1 Jun 2019 - Busan Day 1: Taejongdae (太宗台) Resort Park

As I did not actually plan out where to visit on the first day in Busan, I just took out our tourist map and we made a decision on the spot.  We seek help from an uncle, who could speak English, Chinese and Korean, at Busan Station (metro) on the direction to Taejongdae.  Following his direction, we managed to get to the bus stop and took bus 101, which took us all the way to Taejongdae Cliff bus stop.  By the way, we bought a transportation card (similar to our Ezlink card) each that allows us to use it on both metro and bus.

Designated as a Busan monument, along with Oryukdo Island, Taejongdae represents Busan, and is especially famous for its rock beach.

Taejongdae was named after the 29th king of the Silla Kingdom (57 BC-AD 935), King Taejong Mu-Yeol (604-661). King Taejong traveled to many places but this was the place he enjoyed shooting arrows the most.

Climbing a flight of stairs up to a small hill, we arrived at a Monument to Medical Support Veterans of the Korean War.  During the Korean War, nations of Denmark, India, Italy, Norway and Sweden displayed the spirit of the Red Cross and their commitment to the United Nations by sending medical support personnel to participate in refugee relief, and to provide aid to wounded soldiers of Korean and U.N. forces.  This monument was erected in 1976 to honor and commemorate their noble contributions.

The whole Taejongdae park is HUGE, there are various sights and activities all throughout the island. We could either walk around on foot or take the Danubi train.  As Jerlene is still recovering from her sprained ankle, we go for the train option.  After we bought the train ticket, we went straight to queue up but when it's our turn, we were told in Korean that we cannot board the train.  After some "difficult" conversation with the staff, we then realized that there was a train number on our tickets.  No wonder there were so many people sitting around and not in the queue.  Probably they were all waiting for their designated train to come.

The train has five stops along its route and here we go.

The first stop being an observatory whereby on a clear day the Japanese island of Tsushima is visible.  However, when we reached there, the observatory was under maintenance.  Over the years, many people have committed suicide on this cliff.  A statue of a mother and her children had been placed here since 1976 reminding people of a mother’s unconditional love for her children and to encourage people not to take their own lives.

There are a few other scenic lookout points where we could have a magnificent view of the ocean.  It was quite hazy though.

We did not take the track down to the cliffed coast as we did not want to put too much stress on Jerlene's ankle.

Just a short walk from Taejondae Observatory, we arrived at the next stop, which is the Yeongdo Lighthouse.

Yeongdo Lighthouse was established in December 1906 and provided a guiding beacon of light to ships around Busan Port for over 100 years. The old lighthouse was replaced with a new one in 2004 and facilities were developed, making the site a maritime tourist attraction.

The white cylinder-shaped lighthouse is 35 meters high and its beam can be seen from as far as 40 kilometers away.

We then took the train to the next stop at Taejongdae Temple.  We were the only ones who alighted at this stop.  Before walking to the temple, we had a short break at a quiet lookout point.

After we regained our energy, we followed the trail to Taejongsa Temple (太宗寺).  Taejongdae park is also famous for a ritual for the rain. The ritual is performed on May 10th of the lunar calendar, and it’s called Taejong Rain.

The first thing to greet us at the temple is the main hall (大雄殿).

Next we arrived at the Bo-gung Hall that houses the partial earthly remains of the Buddha (舍利子).

Throughout the visit, it seemed like we were the only one here.  We then took the trail through the bushes and out to the main road.

As the train were mostly packed since nobody alights at this stop, we decided to slowly walk out of the park.  Along the way, there were quite a number of nice little rest stops.

By the time we returned to Busan Station, it was about 6:30pm.  We had our dinner at Lotteria fast food restaurant and decided to call it a day as we were all lack of sleep due to the overnight flight earlier.  Before we went to bed, each of us took turn to soak in the warm Jacuzzi tub.  So relaxing.........  :-)

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1 Jun 2019 - Busan Day 1: China Town and Texas Street

After catching some rest in our hotel room, we decided to explore the nearby vicinity and to have our lunch.  Busan China Town is just a few streets away from the hotel.  So we decided to walk over and take a look.

As per any other China Towns where we had visited, we will always know that we are there when we see a Chinese-styled main gate/entrance.

There are Chinese decorations along the streets with lots of red lanterns.  We also came across a wall telling the story of three famous Chinese historical figures (刘备, 关羽, 张飞) who sworn their brotherhood in a peach garden (桃园三结义).

The street was pretty quiet and most of the shops were closed.  This was surprising especially when it was lunch time of a weekend.

We went into Choryang Modern History Gallery along the street but it's just a small gallery, nothing much.

We walked through the entire Chinatown street in less than 20 mins.  As we could not find a decent restaurant that is opened, we decided to take a look at the Texas Street next door.

Sad to say, the situation there was not any better.  As such, we simply went into a fast food Korean restaurant to have our lunch.

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1 Jun 2019 - Busan Day 1: Le IDE:A Hotel, our accommodation in Busan

The bus ride from Gimhae International Airport to Busan Station took close to an hour.  It's not easy to find this hotel as it's not facing the main road.  Furthermore, there is no proper entrance to the hotel.  We had to walk through a car park to enter a door to get to the reception.  Though our room was ready, the official check-in time is 4pm.  At that time, it was only 10:40am.  We were allowed to checked into our room early by paying an additional 20,000KRW (approx SGD23), which we did as we wanted to catch some rest in the room.

The room looks pretty new and clean.  There are 2 queen-sized beds, a laptop safe, a refrigerator, coffee/tea makers, a huge TV, a personal computer and direct dial telephone.  Plus of course free Wifi.

The bathroom and toilet are separated which is great.  We were thrilled to see a huge Jacuzzi bathtub in the bathroom.  Soaking in the Jacuzzi bathtub will be a great and relaxing way to end each of our upcoming 4 days in Busan

The toilet also comes with a high-tech toilet bowl with a butt washing/drying system.  :-)

Below is the view from our hotel room.  Though it is directly facing the train track, I must say that the sound proof system in the room is excellent.  We could not hear any sound from the outside even when the train passed by.  If you look closely, beyond the train tracks is the sea.  And we could see the Busan Harbor Bridge at a distance.

The bridge is especially beautiful at night when it lights up with changing colours.

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