SK Trip Diary: Yet another Busan City Tour (Morning Session)

After experiencing monsoon type weather on my first day at South Korea, I was not expecting a good weather the following day. And I also didn't believe the wether forecast on Accuweather website that predict a sunny and no rain Sunday for Busan.

Well, whatdayahknow, they we're absolutely right!

It was a fine and clear day (slightly cloudy in the morning though) but it was a perfect day to tour Busan!

Yehey!!

Abot langit na kaligayahan 

As usual, since I don't ahve any reservation for Busan City Tour Bus trip I went to the bus station before 9:00 AM to get the chance passenger seats. And to avoid slipping on tourist spots I listen attentively to the tourist guide and pay attention to the stops.

Funny thing was when I was in the line at bus station a quirky Korean girl (around 40 y /o) ask something to me in Korean, which obviously I didn't understand. After apologizing to her she spoke in fluent English and turns out she was our tourist guide! She's so nice and warm to tourist which makes this trip a very enjoyable one!

Thank God it's not raining!

I took the half day History and Culture tour for 10,000 Won (since I'm a sucker for Museum) which leads me to the following places:

1. Busan Station
2. Gold Theme Street (via)
3. Seomyeon (via)
4. Bokcheon Museum
5. Geumgang Park
6. Beomeosa temple
7. Busan Station

First stop is the Bokcheon Museum....

Bokcheon Museum holds the relics and information about the Bokcheon ancient tombs, which is considered national historical treasure of Korea. It's a wide area which has a museum, exhibition hall, a temple and tomb park.

 

Entrance to the Museum

Easy or the Hard way 

Here's the picture of the ancient tomb in Bokcheon...

Big Jars, Small Jars, included in the tomb

....with knife and some pottery as well

Here's the coffin and the libingan, ang liit lang nya...

One of the main attraction of the museum is the Jar Coffin Tombs of the Three-Han Period. Ang galing lang because nagkasya sa maliit na Jar yung tao! Afraid!

Miniature diorama of the Tomb

Polished potteries and some knick knacks ornaments !

And more Jars...this time it's huge jars!

Diorama on how the ancient Koreans built the tomb. It's a hard task to do, effort kung effort!

Birds eye-view of the whole Bokcheon compound and the discovered tombs. 

Here's the exact replica of the tomb. It's huge and roomy inside! Puede talaga mag-iwan ng mga jars and stuff sa loob.

They have excavated this typical Korean horseman, complete with suit and armor (pati ang horse) Cool!

The museum itself is not that big but certainly the artifacts they have inside shows us the magnificent and colorful history of the ancient people on Busan, South Korea.

Oh, one more thing I like about Busan is that, compare to Seoul, the people here are more laid back. Here you can see their main road with few cars on the street. It's a very easy and not hectic type of city which I like. Kakawala ng stress.

Next on our itinerary is the Geumgang Park, when our friendly tourist guide told us that there is a cable car on the park I was excited!

Geumgang park is popular among residents of Busan for it has a trekking path which leads to the mountain top. Yes, surprisingly trekking is a big hit in Korea. And not just for the young people but for most old people as well. Very impressive! You can see some lolo and lola wearing TNF or Columbia outfit and make their way to the top of Geumgang Park. How I wish I have the time to hike this trail, ang saya siguro nun!

Cable car ride cost 5000 Won (round trip). I think it's a little bit expensive but upon riding the cable car it was all worth it.

Going up...

...up (with the Busan skyline at the background)....

....higher (cherry blossoms!)...

 And finally we're on the top! Yehey!

The place is so serene, a very good spot for meditation and prayer

Rock climbing anyone?

Tired Tourist!

AFter spending nearly 30 minutes at the top, over looking at the city and do some rock climbing, we decided to go back at the base and proceed to the bus. 

Shempre sa left side naman ako ng cable car since nakita ko na yung view sa right side of the mountain.

Cherry Blossoms padin!

Busan City, lot's of Condominiums building!

The Rockies

Near the entrance is where the Buddhist temple is located. When we arrived at the place the monks are currently in their prayer time so no photos allowed inside. I just help myself in looking around their garden.

Libingan ng mga old monks. Yung may turtle is a high positioned monk daw.

Here's the libingan of the famous warrior who defended Busan during the conquest of foreign invaders. They protect the old castle located on top of the mountain from these invaders. And the wooden gate is a replica of the gate which they guarded and defended and where their bodies (still with arrow attached to them) was found.

Cultural presentations are held every day, sayang we didn't have the time to watch the whole presentation/ demonstration.

Off to the next tourist attraction!

More post to follow!
Abangan!

SK Trip Diary: Dynamic Busan sans the weather

It was freezing cold when I arrived in Busan at past 10:00AM, and with a delayed flight of Cebu Pacific i missed the limousine bus that will took me directly to the hotel. Everybody was pissed for obvious reason but for me, I took it as a relaxing time and praying time narin :D.

And since my original plan was to take the bus from airport to hotel didn't materialize and taxi is NOT an option (i have issues with taxis) I decided to forego to my next option: the Metro Rail system. 

Yes, sometimes I scrimp on things like transportation.

The metro rail is just outside the airport and the vending machine for tickets are located on the ground floor as well. Ignoramus as I am I have no idea how the vending machine works, and God must have listened to my payer because in a matter of minutes an airport employee who spoke very good english arrive and he helped me to buy the tickets and teach me how the rail system works.

He was my first blessing in Busan.

