My first experience at the Busan Fireworks festival was back in 2011. I remember thinking we had really lucked out with the weather. The temperature was nice during the day and even though it was cloudy, it wasn’t raining. I must have been feeling really optimistic when I left my apartment because I didn’t even bring an umbrella. Continue reading
In my last post, I told you a bit more about what Haeundae Beach is like during summer. My next summer time recommendation is Tongdosa Temple. It’s located in Yangsan, just between Busan and Ulsan.
There’s a stream near the entrance that is quite popular among the Koreans.
As you learned in my last post, Haeundae Beach (Busan, South Korea) in the summer is more than a little overwhelming. If you find yourself at this chaotic beach in summer, my advice is to soak up the scenery…
… then head towards the Westin Chosun Hotel.
Don’t forget to people watch along the way!
Take a left just as you see the Westin and head towards the rocky end of the beach. Once there, it’s now time to check out what I’ve decided to call, “The Men of Haeundae.” They are an interesting bunch!
Curious what Korea’s best beach is like during summer?
The Korean students are out of school for the summer so this is the week that most families take vacation. Many businesses even close so that the owners and employees can enjoy some well deserved time off. Many of them head to Haeundae Beach in Busan.
The beach is completely lined with umbrellas as far as you can see… because who wants to get sun at the beach, right? And the sea is full of yellow floats.
One of the most famous attractions in Busan is the Busan Aquarium. It’s located right on Haeundae, Busan’s most popular beach. If you go, watch out for those pesky birds. As always, click on any picture below to see the full size image.
The aquarium is nice, but it’s actually quite small. The entrance fee is 18,000 won (about $16.50). We thought that was a bit too expensive. It’s definitely good to get it checked off of the To Do List, but we won’t be back.
After the aquarium, we stopped off at the darts booth and Andy and I threw some darts at balloons. Here we are with our prize seashell necklaces…
Our next stop was Fuzzy Navel for drinks and chips and dips… and more darts.
Afterwards, we headed to the Wolfhound Pub and had some Irish food and played more darts.
In Korea, mountains are everywhere. It’s really different for me because I come from Texas and it’s very flat there. I love being able to look into the distance and see the mountains. My friends and I decided to take the cable car up one of the mountains here so we could visit Mt. Geumjeong Fortress. It was a super easy 20 minute hike each way. You can look at the pictures below.
We weren’t sure what to expect, but we definitely weren’t expecting to only see a stone wall. Apparently there are several different “gates” like the one we saw, but they are quite spread out. If you take certain hiking trails you can see the walls of the fortress span quite a distance. I’ve seen some of my friends pictures and it’s really a great site. That’s definitely on my to do list.
The Jagalchi Market is a giant indoor fish market. It’s one of the most famous places in Busan. It’s a must see. It’s located in a really great area so you can get a lot of touristy things out of the way just by getting off the subway at Jagalchi and making your way down to Nampo-dong (where you can visit PIFF Square and Busan Tower). I have been to Jagalchi twice in my two months in Busan. You can see the pictures and video below.
*Click on the pictures to see the full size image.*
Outside of the market – a woman preparing an octopus
Walking tour of the inside of the Jagalchi Market
If you head outside of the fish market you will run into some outdoor markets and restaurants.
If you live in Busan and you have never been to the Jagalchi Fish Market, I recommend you go. And if you are visiting Busan, you should definitely check it out. If you live across the world and will never experience the market, I hope you enjoyed the pictures and videos.
Yesterday, I left you wondering what crazy thing I could have possibly done as I was leaving the temple. Today is the big reveal, but I’ll let the pictures tell you…
Visiting the Yonggungsa Temple has been one of the highlights of my short time here in Korea. The great thing about this temple is that it’s situated right beside the sea. Most temples are nestled high up in the mountains and require a hike to get to them, but this temple was just a 20 minute taxi ride from Haeundae Beach.
Once we were dropped off by the taxi, we had a short walk to the temple. The walkway was lined with vendors selling food and gifts. There were also lots of statues along the path. I hope us wanting to pose with everything along the way wasn’t offensive, as this was a Buddhist temple.
Once we finally got to the temple, we were struck by its magnificence. It was gorgeous and there’s no way I could ever do it justice with my words so I’ll just show you LOTS of pictures instead.
* You can click on any picture in this post to see the full size image *
I’ll leave you with a cliffhanger. Come back tomorrow to see what crazy thing we all did as we were leaving the temple. I never would have done this on my own, but peer pressure got the best of me….
Life Outside of Texas 