Hello Haedong Yonggungsa!

On my second day in Busan (yes, we have only reached the second day, though in general I am not writing in a fully chronological order), I went to visit Haedong Yonggungsa, a beautiful temple by the sea. It is quite some way out of Busan.

Since I was in Korea close to the Buddha’s birthday celebration (which is surprisingly a week earlier than our Wesak Day), there were plenty of lanterns hanging at every temple I visited, and sometimes along the sides of roads.

The bus stops some way from the temple, and the road that I walked to the temple was already lined with lanterns.

This map shows other attractions in the area. As you can see, the “you are here” point is at the bottom of the map. Since this temple is the furthest point north that I visited, that means all these places are even further north. I feel that a drive trip here would be great to discover all these places.

Then I reached the temple:

The bus stop signs at the bottom of the map is where I walked from. And the bus passed by Lotte World Adventure Busan on my way there. There is a parking lot for those who drive here. (of course! This is  touristic spot for locals as well as foreigners)

Note: See those blue tables and chairs behind the map? There were stalls selling snacks, and people could sit down there to eat.

I followed some signboards that directed me to the temple, and inadvertently took a different way there (not the main way, which I took when coming out later)

pretty archway

This is the path that I took. There was no one in the beginning, and I was wondering whether I was lost, but then a few people started coming in the opposite direction. One asked me something that seemed to be “Is there anything else to see ahead?” (I’m just guessing because it was in Korean)

Here I reached the temple entrance. On the left is the main path in, and right ahead is the archway leading to the temple Hmm…how many entrances have I mentioned? And we haven’t even seen the temple yet. :P 

A "proper" shot of the entrance with the pagoda.

the sign, aptly shaped as a wheel, says that it is a "traffic safety prayer pagoda"

It was only after going through the entrance that I realized how packed the place was.

the Medicine Buddha

I waited ages to take a photo of this little shrine (can we call it a shrine?); there were too many people walking in and out. In the end I gave up and snapped a photo with one person still inside. Who knows, if I had waited for her to leave, someone else might have come in before that!

a gorgeous view of the sea

And finally, a view of the temple!

I wasn't there yet, though... there was this little gate with golden leaves.

Love leaves? There are messages on them, and some are in English too.

There were boxes on the side of the path containing these leaves; presumably we could take them with a donation. (Note: Despite having Google Lens as a translator, and having downloaded the Korean language pack so that I could use it without an Internet connection, I did not translate everything I saw...it would have been too tiring.)

Getting closer and closer to the temple! *excited*

Now if I remember correctly, the path split into two, one to the viewing area, and the other to the temple. I went to the viewing area first, which is away from the temple.

the temple seen from the viewing area

This place was simply a rocky part of the coast, from which we could have a good view of the temple. I guess postcard photos are taken from here? :P Probably in better lighting... I was there around noon, which is nowhere near the golden hours of sunrise and sunset.

And a selfie just to prove that I was there!

I couldn't get my body in if I wanted to capture the whole statue in the photo... It's more important to have that in the photo than my body. :P 

Actually visiting the temple will have to be in the next post!

High technology at Soyu Hotel

After all that talk about getting to the hotel, I guess I will post photos of the hotel.

I booked three nights in Soyu Hotel.

on the right is the steep way up to Yongdusan Park that I mentioned in the previous post

When I first arrived in the early morning, I left my luggage at the counter because it was too early to check in. After that, I sat in the lounge for a while, checking the map and planning out where to go. This is when I snapped photos of the lounge.

nice chandelier

After checking in:

room for two

That's the room; on to the amenities:

two bathrobes (strange, they had different fabric textures), four small towels, and one scrubcloth (it took me some time and some research to figure out what that was)

Before my trip, I had heard that Koreans don’t use big towels. They use small towels, and wash them after each use. And that was true…not a single big towel in this room. So each person has two towels to use each day. 

Since I was there alone, I simply used one of the bathrobes as a towel.

complimentary bottled water and drinks in the fridge

soda (it's called cider but it's soda) and green plum juice

I’ve forgotten which one tasted better, but I remember mixing both to make it better. Since the soda was pretty tasteless but fizzy (like Sprite), and the juice was not carbonated.