After two train rides and transfers I arrive in Toyoko-Inn hotel (which is conveniently located outside the train station). While signing some papers at the hotel, the receptionist offers me a membership card for Toyoko-Inn which gives me 3000 won discount on my check in. I said yes and they did gave me discount.

They are my second blessing in Busan.

Come next morning it was raining cats and dogs! Yikes! Was optimistic that the rain will stop after a few hours so I decided to join the Busan City tour bus (hop in/ho off) kind of tourist bus). I didn't get on the first trip (9:30 AM) because it was already full and I decided to join the second trip (@ 10:00AM) 

The loop tour is named Haundae tour and it brought me to the following areas:

Busan Station (take off point)

Busan Musuem

Gwangali beach

Nurimaru

Haundae beach

Haundae station

Shisegae Department store

Busan Musuem of Art (BEXCO)

Gwangan bridge

UN memorial cementery

Busan station (drop off point)

It was raining steadily hard when we start the tour. And since I forgot it was a hop-off/hop-in kind of bus and im not paying attention on the announcement in the monitor I forgot to got off at Busan Museum and Gwangali beach! Sayang!

I just promised myself to take the afternoon bus just to visit this place.

Oh, another challenge to this tour is I don't have an umbrella!! All i have is a thick paddington jacket which i was a bit hesitant to bring because I was expecting a spring type weather here in Korea. Thank God for it, it keep me warm and dry the whole tour!

APEC painting in Nurimaru

Anyhow, I  decided to go off at Nurimaru station and visit the place, and it was worth it! The place was the convention center during the 2005 APEC leader summit and the place turned into a tourist spot after the summit. Lot's of good views can be found on this cliff situated park. This is where I saw for the vey first time a Cherry blossoms.

Wet Cherry blossoms that is.

Oh, what I like about Nurimaru is the free entrance! Yehey!

Can you count how many swans and deer are there in the painting?

 Wide and circular ceiling of the APEC Summit conference room

Bawal lumapit sa upuan! Ang strict!

 Madam Gloria sat here

 Ang host lang ang may computer! sushal!

 Serene even under the storm

 Rocky Waters

 Light house of Nurimaru

After I went to every nook and cranny of Nurimaru I decided to head off to the next station, Haundae beach.

Solo Traveller just like me

It was still raining when I arrived at the beach. And since I don't have an umbrella, i just look view the beach from afar, from the Busan Aquarium building that is.

I didn't enter the aquarium (and I don't want to pay 10,000++ won) since I'm not a big fan of fishes and everything that lives under the sea, river, lakes, and what not. And since i already went to HK and Manila ocean park i think that enough aquarium in a lifetime.

I heard and read that during summer this area is very very famous for swimming and water sports activities. In fairness the beach is indeed clean and suitable for swimming. Very Nice! Parang Miami, Florida lang ang peg.

Next destination is the Shisegae department store, Busan's version of Greenbelt. I think it is the most sophisticated shopping mall in Busan, where you can find Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci and most top end designer items under one roof. And thank God I forgot to bring my credit card with me because it was season sale at the mall! This is the only place where I saw the biggest "The North Face" store ever! Turns out TNF is BIG here in Busan because almost everyone wore TNF (at different ages!) Soshal!

I sadly left the store (because I didn't bought anything!) and proceed to the next station, which is the Busan Museum of Art (BMA). The museum is a three story building which house contemporary art, form painting to sculpture to non-conventional art like old televisions and mannequin! Cool!

Same as Nurimaru, BMA is free entrance!

BMA is like the MoMa of Korea. Modern and Non contemporary artworks are installed here. Also they have a whole floor dedicated for Kids art. Ang cool!!

 Korean traditional woman riding a carriage and a horse made of TV set

 Lego Parrot at Kid's Museum/ Art workshop

The works of Henry Miller is also on display at BMA. I must admit i didn't know he paints pala!

Medyo malaswa nga lang mga painting ni Ka Henry! LoL!

Some old paintings can be found on this museum, just like this one...

..... and the modern art as well

After almost an hour in the museum I decide to go home. It was still raining hard and while waiting for the bus (which was delayed by a few minutes) the two lady whom im with at the bus offered me their umbrella. See, the 2 girls have their own umbrella and they took pity on me, all wet and lonely (LoL), so they gave me their one umbrella and they share in one umbrella nailing.

They are my third blessing in Busan.

You might think why I decided to get wet and not buy an umbrella. Well the answer is I didn't find any (cheap)!!! Only when I arrived in my hotel where there is a Convenience store (Family Mart) where I found an umbrella (12,000 won!!!). 

Moving on, after we hop in at the bus in BMA, I decided to skip UN memorial since the place is an open area i.e. I'll get wet even more!

Returning to the hotel at 3:00PM, all wet and tired, I was decided to skip the tour the  next day if the weather will be the same. Thank God for the hot noodles and BIbimbap that i ate at Abby's in Busan's Chinatown (they have a FIlipina waitress who teaches me what to eat and tell me the OFW stories in Busan) all the stress and tiredness of the day was gone.

Oh by the way, before I went to Abby's I already bought the umbrella, but while  I was eating the Russian group who was with me inside the restaurant got off and took my brand new umbrella! 

WTH!!!

Just to compensate the loss, the Filipina waitress gave me their umbrella. Same type but a little bit old. Kainez Veneracion!

Good food + hot Shower + Facebook updates after, It's time to sleep. I prayed to God for a good weather the next day so that I can enjoy my stay in Busan.

And guess what, He didn't disappointment me.

Abangan!