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Published: March 17th 2013
1st Mar: Feel sick still thinking about this day. hangover from hell! I woke up to my phone ringing just before 8. It was Andi saying that she had just got on the train and could I bring her a bikini, as she had forgot to pack one. I was so confused and still vey drunk. I had set my alarm to go off really early but must of changed it in my drunken state the night before. Hopped in the shower, vommed, and then crawled back into bed for a bit more sleep. However I couldn't sleep and just lay there feeling like shite. My alarm went off again, and I shoved some clothes on, I couldn't even face putting make up on (I never leave the house without me slap on) and trotted off down the street to geta taxi to the station, as I was in no fit state to get a bus. Got to the station and on the traqin and sat in a coma like state for the 2 and a half hours with my sunglasses on. Lol, must of looked like a right dickhead.
The train arrived in Busan a bit late, put me
slap on, and met up with Andi. We took a bus over to Centum City, where our hostel was located. We managed to find the hostel after getting a bit lost. The wife that owned the place wasn't there when we arrived, so Andi rang her and she turned up. Apparantly she had sent Andi an email saying that we would be staying at her other hostel, and couldn't believe that she hadn't ot it. Well love, not everyone has smartphones. She didn't have the greatest manner, but I put this down to my tiredness and hangover, however later reading other people's comments on Hostelworld, she does seem like a bitch. However her younger brother was lovely, and eventhough he didn't speak great English he tried to help us with planning where to go, and what to see. Anyway it was about a 5 minute walk to the hostel where we would be staying. The first place looked really nice, dead posh, but she said the other place had amazing views, so we headed over there. In the other building we took the lift to the top floor, the 44th. I've never stayed that high up in my life before.
The views from the apartment were amazing. It had floor to ceiling windows in the living room and bedrooms. We could look out over Centum City, Diamond Bridge, and a lot of the surrounding area. Before heading out we sat and had a brew, soaking in the view.
We finally made a move and we headed out to the Dalmaji Trail. A cab driver pulled up in front of us, and he took us to the Dalmaji Trail. However he got lost and at first just took us to the Dalmaji neighbourhood. After some assistance from some random Koreans in the street, who could speak English, bless them for their help, we got to the right place. The taxi driver had been going over some bumps in the taxi and it really didn't help my hungover stomach. I thought I was going to spew everywhere, when I got out of the taxi. You know when your mouth starts watering, I was mortified that I was probs going to throw up in front of a load of randoms. However I managed to get it under control.
We went to a restaurant The Pho because Andi was starving. I ordered
Haundae Beach
View from the Dalmaji Roadsome pineapple fried rice and maybe managed two mouthfuls before I had to go to the toilet to be sick. Not my finest hour, by any means. Needless to say I got my meal boxed up to take home with me. We walked on the trail for about an hour maybe a bit longer, but it wasn't that great. We were just walking through the woods and had no real views at all. We gave up when we got to the end of one part of the trail and headed back as it was starting to get dark. We walked the other way and got some nice pictures of Haeundae Beach and Diamond Bridge.
We hopped in a cab and got him to take us back to Centum City, and to Spa Land. Spa Land is in the world's largest department store (ahem) and is Asia and the world's biggest spa. I think I got that right. It's quite expensive and you are give a four hour time limit. But it's deffo worth a visit. After stripping off, I headed into the bathing area. Got myself all nice and clean, and then hit the different baths. One had jets
Haeundae Beach
View from the Dalmaji Road which massaged your body, that was my favourite. The outdoor pool was nice, but a bit too hot. In my alcohol ravaged state I kept having to go out for water breaks to try and rehydrate. I also only lasted in the sauna for about 30 seconds. The baths were lovely and really relaxed me, I felt a million times better.
We donned our Spa Land shorts and t-shirts, and headed for a mooch about the rest of the complex. We went in the saunas and different rooms. I think my favourite was the Turkish room, and I happily nodded off in there for a bit. Some of the rooms were too hot though. After a few hours we headed back to the hostel. It must of only been about ten or not that long after, but I was done in. So quickly changed into my pyjamas and climbed up to my top bunk. I was shitting myself going to sleep in that thing. 44 (four is an unlucky number in Korea, and even Incheon airport has no gate 4 or 44) floors up and only a glass window saving me from imminent death. So I lay right on
Diamond Bridge
View from the Dalmaji Road the edge of the bed furtherest away from the windows. My heart was still pounding though. I was praying I didn't move, to the other side of the bed, in the night.
