Our last day in Busan, and we had to make the most out of it! We headed down to the breakfast room in the morning to take advantage of the motel's FREE breakfast. I've noticed that there's not a lot of people in Haundae during the weekdays, but it was crazy busy when we arrived on Sunday?
The first attraction of the day, Haedong Yonggung Temple, to get get there we took bus #181 to the Yonggungsa Temple stop, but in all honesty we didn't know where to get off because it was difficult to listen to Korean when you just don't know the language. Luckily, there were quite a few foreigners/tourists we assumed were heading to the same place, so we got off when they got off. Once you get off, you have to walk uphill and pass some shops before seeing the temple, perhaps a 10 minutes walk.
Haedong Yonggung Temple is situated along the shore so you get a nice view of the ocean and incoming waves. As you approach the temple you will be greeted by the 12 zodiacs animals in warrior gears.
HORSE! ME! ヾ(･ω･｡)ｼ
Statue of Mother and Child
Once you encounter this gate, you have to go down a long and steep flight of stairs, once down you will see a spectacular view of the ocean and temple!
Buddha head.... kinda of creepy....◑.◑
There's two mats on the ground for you to kneel and pray to Buddha. It's a bit chilly near the ocean, so be sure to grab a cardigan.
Random kitty roaming around the temple.
You can walk around the shoreline.
You see those statues holding a bowl? Well, you can make a wish and then throw some coins into the bowl to make it come true. I threw quite a few 100 ₩s but it did not go in.
You see quite of few of these miniatures Buddhas all around the temple.
LOL. Look at the bum! Disrespect! HAHA. (≧∇≦)/
As you can see in the picture below, in the middle of the picture there is a underground temple for prayers. It was kind of creepy due to the creepy music and darkness.
After wrapping up the temple, we headed straight to the largest shopping complex in the world! Shinsegae Centum City! We took the bus straight there, but we got off too early. Not sure where to stop again.
Shinsegae Centum City! Here is one of the entrance, but look at the sheer size of this building! First of all, I will say that the stores inside are expensive, the luxury kind. It is full of brand names. I didn't buy anything here except for food. First, some of the brands here I can grab back home for cheaper. The entrance level is usually cosmetics brands with clothing and shoes in the higher levels. The food court is at the very bottom.
Guinness World Record for being the largest department store!
It was already lunch time, and we had so much difficulty trying to find what to eat because the selection of food was too much. I mean, the whole floor was taken by food stalls. I believe we walked around looking and pondering about what to get 3 times. Finally, we decided to opt for Korean and got this "bibimbap", which is a dish where to you to mix the ingredients with rice. The line up for this stall was quite long, but quite affordable. The food here was a bit higher than normal compared to elsewhere in Korea. I would assume this is because the mall is a high-end one.
Bibimbap - 7500₩. It was nevertheless super spicy even though we told the cashier "no spicy" and showed the words to her on our phone. It was hard to eat as your throat and mouth were screaming with spiciness due to the kimchi. The good thing about this food court is that it provide you with "FREE WATER." Yes, there is a water dispenser in the food court along with cups; it is self-serve and cups do get replenish every now and then.
Bad quality picture of our expensive crepe filled with a few pieces of strawberries and a small cheesecake and vanilla ice cream. 6200₩. The crepe was actually priced around 5000₩, but when we told them we like to order this, the price went up and they said that the price tags are wrong and switched the price in front of us. It was odd, I mean it was already the afternoon and nobody said anything?
We also bought 1 pawn for 2000₩, but it was super awkward while purchasing it because apparently they sell in bulks. We told them we wanted only 1, they said ok, but had trouble finding a container for it. So we ended up with large plastic box with only one small shrimp inside.
A neat thing about Korea is that many of the malls have a rooftop garden/activities. We explored all of the levels in the mall and somehow wondered up to the rooftop and viola, there's a neat play area! Zooraji, the garden theme up on Centum City Mall. It has a prehistoric theme with dinosaurs and pirate ships. It is also a great place to look at Busan from atop.
Scenery from the rooptop of Centum City. The apartment buildings in Busan have numbers on the side. It looks like dominoes.
And finally, before we left the mall, we went back to the food court AGAIN and grabbed a drink. Taipei No.1 lime with yakat drink 5000₩. It tasted okay, but I guess I would not buy it again.
Once we left the mall, we headed straight for the "Busan Museum of Art" that was supposedly nearby. But for some reason we walked and walked but could not find it. We were following my sister's GPS, but there were some roadblocks aka. blocked streets/ no crosswalks so it was a bit difficulty to find a way to get there. First of all, we encountered this odd park with artistic? pieces/statues. There was nobody here except for the odd person walking their dog and us. As we roamed around this park and into the trees we saw a security guard heading towards us so we left. It was weird that he would be there unless there was a security camera showing us on the grounds acting suspiciously.
It was tough finding the museum, as my sister's GPS said that the park was the museum. We headed towards the building beside park and walked across the parking lot and asked the security guard there where the museum was and he pointed straight across and mumbled some Korean, but we have no clue what he was talking about, so we just thanked him and left.
Yes, we did stumbled upon Busan's Museum of Art sooner or later. And here it is! Good thing it's free except for the special exhibition where you have to buy a ticket to enter. I think you can spend a good hour here as there are several floors and many art rooms.
Cute pinwheels outside.
Afterwards, we took the train back to Haundae Station where our motel is located. It was quite dark by now, so we went back to the motel to eat bread for dinner. We bought some breads from "The Menagerie" in Shinsegae Centum City food court. These breads are EXPENSIVE! The total for 3 breads is 8500₩, but it tasted pretty good. You choose your bread and place it on a tray and then bring it to the counter where they wrap up each bread and then place it in a nice bag. Back home, the most I would pay for bread is $2 CND so this was definitely a splurge for me.
We headed to Haundae beach for a night stroll.
I saw an ad for shaved ice posted outside of a building as we walked to the beach. And because of my sweet tooth, we went back to grab one. The con is that the price is not listed so we had to go up to the third floor and enter the store to see the menu. It was very cute inside, great for girl-talk. I got an oreo shaved ice for 7000₩ though it is mediocre in taste. The ice is a bit thick and chunky and once you finish the ice cream and cookie bits, you are left with plain ice. On a positive note, perhaps it was late at night, but the store gave us macaroons free of charge! ヽ(´ω｀○)ﾉ.+ﾟ*｡:ﾟ+ The macaroons probably sat at the store for couple of days as it tasted kind of stale, but it was sweet. Not too bad.
Night Busan!
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