"When Something Good Happens, Travel to Celebrate. When Something Bad Happens, Travel to Forget. If Nothing Happens, Travel to Make Something Happen!"
Welcome back again to this blog on our PLAYs in Busan, Autumn comes from September to November in Busan, the weather is rather cool all day and night. Rain crossed the path with us, standing by a brolly. We are blessed to have the sea surrounded by the cooling Autumn. Busan is located in the south therefore the foliage will come later than those cities up north.
Let's start with Haeundae-gu first since this area is my temporary home ground here in Busan. This blog will be long as there is too much to do here in the span of a few days. "海云台" is the name in Chinese, isn't it sound dreamy and beautiful?
The most populous district of Busan with 423,000 residents, owns 11.6% of the city population and covers an area of 51.44 square kilometers in the eastern part of Busan.
Haeundae-gu is made up of 7-dongs which means "neighborhoods and we really had great fun & great feasts here.
This centrepiece of this town is the square where it starts directly from exit 3 and 5 of Haeundae metro station, all the way to the final traffic light where the beach is located.
Haeundae Town center to me and it will lead you all the way via foot to Haeundae Beach.
Blessed that our accommodation is nearby so we are almost here during most evenings.
Haeundae Town center is not just this centrepiece of square, it is also made up a various small lane which are full of hidden gems.
Daiso, Artbox and Olive Young are here, right next to the square, aside from Haeundae Traditional market, cafes, restaurants and fortune teller kiosks
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| Fortune Teller shops are scattered around here. |
This square is car free where events are held, buskers swooning from time to time, musical fountain show during Saturdays, gathering points for friends and family too.
See there is nice musical fountain show for everyone.
HT힐링터치케어 해운대 (Korean style massage)
There are many Thai massage salon here and I am not keen on them as I am a regular visitor to Thailand and I prefer to have traditional Thai massage in the cities of Thailand.
However, as I was doing research on the internet one day. HT Korean Massage came crossed my sights. I am being dawned by the words "Korean style massage", despite visiting South Korea several times and I never experienced a Korean massage before.
Located at level 5 of this building, try to figure out the lobby entrance when you are there.
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| This is the entrance for the lift lobby. |
The place is decently cleaned and professional with changing room for different genders.
Visited for the first time for Korean Facial + Hands & Legs massage for 80 minutes that cost me around SGD90.
The receptionist can speak a little English, and she tried her very best to serve me. guess each other's words.
I was asked to change into their loose clothing, changing room comes with key lockers, bathing room and make-up mirror.
I was served by an "Ah-joo-ma" (her name is Manager Inn), who waited for me outside the changing room. The first step to my treatment was feet soak with herbs and Manager Inn will serve me by wiping my legs.
Next, I was brought to my private room where a massage bed is waiting for me. The bed is inbuilt with a heater, and it was pretty comfortable to lay on it.
She used a different kind of massage technique on my face, and I got an obvious "V" at my jaw. My MR was surprised that my round face has now become a V face.
Visited again for the second time, which was 2 days prior my departure for home.
This time, I opted for 80 minutes body massage which concentrated on upper back with oil and hot stones.
Same, I got Manager Inn again to serve me, the strokes she used was quite different than the usual massage I had, whether Thai, Javanese, Shiatsu, Chinese and etc. No photo was taken on my second visit.
Do note that Manager Inn cannot speaks English, we were using international hand signs and trying guess what we were trying to communicate with each other.
Haeundae Traditional Market
A bustling place that is well known for fresh seafood that is full of homemakers making meals at home.
It is also a common place with tourists who are here to have some insights of local's life.
Beside getting raw food from the market, it is also filled with local street food sellers where everyone can have a local taste.
Aside from food, there is some retail shopping for almost everyone's needs like clothing, accessories, pottery, etc.
Here are the photos I took about the market...
Here what we ate in this lively market...
Giseung Braised Pork Legs
We were strolling around the traditional market looking for something different for our dinner and suddenly we were drawn by the bright and colorful signboard.
Braised pork legs are a common food on our dining tables at home so when we see this dish here, we felt excited and decided to give it a try on how the Korean are making this dish.
It is located on the second level, and happy notes from happy diners were pasted on the wall which is near to the entrance.
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| These notes were left behind by happy diners. |
Once we entered, we were encircled in a nostalgic atmosphere. The decoration was very simple, but it is big and airy.
The cook is the lady boss, the runner is her husband, this is a husband-and-wife tag team old school restaurant.
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| This lady here is the lady boss. |
After taking down our orders, we could hear the sound of chopping board that the lady boss was chopping some ingredients for my orders.
The boss serves us some appetizers that including soup and kimchi.
Hmmmm, this taste so different with the usual taste we had.
This homemade soup is peppery type but felt good to our stomach on a wet night.
Hmmmm, this taste so different with the usual taste we had.
The texture of the pork is similar because if this pork is well braised, it will be very tender and soft.
So the texture of this restaurant is superb! The taste and spices used in this dish is something we never had before but it is to our liking. Sweet and a dash of spiciness.
