Korea Late Winter Sonata 2015-Busan - Haedong Yonggungsa Temple （海东龙宫寺）

 Stumbled across someone's blog and realized there is this beautiful temple in Busan and so decided to make a trip here.

Most of the temples in Korea are found in mountains so this temple along the coast line is consider a rare find in Korea.

Someone finally wearing the scarf I knitted

Directions:

1). Alight at Haeundae station
2). Take exit 7
3). Walk straight to the bus stop and take bus 181
4). Alight at Haedong Yonggungsa Temple.

Not to worry about missing the stop as there is announcement in English on the bus when nearing major attractions on Busan bus.

1 big attraction before this stop is Lotte outlets. I reckon it should be quite a new one. Its one stop away from the temple stop. You can consider going there after visiting the temple.

Alight at this bus stop

Vast area of undeveloped land opposite the bus stop

Big sign near the bus stop

 Once you alight from the bus, turn righat and you can see a big sign of the temple. Do not be mistaken, you are no where near the temple yet.

There is a uphill road at the intersection and it's 15min walk uphill. Lucky for us, it's near winter end now and the weather is cool. Still after the walk uphill, we took off our jackets to cool down.

Walk uphill

Nearing temple after the climb

 We came to a street after climbing uphill and walk through it. There are quite a lot of food and souvenirs vendors here.

Nearing the entrance, there are the 12 zodiacs statues outside the temple. We each took turn to take a photo with our zodiac signs and put in coins in the donation box in front of the statue.

Rat

Ox

Tiger

Rabbit

Dragon

Snake

Horse

Goat

Monkey

Chicken

Dog

Pig

Mr Love with his Zodiac sign

Me with my Zodiac sign

History of Temple in Mandarin

Beautiful flowers in bloom

Pagoda outside Temple

At the entrance

Looking back at the entrance

 There s a long flight of stairs near at the entrance and we went down. Half way down the stairs, there is a small route by the left and we took it to see what is inside.

The sight that greeted us was breath taking, exactly like the pictures but better with all the wind blowing in our facing cooling us down.

View of temple from the stairs on our way down

Wefie is compulsory with such great view

Nearer view of temple from where we are standing

I think this is 地藏王菩萨

 We went back to the original route after photo taking and continue to the temple. There was this Buddha of Granting a Son on the way and I touched his tummy quite a lot of times and my own tummy too hoping for good luck. Hehe

Buddha of Granting a Son

Buddha head embedded on the wall

 Along the way to the temple, there are sections where little monk statues are place.
Quite a lot of people stopped to take pictures or to offer prayers.

Buddha for Academic Achievement

 Before the main temple, we need cross a bridge where to the right, there is a lucky coin divination. There is a pot in the middle where you can try to throw coins inside for good lucky.We tried but failed and moved on.

Try throwing coins into the pot

Such clear waters

View of the coast

 We walked into the main temple and went up to the main praying hall - 大雄宝殿 . You will need to take off your shoes to enter the main praying hall.

I wanted to make a donation to pray for good health for us but was not able to communicate with the in charge. End up, she use the most easy way out. By writing the prices down and let me choose the price though I didn't know what the prices will have which kind of prayers. But I donated based on my ability to pay then.

Laughing Buddha

We walked around and came across a long stairway leading up to the Haesu Gwaneum Daebul which means the Goddess Buddha of Mercy of the Sea which is essentially our Guan Yin Goddess.

On the sides, there are 2 plates with writings.

Sincerity can be felt

You get what you asked for

Back home in Singapore, I will always pray to Goddess of Mercy temple. So imagine my joy when I saw her statue here on the hill. We made our way up the stairs to offer our prayers, hoping that they will be answered :)

Goddess of Mercy overlooking the Sea

Little figurines around the area

More on the rocks

We then descend down the stairs and went around the temple.

There was an underground cave where you can drink spring water or something like that. I didn't dare to drink and so we came out after a while.

Underground spring water

There are 2 big prosperity golden pigs on display here and we took turns to take pictures. The street vendors outside are also selling quite a lot of piggy figurines. Guess this is one of the good luck charm here.

2 big prosperity pigs on display

Mr Love with the pigs

One photo before we leave the temple grounds

The crowd is starting to come in at 11am and we decided to make our way back. Took the 108 steps up to street level where I wanna check out what the street vendors have to offered.

