know I don’t usually like dogs too much, but my host’s dog is so cute that I took a liking to it immediately. I felt almost like I belonged to the family, which felt really good, especially since I have been away from home for a pretty long time.

On the morning I was to leave, Jaeyoon누나 even woke up especially early to prepare sushi and miso soup for me to bring on my journey to Busan. They are the nicest Koreans I have met on the trip, and I feel really blessed to have met them here.

My special handmade breakfast, consisting of choco-pies, sushi, miso soup and banana milk.

Before I left for Busan, I went over to Seomun Market to explore around. It kinda reminded me of Singapore’s wet market, minus the wetness and the bad smell. Everything was sold there, including live cats and rabbits. Really dread to think what would happen to the animals sold there.