2nd Mar: Not the greatest night's sleep. The other two lasses in the room had the heater cranked so high that te room was boiling, it was so stuffy. Poor Andi went to sleep on the sofa in the living room as it was cooler out there. Also I don't think lying on a top bunk next to a glass wall, forty four floors up helped in my case. We had all these great plans to leave early but it was about 11, by the time we got up and got sorted. I ate my fried rice for the previous night for breakfast. Also Icould'nt figure out how to turn the shower on in the hostel. Why can't I even manage the simplest of tasks at time. The hostel was nice and we paid a lot because of the view, which was amazing, I would love to have a view like that from my window at home, but it was a little bit scruffy, it just needed
Barbie Face
Plastic surgeon in Centum City a really good clean instead of just doing the basics.
Anyway, when we finally left we took te subway a few stops to Haeundae, and then the bus to Haedong Yonggungsa Temple. The bus was heaving, the world and his wife were heading out to the temple today. The bus ride was canny scary. Korean bus drivers, as a rule, drive like maniacs. Unless you're on one of the posh sitting only buses, where the drivers must have to pass some special safe driving course, as I think they drive too slow. Normally I love the fact the drivers go so fast because I feel like I'm getting to my destination quicker. But when the bus is packed to the rafters and the driver is still letting more people on (I don't understand why he can't just go sod it, I'm full and not let people on) and driving fast going round bends and corners, i was sure the bus was going to topple over and I would be crushed all the other people.
Happily we got off the bus at the bus stop near to the temple. It was about a ten minute walk to the temple
entrance. The area around the entrance, for some reason reminded me of Stanley Market in Hong Kong, think tourist tat at it's finest. The queue to get into the temple was unreal. Also Koreans forming an ordally queue and berating other, who were trying to push in, am I really still in Korea? The queue was like a giant snake and we slowly moved our way forward.
Once we got inside the temple grounds and down the stairs we were able to break from the snake formation and move around freely. The temple was beautiful and the location was stunning at the edge of the sea. This would be an amazing place to do a temple stay, however the millions of tourists would kind of ruin it. We had a good wander around the temple taking about a million photos because it was so pretty. We sat on the rocks for a bit too taking in the views. We could see some stone bells behind the temple and tried to figure out how to get there, but a woman working at the temple told us it was dangerous. When we left the temple we took the forest trail to
find the bells. It was a short walk and not really dangerous, just one little part was a bit dodgy.
Getting back into Busan proper was a ballache. We went out to the bus stop nearest the temple. When a bus turned up it was full and only a few people from the bus stop managed to squeeze on. So we walked about three bus stops back and managed to get on the bus there. I don't understand why they don't add extra buses for public holidays, there were so many people. The bus took forever to get back to the city. But luckily for us it went near our hostel so we didn't have to transfer to the subway.
We stopped for a late lunch at some Korean Chinese restaurant. The food was quite nice, we had seafood noodles and some sweet and sour pork. The sweet and sour prk wasn't as pungent as at home. You really have to soak the meat in the sauce to get any flavour. Also the staff st the restaurant were pretty crap and took forever to come and take our order. Wouldn't rush back there. Then we grabbed our bags
from the hostel and took the subway to Haeundae. We dropped our bags at our hostel in Haeundae, it was a lot cheaper, and cleaner. The location was also excellent, one street back from the beach.
We hopped on the subway to take the long journey to Jagalchi Fish Market. I had been looking forward to coming here, as I had not been on my previous visits to Busan, and was happy to have a friend, who liked sashimi with me, so we would be able to order it. We had a wander arounf the outdoor market. It was lots of little stalls with tiny restaurants in the back. There were also some bigger restaurants in the proper buildings, too. We had a little look in the giant fish market, too. It was similar to the one in Seoul at Noryangjin. We left the market area for a little bit and went aand out some random street food, it was kind of like teppanyaki, with a fired egg along side it. It was dead nice. I really don't eat enough street food in Korea, and really should try to eat more, as it's nearly always good.