Each day, they refilled the drinks in the fridge. Since I don’t like to drink cold plain water, each time I took out every bottle and left it on the table. The first time they made the room, they put the new bottled water into the fridge again, but the following day, they figured it out and left it out on the table for me. Good service!

a bunch of things that I don't use

toiletries and snacks (that's Oreo in case you didn't figure it out from the font)

See how the boxes are printed to write out "Soyu Hotel" in that formation? Flipping them around, we can see what's inside each box.

Then we move on to the high-tech things.

I couldn't find the light switch, and had to ask the cleaning lady (who luckily happened to be just outside, cleaning a nearby room). This was on the wall next to the TV:

I've forgotten how it works...probably ON for turning all on, OFF for turning all off, and each light for individual toggles.

Even the washbasin took a little thought to figure out. 

But it was simple enough...moving the handle up or down (I've forgotten which) turns on the tap, and the red dot is the side for hot water.

The toilet was the worst (or best?)

this was on the wall beside the toilet

this is on the side of the toilet

this is what you see when you close the toilet cover (the lower half of the photo is the toilet cover)

I still haven't figured out everything...I was just happy I managed to easily find out how to flush. :P I don't think I even knew there were buttons on the side of the toilet at first...can't remember how I discovered those.

Good service at Menya Miyabi

I went to Menya Miyabi some time ago, a long time after hearing that it was good.

At the time, I tried spicy sesame miso ramen. I also ordered a glass of rice milk to try, since I was extremely curious about what it was like. The drink was served hot, but I was worried about the ramen being too spicy, so I asked whether there was an iced version. They said no, but they could give me ice.

The drink first came without the ice, and I thought they had forgotten it, but later the waitress who had taken the order brought the ice (I think she apologized for having missed it out).

The rice milk tasted rather like soybean milk, but we could detect the hint of rice. A pleasant taste, I would say.

Then recently I went again. We had gotten a loyalty card that allowed us a free topping (with five to choose from: ramen egg, nori (seaweed), mochi (it looked like a slightly scorched white rice stick, so we weren't interested), bamboo shoots, or corn with butter). 

This time we ordered tonkatsu ramen.

Our free topping was served separately (it's one serving).

Three of us ordered two bowls of ramen to share. The waitress brought us an extra bowl with chopsticks and a spoon, without us asking. The bowl was brought to us even before our food arrived. 

cute kiddy bowl, haha

Good service both times, I would say! 👍🏼

Yongdusan Park and Busan Tower

As promised, this post is about Yongdusan Park!

It is the park that houses Busan Tower.

At the entrance, there is a Mita Seonwon (Mita Zen Center). I don’t think it is very famous because I didn’t hear about it at all when I was researching Busan. I saw it only when going up to Yongdusan.

Read for yourself...

I didn't go and take a look, but maybe I should have?

I can’t remember for sure, but I believe this was partway up the escalators from the town center. The escalators continue on the right.

some decorations inside

that screen is a display that changes...unfortunately I only managed to capture this one before I arrived at the top

Upon reaching the top of the escalators, we first see the Byeokcheon falls.

Frankly, I didn't realize they were supposed to be waterfalls at the time...they looked just like some stone sculptures without the water. :P

Bell Pavilion (the Citizen's Bell)

flower clock

getting the whole clock in

getting the Busan Tower in

The weather was unfortunately not very good for photos...but we'll make do with what we have...

these two are side by side

statue of Chungmoogong, again with Busan Tower in the background

Octagonal Pavilion

the viewing platform (I saw the same Busan statue later at the train station)

view over Busan

ditto

dragon statue

from another angle, where you can see the ball it's holding

Frankly, this area was filled with tourist buses. You can actually see it from my earlier photos, the buses fill the parking lot behind the general’s statue. There wasn’t even much space for me to stand to snap a photo of this dragon, which is why it is so close up.

After that, I walked more around the park (some people actually jog there) and then descended one of the staircases that go down towards my hotel.

But at the end, it just became steeper and steeper…I’m not sure whether I regretted taking that way or not. (Because the alternative was to walk a further distance through the town center…and I have said multiple times that my legs were extremely tired!) As it was, the last part of the trail after the stairs ended was so steep that I went down using extremely tiny steps trying not to lose my footing. I must have looked ridiculous to some Japanese uncles (I think they were speaking Japanese) who came along at that time. :P 

Anyway, I don't care...better play it safe because I definitely don’t want to fall down and break/twist something on my first day in Korea!