Shopping street

Was very hungry when we first came out due to all the walking and climbing. So the first thing we went looking is food. Muhaha

We came across a stall selling some deep fried bun with unknown filling. We couldn't communicate in Korean to ask about the filling and decided to take the plunge. I only know enough Hangul to order "1 please" in Korean. Haha

The ajumma was please with me trying to speak Korean and replied in a string of words that I cannot understand. But she did tell me in broken English that my "1 please" in Korean is good in terms of pronunciation  I think.

Deep fried bun with unknown filling

The weather is still cold today and especially we are near seaside. So we welcomed the piping hot bun. A bite into it gave us the answer of filling inside. It is peanuts!! Yay!! At least is something that I like eating. Took turns to eat this hot bun while walking down the street.

Served in a cup

There are quite a lot of shops selling souvenirs here and I was very tempted to buy home some of the piggies family figurines. But they are all fragile. Transporting them home would be a big challenge. The idea was dropped soon.

So many piggy figurines

Wooden ones too

Then towards the end of the street we saw an Odeng vendor. God send in this cold weather. Mr Love was not a fan of fish cake but I am! Hehe But since It was so cold here, he decided to have 1 too.

Odeng vendor

The ajumma was nice enough to exchange the long stick for a shorter one to our convenience. The fish cakes tastes all the same to us but we choose 2 different kind to eat for the fun of it.

My Odeng

干杯！

We stood beside the stall to gobble down the food and asked for a small cup of soup each. Welcome the hot soup that warms our stomach in this weather.

How many sticks can you eat?

We walked down the hill where we came up from and cross the road to the opposite and wait for bus 181 back to Haeundae station. Not to worry about missing the stop since they have English announcement at Haeundae station stop.

Piggy waiting for bus with us

Be sure to visit here if you are in Busan, admission is free and view is splendid! In my opinion, it's better to come in the morning since it is not that crowded and since you need to walk quite a lot the afternoon sun wouldn't help too much!

Hello Miniskirt

There was this point of life just after miscarriage that I went consult TCM in hope of tuning my body back to prepare for another blessing.

I guess not all TCM works for everyone and I for one got ballooned up after taking it for few months. 

The appetite just got better and better. Hurhur

Anyways,after that most of the old clothes don't fit anymore and I just left them aside.

Recently maybe for the past 5 months, I've slowly losing weight here and there. Initially was due to the operation, which makes me worried and therefore lost appetite.

Then I took the plunge and signed up for a zoo run with hubs which requires me to at least to have regular runnings prior to run so as not to drop dead on that day.

Then it's Zumba with my colleagues who initially just thought of keeping me occupied so that I will not sink into depression before the op. One thing leads to another and I am hooked on it though I've missing it due to timing conflicts recently.

Then the most recent event would be going to Korea. I thought all my previous effort will be down the drain since its all eating with no exercise for 10days. But I was wrong. Both of us lost weight! Muhaha. It's perhaps due to the intensive walking and stair climbing there. Not to mentioned some hiking in between. And we are not big fans of their street food.

And so I decided to try wearing my Levis miniskirt this morning since it was long abandoned in a corner of the wardrobe. Haha Guess what? It fits!! With a bit of room no less! ! I am so happy. 

Finally I began to believe in what my colleagues have been telling me that they noticed I slimmed down. I was pretty skeptical when they 1st told me.

Let's hope things will maintained this way.

Hello Miniskirt,it's been nice to wear you again after 3 years :)

Korea Late Winter Sonata 2015-Busan-Taking Busan Metro

 Taking Metro in Busan is pretty easy. If you lived in cities and have taken metro in your home country, it should be no different from your home country version.

Unlike the Seoul counterpart, Busan metro have lesser lines in comparison. Also, we did not travel all the lines and only took Line 1 & 2. But the travelling time is pretty long depending on where you are going.

For instance, we stayed in Dong Baek, Haeundae area. To get here from Busan station where we came from Seoul via KTX, we travelled 50min with a transfer station in between.

Long stair case every where

One time that we observed about Busan metro is, the stations are pretty deep underground. Especially those that we visited. And there isn't any escalators, all are stairs and occasionally you can find a lift that serves as an exit in the station. But normally we take the stairs.

When we arrived in Busan KTX/ train station, we could not see Busan metro station despite signs pointing out that it is just straight ahead. Turns out that you need to exit Busan KTX / train station, walk across a parade square and then you will get to see the entrance which is a long flight of stairs down to the metro (Exit 8).

