From Saturday July 14, 2012
Got up early for our group field trip to Busan - the second largest city in Korea! All other groups are also going this weekend. Met with my group around 10am and headed to the Pohang bus terminal via taxi. We bought our tickets for 7700 won (6200won if you have a valid high school student ID or younger...Bee actually had one bc he graduated early), where they had buses leaving to Busan every 15 minutes, got some kimbap for the bus ride, and got on our bus~ Three of the four groups got on this bus because Katie's and Andy's group was coming the next day.
Initially, Gee really didn't want to go to Busan, claiming it as a "Gotham City." Interesting... but we ended up going anyway since all the other groups were going that weekend also. However, that weekend also happened to be horrible weather in Busan - it was raining a LOT and quite frequently. I still managed to have fun though ^^
Arrived in Busan about an hour and 20 minutes later, went into the station to buy one-day subway passes for 4000won each, got on the train to Nampo-dong, looked around the streets there, went on the hunt for the famous 순두부 [soft tofu soup] place for lunch (Bee said that it had really fast service - sometimes even coming out in 3 seconds and almost always under a minute), went to 자갈치 시장 [Jalgalchi Market] (Korea's largest fish market), randomly met Ling's / Michael's and Peter's / Adrian's groups around there, and then went to 서면 [SeoMyun] (lots of shopping and hanging out place), then to 해운대 [Haeundae] (widely considered Korea's best beach~~), ate 돼지국밥 [pork soup], seafood, and took fried chicken to 베스타 찜질방 [Vesta Jimjilbang / Spa], and eventually met up the other groups there and talked about our days in Busan haha.
Hm... let's see. Now for the bad experiences at Busan (dedicated to Gee haha):
- got rudely cut in front of in line for the bathroom at Jalgalchi Market
- slipped on a lady's blanket in the jimjilbang and she woke up and got really, really mad... but I didn't step on her or do it on purpose o_o
- rain all day, all weekend... was still fun though
Picture time!
bus terminal in Pohang
arrival in Busan an hour and 20 minutes later. "Dynamic Busan" ... we would be referring to this later in our day in jokes whenever something questionable happened
got on the subway and headed to Nampo-dong - it took about 40 minutes I believe, but we didn't have to change lines. my students said that the board with the crab said something along the lines - come, come, buy or die....??? really?
@ Nampo-dong - the older downtown of Busan. people have told me that the trend has moved to SeoMyun. There were many shops here that seemed fairly cheap, but didn't go shopping because my group is all guys...
my students in the streets of Nampo-dong :D before the rain. Key realized he left his umbrella on the taxi from POSTECH to Pohang bus terminal.
we found the famous soft tofu soup place :) excellent! seemed like it was at the end of an alleyway? or maybe we just came from the wrong side.
took about a minute for everything to be served - wow, faster than fast food. a thing I didn't like about the food though was that everything almost tasted the same... including the side dishes. they were all flavored with the same hot pepper mix - the kimchi, the soondubu (soft tofu soup), odeng (fishcake).
was only 4000won each though and pretty good
questionable tower that we think might be the tower that is similar to Namsan in Seoul? we were talking about perhaps visiting, and then we see it. not sure what else it would be though haha
Gee posing in front of a statue in Nampo-dong
birds at the base
going to Jagalchi - the biggest fish market in Korea
if you go out the backdoor, you see water! coool
outside part of the fish market. we didn't actually end up getting anything here bc we were too full already
subways in Busan seem to be under construction. they are installing the doors that close off the people from the tracks (heard it was because too many people were committing suicide by jumping off)
now in SeoMyun - the "newer" downtown of Busan
haha Yongdo told me about the name of this club. turns out that it's actually another branch that he didn't really know about
streets of SeoMyun - seems like mostly places to eat and drink
here's where the shopping is at! Primall - an underground shopping center in SeoMyun. their stuff may even be better than in Seoul...or at least I think I got some good deals :) but I came back the next day with Ling and Katie
inside there are so many people o_o
Gee really wanted to go on "Disco Bang Bang" but once we found it, he said it wasn't fun enough to go on since it was still daylight and too many smaller kids were on. apparently it gets a lot more fun at night
cute heart
then hopped back on the subway to go to Haeundae beach
stopped by for pt 1 dinner at this restaurant because we wanted Pork Soup
mmm 7000won
after mixing and adding a bit of salt - was delicious!!! I would definitely get it again. apparently it's one of the signature dishes of Busan, along with seafood.
complimentary coffee. cool machine where you just press a button for which coffee you want and the cup comes down for you from inside the machine and fills up
finally the beach! still drizzling. Haeundae beach is said to be the best beach in Korea? the water wasn't cold or hot - it was just right :)
just standing where the waves barely got to me was so much fun.
my feet buried after the wave leaves :o
haha Key
then we went hunting for a seafood restaurant. found one finally after walking a bit. gave us moth cocoons as a side dish... along with peanuts. my students say that it just tastes like protein / soybean. I did eat it, but I put it in a wrap so it wasn't eaten alone. looks like cockroaches...
oysters that I think were also a side dish
toasting to moth cocoons
I forgot what it was? maybe eel? I took a picture of its live form. they were actually moving still when the guy gave it to us, but eventually, they stopped moving and we started eating.
with mostly only the sauce left, we added rice
here's the thing that we ate
streets of Busan near Haeundae. we also got fried honey chicken to take inside the jimjilbang.
trying to haul a taxi to go to Vesta Jimjilbang
outside Vesta- from inside, you can see the beaches of Haeundae. Vesta is sort of on a cliff that overlooks it. 9000won per person. can stay overnight
computer charges to use -.- there's also no wifi..
eating our chicken in a corner
cleaning times for the saunas (bath area of the jimjilbang)
inside one of the steam rooms
the ceiling haha it is shaped like a dome
the "salt room" - ended up going in there later, and you can lay on the rock pebbles. so hot!!!
the snack bar
drinks. yulmulcha and sikhye
baked egg mmm a jimjilbang classic
We tried playing a game, but it got shut down pretty quickly because there were people that wanted to go to sleep. There are so many people there at night... almost all of the floor space gets taken up by people's blankets and rectangle pillows (both the jimjilbang provides). A group of us also kept rotating between the ice room and the hot rooms and talked. Gee and Bee slept on the 5th floor where it was more quiet and small, and Key slept in another room on the 3rd floor. There were 5 floors total in Vesta - 1st was reception and shoe lockers, 2nd floor was for girls, 3rd is the main room with the steam rooms / ice room / snack bar / huge sleeping and chillin area, 4th for guys, and 5th another chilling room and computer room.