This is stirred fried pork, which is non spicy, it is also to our liking. It tasted that soya sauce and garlic.
Hotteok
It is a common street food in South Korea that’s tasty, warm, inexpensive, and comforting. They’re sweet pancakes with sugar syrup inside, and they’re often eaten as snacks in the street.
It originated in China and was first brought into Korea during the 19th century. Throughout centuries of evolution, the fillings of Hotteok have also been evolved, today there are choices of fillings that are nuts, green tea, corn and many more.
I got the honey & nuts fillings one at SGD2.50 each.
Ice-cream
Who will say "NO" to ice cream?
There are few stalls here selling the same products and similar stalls designs.
The usual soft serve - organic milk
Our 2nd ice cream treats after a hearty dinner.
Burned marshmallow filled with vanilla ice cream
Honeycomb vanilla soft serve
OMG, real honeycomb!!
Tee-Tteok-Son
It means soup + fried + blood sausage as per short introduction by the lady boss.
We ordered fishcake in broth & Tteokbokki - rice cake is hot sauce.
Miryang Sundae-dwaeji-gukbap, Haeundae
Another popular one that is located in Haeundae which is 24hrs operations. Due to the prominent location, there is countless number of visitors.
Homemade kimchi is delicious, and they are refillable.
The meats are soft and easily chewable, the soup is not bad, and you can enhance further with given ingredients if you have a stronger taste.
Budae Jinja Mabu Stew
Located at the heart of Haeundae Square, it is not hard to miss out this place.
We are here for Budae Jjigae AKA Army Stew.
The weather is cold today and it is good to have some hot stew.
The food was super reasonably priced and a really big portion for 2 people.
Matchandeul Wang Sogeum Gui Haeundae
The usual restaurant my MR will visit whenever he come to Busan, and before our official visit, the place is always full of long queues at door.
The soybean soup, it tastes as good as the previous restaurant we had. It seems this soup will never go down even if you do not know how to cook.
The Stone bowl rice serve with a flask of hot water, staff taught us that after we scrap out most rice in the stone bowl leaving behind those charred rice that are stuck on the bowl behind, pour the hot water in and can eat in 10 minutes where there is porridge in the stone pot.
Staff will grill for us at our table, the most common type of eating the meat is simply dipped in a little salt, we tried, and it is so delicious.
Staff even guide us the different ways to eat the meat like wrapping in the vegetables, with preserved vegetables and etc.
We were so happy with the meal that we return back here for lunch before our flight leaving for Singapore.
Solsot Hotstone Rice bowl
Located opposite of the Haeundae Square, nearer to the university side.
We are going to have stone pot rice for dinner.
He ordered the salmon while I opted for the chicken and prawn tempura to share.
There are steps to complete the meal.
1. Open the lid , stir the rice and scoop out and put on side plate.
2. Pour hot water into the the stone bowl & close the lid.
3. Eat rice from side plate.
4. Open The lid, the charred rice is now became porridge.
It seems common for 2 steps of eating for stone pot rice.
Olive Chicken
Another local brand of fast-food restaurant that is similar like KFC, this brand of fried chicken is commonly seen in the background of many KDramas.
Well, I think it taste average, I am sure there are better options here and I hope I have the chance to try, if not then next time.
Macdonalds
Trying Korean mac for lunch today.
I ordered mozzarella chicken burger and he opted for shrimp burger! SGD13 for both.
Consider cheap compare to the usual meal at local eatery which already cost at least SGD10 per person
The following day, we went to the same mac again for breakfast that cost SGD11 for 2 sets.
Starbucks
An American brand that made it BIG throughout the world!
Love the big window that facing the sea. We are leaving for Singapore in few hour's time.
Here, we reach to the end of this blog on the amazing Haedong Yonggungsa Temple.
Coming up next is Dalmaji-gil (Haeundae) Busan, which is the best beach area of Busan.
Meanwhile, here are the links on our PLAYs and EATs in Busan and Seoul:
4) "YEOGI"! Dalmaji-gil (Haeundae) @ Busan - coming soon
5) "YEOGI"! Cheongsapo (Haeundae) @ Busan - coming soon
6) "YEOGI"! Dongbaekseom (Haeundae) @ Busan - coming soon
7) "YEOGI MASITSEUMIDA"! What did we eat in Busan? - coming soon
2024 is a blessed year for us that we travelled quite a bit, here to share some of the links of the blogs:
Between 2022 to 2023, we visited The Netherlands & Belgium, here to share : Amsterdam, The Hague , Rotterdam , Kinderdijk
and Antwerp.
We even moved to stay in Denmark during the peak of Covid : Relocation from Singapore to Aalborg, Denmark
Feel free, you are most welcome to browse through my other blogs to France, Japan, China, Thailand, Malaysia and cruises etc.
Next Trip: Chiangmai Thailand & Muar Malaysia while Japan is in the plan - Please stay tune by liking my Facebook page: followblueginger, Instagram page : followblueginger , TikTok page: bluegingerkaren and Tumblr page :followblueginger.
Thanks, and Cheers
"I travel because seeing photos in books and brochures was not good enough for me, To be there, that was everything"
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