On our return trip, we found that there was a lift nearby. If you are carrying big luggage like us and wish to take the lift, turn left when you see the long flight of stairs. There is a lift near the main road. Similarly, when you come from the metro, there are signs directing you to the exit of Busan KTX/ train station. I think you should take exit 6 for the lift.

Station nearest to our apartment

Also for certain metro stations, you should be careful of which side to enter at the concourse area. Unlike SG MRT where platforms are in the middle, Busan metro mostly have tracks in the middle and platforms at each side.

This sometimes would mean if you enter the wrong side of the gates, you would have to exit and enter the other side again. In Korea, they deduct a certain fare when you enter the gates. If you take more than the initial stations, then more fare will be deducted during exit.

So if you enter the wrong exit, then you would end up paying the basic fare even you didn't take the trains and have to pay again when you enter on the other side. Also the passenger service center is also unlike the SG version near the gates. It is somewhere in the long walk way. You can press the help button at the handicap exit and they would answer but many a times speaking Korean so it's basically of not much help.

Haeundae Exit 3

When inside the metro, you can check the metro map above the doors and it would indicate which stations will allow you to cross over to opposite platform or able to cross over by taking the stairs. They are indicated by blue&pink circles which station numbers are indicated inside the circles. Those station circles without any colours would meant you need to tap exit and re-enter at the opposite side.

In a nutshell before you tap your card at the gates, you should checked the sign above the gates which will indicates the stations along the line. This will help you to determine the general direction of the trains.

We had brought out T-cards in Seoul and it is allowed to use in Busan Metro too. However, Busan have their own version too, so you can only top up the T-cards in C U convenience stores which is not too difficult since you can find it nearly everywhere in Busan.

Station information on platform

Busan metro is pretty frequent, you need not wait too long for a train and it is not crowded. More often than not, I get to find a seat on the train, a change from our sardine packed trains back home.

Korea Late Winter Sonata 2015-Busan- Haeundae Market

After dinner, we strolled back to the main Haeundae street and came across Haedundae market. Since there was nothing much to do after dinner, we went in for a stroll.

Entrance to market

On the 2 sides of the street are small restaurants that have big tanks of eels outside. I presumed these restaurants are mostly selling seafood. The ajummas keep shoving English menu in our faces so we walked briskly past them though I very much wanted to stop for picutres.

Near empty street on a Thursday night

Then we stumbled across a provision store and we of course went in to stock up our provisions. Haha.

Our favourite activity is always checking out local provision stores.

Snacks!!!

We brought some snacks here and then went  over to the ice cream section and chose 2 to buy. To eat ice cream in the cold weather is a very good feeling. Both Mr Love and I love this kind of feeling.

I choose the famous fish ice cream that always shown in TV series and Mr Love chose a drumstick.

Fish ice cream

After buying the snacks, we walked in the cold street and ate our ice cream. There are many fruit stalls here too.

It seems like the strawberries season is here and nearly every stall have strawberries for sale. A big box only costs KRW6,000.

Its a pity that Mr Love doesn't want to try and I couldn't finish a big box on my own so we went back without buying any.

We didn't visit her again during day time and not sure whether it would be crowded or not. But to visit during night time is pretty cooling and relaxing.

Happy ice cream eating

Korea Late Winter Sonata 2015-Busan- Haeudae Somunan Samgyetang (Ginseng Chicken Soup)

It was super cold when we reached Busan and we decided the 1st meal to have is of course Ginseng Chicken Soup or Samgyetang.

Unlike us, Koreans believed that Samgyetang should be consumed on the hottest day in the year not coldest.

Nevertheless, we went in search for it as it was crowned to be the most famous in Haeundae area and our apartment is 1 stop from here.

All wrapped up in cold Busan

Following the instructions of our guide book, we couldn't find the place. Mr Love was getting restless and I decided to take the plunge and ask someone. Turns out we got lucky with a local couple who told us they can recommend us some nicer place since they couldn't find the restaurant using their phones.

Guess what? The place they recommend and brought us there is exactly what we are looking for. Muhahaha. They were a bit embarrassed by the fact that we were all talking about the same restaurant after all but we were so grateful that they made an effort to help us out on the cold winter street and walked us to the restaurant :)

The restaurant was empty at 5pm and the ajummas were watching tv when we went in. They only serve samgyetang here though there are a few varieties. The menu have English and Chinese translation and we have no problem ordering by pointing at what we want.

