Busan, the City that Offers Dynamic Experiences

Our Last Day in Busan (Oct. 27, 2013)

On our last day in Busan, we went to Taejongdae Park. It is probably one of the favorite destinations in Busan. Located in the Southern part of Busan, along the coast you will surely be satisfy even if you just explore the place the whole day. History has it that the name "Taejongdae" comes from King TaeJong Mu-Yeol, the 29th king of the Silla dynasty in the seventh century. This apparently was the place he enjoyed shooting arrows. The highlight of the park are the cliffs near the lighthouse. The place is so beautiful and you will surely enjoy its refreshing views. If you want to spend time in a place of solitude, this is surely the place for you. It's easy to get to, easy to get around and the cliffs and ocean are beautiful.

With my fellow Wow Korea supporters

So if you feel like taking in a few scenic views, but don't feel like doing a long hike, Taejongdae is the best place to go. Spending time here was truly wonderful, relaxing and the sceneries are truly interesting.

Our lunch on that day, Bibimbap

Right after our adventure in Taejongdae, we moved to Jagalchi Market where we had our lunch.  Had so much fun much taking photos of fishes (different varieties), all kinds of seashells, prawns and octopus and crabs. Walking alone the wet market makes it more interesting since it feels like you are inside an aquarium wherein you are surrounded by all these marine species. 

The biggest crab I have ever seen

The seashells

Dried octopus

Octopus

Different kinds of seashells

Anchovies

Shrimps and Prawns

 After taking our lunch, we hurried back to our bus and went straight ahead to the Busan station since we need to catch up on our train schedule.  I felt so happy even if it’s just a short 3-days trip to Ulsan and Busan, because somehow our leaders managed our itineraries very well and we explored a lot of nice and enchanting places during our trip.  Busan is also a beautiful city like Seoul, the only difference is that, it has nice beaches.

The Busan station

That’s all folks.  On my next blog, will share you my adventure in Seoul together with our Wow Korea group. Anyeonghikaseyo!

Busan, the City that Offers Dynamic Experiences.

On our Second Day - Busan (Oct. 26, 2013)

The Haedong Yonggunsa Temple

On our first day in Busan, we start the morning off with a breakfast at the Dongbusan Hotel and then after that we went to our first stop, the Haedong Yonggunsa temple.  The temple was built beside the shore and is also called as the "water temple".  Our trips usually comes with a mission and in doing that, it's like we are having a maze game.  Taking pictures with the golden pig was our first mission.  It's also my chance to have picture with my "Pig" earthly branch as our individual mission. We spent more than an hour wandering around the temple, taking pictures and trying to throw coins in our desire to have our wishes come true.

With my animal sign "the Pig"

After visiting the temple, we stopped at Dalmaji Road and took some pictures. Fascinating yellow gold leaves keep on falling on the ground which signals the end of autumn.  Others opt to just seat on the bench, while others stepped up to the temple and had their pictures taken having trees as their backdrops.  We just spent few minutes at the park since it’s already lunchtime.  

The group decided to have lunch first at the Shinsegae Centum City before heading to our next destination. 

Shinsegae was recognized and certified by the Guinness World Records as the world’s largest department store  in the world. I really enjoyed the food especially the cheese pizza dipped with honey.  We were given time to look around and buy something if we want and then after a few minutes, we hurried to Haeundae Beach.

Upon reaching Haeundae beach, we went inside the Busan Aquarium and take a look at the marine species inside it.  Another thing that we need to accomplish is the name of the penguins from Busan aquarium, which we later on learned as “Jackass”.  Another mission was to take a best photo of our group at the beach, so we really tried to come up with something unique by making use of the sand.  After finishing all the missions, the supporters strolled, sit on the sand and appreciated the beautiful and less crowded beach.  As a nature lover myself, I was really swept away by the Haeundae's view.

What makes the trip more exciting is the 9^th Busan Fireworks Festival.  We are even given a special treatment, having a seat reserved for us, being a part of the KTO-Wow Korea.  Before the firework festival started, I almost startled at the beautiful night view of the Gwangan Bridge.  It resembles the Golden Gate.  Having Gwangan Bridge as the venue for fireworks festival makes the event more beautiful and fascinating.

Ulsan, a Town Full of Legendary Stories

Our First Day - Ulsan (Oct. 25, 2013)

After spending more than eight months in Seoul, I got the chance to travel to Ulsan and Busan (for the second time). Being one of the supporters of Wow Korea, a program initiated by the Korea Tourism Organization, I was able to travel in many places around Korea.  Part of our task is having a group mission as well as individual mission, which made this trip more exciting.  

We traveled via the KTX which took about 2 and a half hours journey to our first destination, the town of Ulsan.  Since we arrived at the town at exactly lunchtime, definitely our first mission would be to find a restaurant wherein we can eat to our heart’s content. It’s a good thing that we were provided with a shuttle bus, which made the trip much easier since we did a lot of missions for three days. 

After having our lunch, we headed to Daewangam Park wherein you can have a glimpse of Ulsan Beach.  Legend has it, that the name of the park was derived from Daewangam, the queen of King Munmu who was then the 30^th king of Silla dynasty.  According to history, the king was buried in the East Sea under the rock.  In his desire to protect his kingdom from enemies, it is said that he became a guardian dragon. When Queen Daewangam, she also decided to become a guardian dragon like the king and so she became Daewangam rock.

It is such an amazing place wherein you can see a lot of rock formations which has its own names e.g., zasal, namgeum, tanggen, bubusong and others. 

Rock formations that you can find at Daewangam Park namely tanggeon, namgeum, bubusong and zasal.

After enjoying the breeze at Daewangam Park, we headed to our next destinations, Hyundai Heavy Industries, their branch in Ulsan and the Oegosan Onggi Village.  I was truly impressed at the occupational safety being imposed at the Hyundai Heavy Industries.  It is so modern and everything is organized. We were able to tour around their Hyundai hall wherein it showcased the different ships they are producing.  We also got the chance to see the shipbuilding process, but taking pictures is restricted.

In Ulsan Onggi Museum, we were fascinated by the different pot designs.  It also houses the different countries’ contributions to the museum.  Though it’s quite a small museum compared to others I have seen, you will still enjoy the scenery and statues that can be seen around the place. 

After a tiring but enjoyable day, we cannot pass up for dinner, of course!  We had such a wonderful dinner that night.  Even the preparations were too artistic that makes it so tempting.  Everything is so delicious, but this one, the bulgogi in a pumpkin truly caught my attention.  We had fish, vegetables, meat, fruit and even the side dishes made our table set into festive mood.

Since we already satisfy our stomach, we traveled from Ulsan to Busan after dinner and checked-in at the Dongbusan Hotel.  

I thought it's the end of the day, but knowing our leader, Cho Sumin, he wouldn't end the day without any games and a little party in order to promote friendship and togetherness among each supporters.  We had so much fun on our first day and on my next blog, I will tell you the rest of the activity that we've done in Busan. See you!