A lot
of the places to eat were fairly pricey, not pricey by western standards, but price for us. We went to a place, where a woman had given us her card. We ordered one sashimi set for 15,000 won and we were goingto get a sushi set, too, but they were sold out so we settled for a small plates of Tempura prawns for 20,000 won. The side dishes and soup arrived for the sashimi so we dug in to those. The sashimi came and it was lovely. We were eating that wondering when the prawns were coming. I had seen lots of small plates of prawns going out from the kitchen, and they were tiny. Bit gutted, we had spent 20k on a tiny plate of prawns. However when our prawns arrived we hada massive plate of them, so happy! the other people must of had some special set menu thing. The prawns were delicious, too. There were so many that we couldn't finish them, and had to take the leftovers home for later.
Busan Tower was the next stop on our agenda. It was a lot closer to the market than we had realised and the taxi to
get there was pretty cheap. It wasn't that expensive to get into. If I remember correctly only about 5,000 won. We took the lift up to the top and had a look out from the cafe level and then took the stairs up to the next level. My god the staircase was tiny. They must of been doing work or something on it, as it was far too small. The level above the cafe is the observatory deck. The views were nice, but not as good, as when I had been during the day. Also my camera is crap at taking night photos, and through glass, so my photos were pretty crappy. We had a little look around the park at the bottom of the temple and then found a staicase that took us back down into the town. We stopped off at Cafe Bene for some drinks to take on the long subway ride back to Haeundae.
We stopped back at the hostel quickly to grab the beach mat, makgeolli, and fireworks. Also stole some of the hostel's mugs to drink the makgeolli from. We sat on the beach drinking our makgeolli, and set off the firework. It
was a bit disappointing. but lots of other people were setting off fireworks, too, so we got to enjoy those. We couldn't hack it on the beach for very long, as it was freezing, so we downed the makgeolli qickly and retreated to the hostel. The hostel was freezing. It's pretty strange but both the hostels we stayed at on this trip didn't have ondol (underfloor heating). So the electric blanket would be getting used tonight.
3rd Mar: Up around nine. I slept a lot better than the previous night. The electric blanket kept me warm, eventhough I was scared to use it. They get a bad wrap in England. I didn't crank it up too much so I was just nice and not sweating me tits off. Had a brew or two while waiting for the shower. After dressing and putting me slap on, I made myself some brekky. The breakfast at this hostel was much more up my street than the one yesterday. Toast with cream cheese, am and a fried egg, nom nom. Washed down with lots of orange juice and coffee.
We had a pretty chilled out morning and didn't manage to leave the
hostel until 11, which was check out time. The weather was really nice, the sun was shining and it wasn't too cold. So we walked all the way along Haeundae Beach to the end and alos did the little coastal walk to APEC House. The views were stunning and we took lots of photos. I had been here before but I think I could keep coming back here as it is so pretty. It also felt like winter was well and truly over, but I think that's wishful thinking on my part.
After our walk we retuned to the beach and laid the mat out, so we could chill. We were just getting comfy when a big wave rolled up and got us a bit wet. Oops! I think we were a bit too close to the sea. So we moved further back, but were unable to sit on the mat as it was soaked. The wind made it a bit chilly, but I still mamaged to doze off and have a little nap. Also some numpty was fedding the seagulls near us. What a dickead! Well there were two of them and they thought it was a good
idea to stand in the middle of the beach and throw shrimp chips in the air, and have all the seagulls descend. Tools!
We thought about going for a massage after the beach, and we went to check out one place near our hostel, but it was far too expensive. So we went and grabbed our bags and looked for a place to eat lunch. We ended up at Fuzzy Navel. It's a bar and taco place just back from the beach on the street up to the subway station. We sat outside and got lots of stares. We both order burritos. They were nice, but not as nice as Dos Tacos in Gangnam.
We then took the subway back to the train station, which takes forever, well about 45 minutes, maybe a bit longer. The subway ride was hell on earth as it was packed and this old couple got on that stank of piss. Oh my god! I was gagging and could only breathe by pressing my face up to my jacket. It was rank! I was so happy to get off that train. At the station we had a coffee and said our goodbyes as
we were getting different trains. I was taking the slow train back. It took nearly 5 hours though. We left at 17:25 and it arrived back to Suwon just after 10. Oh boy, Suwon was freezing compared to Busan. Luckily I timed te bus well and didn't have to wait too long, and got home pretty quick.
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