Menu on the wall

Cashier area

Herbs on display

Drinks menu

As usual, side dishes were served 1st. But I didn't like their kimchi as it was not those conventional kind. The kimchi served here is crunchy kind of vegetable coated with gochujang only and the tastes are like separated.

 Also served is chicken innards though we do not know which part it is. I was very scared of innards but this have literally no smell at all, plus there is some chilli paste to go with it.

 There is also a complimentary small bottle of ginseng wine. We tried it but was scared by the strong taste. I poured in a cup into the samgyetang. Mr Love cannot stand the taste and I end up drinking the whole bottle hoping to warm myself up in the cold weather.

Ginseng wine

 We ordered 2 traditional samgyetang at KRW 12,000 (SGD 14.80)each. It was served 5min after we ordered and piping hot. I love the hot piping soup and the chicken was cooked till tendered but not too over.

The chicken broth is clear and sweet and not forgetting the glutinous rice stuff in the belly of the chicken. Really fulfilling and we finished it in no time since were famished and this is the first decent meal of the day.

Samgyetang

Shop front

 While paying, we asked the owner whether did they just shifted the shop as my guide book gave a different address. He said they had moved here less than a month. Really lucky that we met the kind couple earlier else we wouldn't have found here since we couldn't read hangul.

Side of shop

Directions:

1). Take the metro to Haeundae station.
2). Take Exit 3
3). Walk straight once you are out of the exit and till you hit the big intersection facing the beach. Novotel Busan should be opposite you at the intersection.
4). Turn left at the intersection (Need not cross road).
5). Walk straight. You should pass Kia & Audi car show rooms on the way
6). At the 1st big intersection, turn left. You should see Story Guest house opposite you.
7).  You should see the shop front once you turn in to the small alley (At diagonally right)

Street name

Turn left once you see this opposite you

Taken at the intersection before turning left

The big intersection

 Hopefully my directions and pictures helped since we had a hard time finding the place. May those reading will have an easier time than us:)

Korea Late Winter Sonata 2015- Staying at Airbnb apartments

My colleague introduced Airbnb to me back last year and I occasionally will check the apartments and mark them for future usage for the fun of it.

This came in useful when Mr Love confirmed that he is willing to go Korea for our trip this year. Since we confirmed that dates, I just need to confirm the shortlisted apartments are available. Hotels in Korea are crazily expensive.

A hotel in Myeongdong will set you back by SGD180 per night and usually breakfast is not included.

Since the room is more for sleeping purposes only, it makes no sense for us to pay so much for a room. There are quite a big range of rooms offered on Airbnb.

You can narrow it down to your budget and also location of the apartment. For us, it should be near to metro stations and preferably near to the central.

For our Busan apartment, I found one at Dongbaek station that is 1 station away from Haeundae which boasts the most popular beach in Korea. Since it is winter time, there isn't much beach goers.

But we have a nice sea view from our 36th floor apartment every morning during breakfast. A night here costs SGD85 and we need pay a one time charge of SGD12 for cleaning fee and SGD 31 for Airbnb service fee. Total paid SGD297 for 3 nights in Busan.

Bed

Small wardrobe for hanging our jackets

The apartment was pretty small. It's ok for us though since but if this is the kind of apartment to live in, it would be too small for comfort.

Built in Kitchenette

But still we had a comfortable stay here too. What I like about staying an apartment is like we have a home away from home.

Breakfast can be heated up in the morning or we can heat up the left over fried chicken. Its something that you cannot do in a hotel room. I am also able to do laundry here. Since it is winter, clothes dry up fast and because I didn't bring enough thick clothes so we get to re-wear the thicker clothes after washing.

Laundry duties in Busan

Mr Love was amused that my insistent of doing laundry in Korea.

Seoul apartment

 Our apartment in Seoul is located in Sindang station (Line 2,6). Its like 200m away from exit 3 only is only 1 stop away from Dongdamum shopping belt.

Apartment is even smaller as compared to the Busan one but nevertheless comfortable.

The best thing about booking this apartment is we got a very helpful host.

Mini living room space beside the bed

 Prior to our trip, she text me to offer help in planning our trip if required. She also helped as our Korean contact when we booked a local tour. This is especially helpful to us as the agency did call her to inform her that our passport copies are not acceptable. We were out of Seoul that day and she went out of her way to try reached us by texting, whatsapp and emailing through Airbnb. Really grateful for her help.

Small shower area

Toilet

Dressing table

Besides that, she helped us to order fried chicken on our requests. Gave suggestions when we checked with her on which restaurant to dine in when we have cravings and check on us every day on any help we need in one way or another.

A really sweet and helpful host which make our stay in Seoul smooth and comfortable.

Small wardrobe again

1st order of fried chicken

Fried chicken endorsed by Yoo Jae Suk

2 flavours

We had a great experience staying with both our hosts in Korea. Both apartments were clean and tidy and near to metro stations. It is also much cheaper than staying in hotels. Guess this will be our choice of accommodation for future trips:)

Korea Late Winter Sonata 2015- Taking Korean Air to Korea

We booked our tickets pretty late, around Jan and therefore the prices were a bit on the high side at SGD910 each. That being said, the cheapest I ever seen for our timing is around SGD 50 lesser for each pax.

Between the 3 airlines which flies direct to Incheon (KAL,SQ & Asiana), SQ had the cheapest due to a promotion but the timing was a bit off with a departure at noon. KAL had the cheapest however at my desired timing.

We took a 1.30am flight to Korea, touching down at 8.30am (Korean time). As usual, I knocked out as soon as we boarded, waking up occasionally when the flight attendants passed.

The flight was quite empty and we got the whole row to ourselves and I got the extra pillow for my back.

One thing I love about KAL is the USB charging port next to the inflight entertainment. Since I am sleeping most of the time and listens to my own MP3, this is important as I can charged my phone at the same time.

It's been quite some time since I last took a full fledged carrier so I am not sure whether this is available on SQ or Asiana flights or not.

The inflight entertainment and catering was a bit on the disappointing side. Perhaps it is just not my cup of tea.

Inflight meal on our return flight

Ice cream served

Cabin crew were polite and friendly but I did not interact much since I was sleeping most of the time.

We found by chance that by producing your boarding pass of any Korean airlines that you took to Korea (KAL, Asiana, Jeju Air), you are entitled to 2,000KRW off the Express Arex train from Incheon to Seoul Main Station. The lady at the counter was however a bit surprised when we told her we flew in via Korean Air. Not sure why.

Besides this, 1 big perk that we found out is during our return leg.

We were checking with the information counter in Seoul station airport railway wing on where to purchase the train tickets. Again, the guy seems a bit shocked when I mentioned I am taking KAL home. It is later on the flight I realized there isn't much Singaporeans on board.

Anyways, we were told that those taking Korean airliners could do a city check in at Seoul station and it would saved us a great deal of time later at the airport. Not sure how but we followed the friendly guy who even helped to carry both our luggage.

My pork stew at the airport

Mr Love finally got to eat KFC in Korea

There is also discount on the return tickets to Incheon by showing them our booking tickets for KAL . The check in counter (at B2) is to the right of the train tickets counter, right at the end. We did a check in and were issued boarding pass. However, we did not check in our luggage as I would need to show the customs the items for tax rebate.

We were directed to the immigration counter beside the check in counter and had our passport chopped with the exit stamp. Was pretty surprised as it would have meant that we had officially exit Korea even though we are still in town.

The city check in we did in Hong Kong only allows us to check in our luggage but not the immigration part. So I am curious about this process.

Before we left the immigration office, I saw a sign instructing us not to join the normal immigration queue at the airport but instead take same route as Diplomats. I am still not sure what is in store for us.

Platform is at B7 and we are off to the airport.

After the collecting the tax rebate stamps, we proceed to check in our luggage at the KAL counters. There is a priority queue for those who had a boarding pass issued but need to check in luggage after the customs.

We decided to go into the departure gates to have lunch and was wondering what to do since we had an immigration chop already. The queue outside was pretty long and if we lined up with the normal queue that it makes no sense for us to go through the city immigration earlier.

Turns out, there is a small door by the side of the departure gates and we went in there. Told the personnel manning it that we had already went through the city immigration and showed them our immigration chop. They directed us to the express lane which was indeed used by diplomats and we cleared the check in 5min. Fast!!

Had we queued up with the normal queue, it would take us about minimum an hour given the large crowd.

We were pleased to have found this way and was able to avoid the long queues. Perhaps, those who are going to Korea can consider taking Korean Airlines if you want a fuss free immigration process.