The nest morning, I woke up feeling much better after a good night's rest. We took breakfast as prepared by the hotel- chicken soup, instant cup noodles, boiled egg and some toasts with jam. We then went to the famous Haeundae Beach to snap some pictures. Since it is still very early, there were hardly any people around and we have the whole beach to ourselves.
Next, we took the bus to Haedong Yonggungsa Temple via bus 181 for 1200 won per person. We were not really sure where to get off and fortunately, the kind people of Busan did not let us down. The bus driver made it his personal task to tell us where to get off the bus and another nice lady who overheard our conversation with the bus driver tapped my husband on the shoulder and asked us to follow her when we have reached the stop to get to the temple. She told us she was heading to the same destination too. Although she could not speak English, she tried to chat with us in her own way. She even pointed to a toilet along the way and asked if we need to use it before continuing. The walk to the temple was further than expected. The lady is about my mother's age but she was strolling at a good pace ahead of us while I was already out of breath halfway as the road leading to the temple is uphill. When we reached the temple, the nice lady told us happily, 'Haedong Yonggungsa!' and bid us goodbye after thanking her for her kind help.
The temple is built right next to the sea. It's so breezy and the scenery was definitely worth the long walk. We also went inside the temple to pray and took many photos around the temple vicinity. There were many tourists there too.
After finish exploring the temple, we hailed a cab back to the hotel as both of us agreed we were too tired to walk back the same journey to take the bus. I managed to make a bargain with the taxi driver who initially insisted 10000 won for the trip back to Haeundae but in the end he agreed to use the taxi meter and in the end charged us only 8300 won. Turned out our taxi driver is a very chatty person, he even showed us photographs that he took from around tourist spots in Busan using his DSLR and we were in awe. Totally a pro!
After a shower and checking out, we took the subway to Busan Station to catch the KTX to Seoul.
The trip took about 3 hours and we bought some bread to eat in the train as lunch. After a short nap, we reached Seoul Station again.You can book and pay for the tickets online 1 month before your trip online via korail.com. But I advise you against it as the trains which run every 15 minutes to Seoul from Busan and tickets are aplenty. You can easily miss the train as they leave sharp on time. The train we took was quite empty too.
We reached Seoul Station and this time we did not stay near there but another hotel in Gangnam. So, we had to change a few lines before reaching California Hotel. After checking in and a nice long shower, we headed out to Gangnam Underground Shopping Centre. We initially wanted to take the bus and tried to ask for information on which bus to take but the hotel staff kept insisting it was within walking limit. Koreans just love to walk! It took us about 20 minutes of walk to reach our destination. The clothes sold there were quite cheap but I did not find anything that I like there. The price range is almost the same as in Edae/Ewha Womans University shopping area.
We explored around Gangnam and was very surprised to see so many young people still out and about at about 10 pm on a weekday night. The restaurants and bars are also in full swing at that time. Korean really do know how to enjoy themselves. We decided to eat our dinner at a fried chicken and beer place- Frypan. We ordered boneless strips of chicken and it was served with potato chips instead of french fries. And out of curiosity, we ordered a bottle of soju just to try it. It turned out to be a bad decision. It was so strong and bitter. After two shots, my husband was already feeling nauseous while i could not even finish my small shot. But the fried chicken was super delicious. We love it! As we were walking out of the restaurant, a homeless man stopped us and spoke to us in Korean and kept pointing at the half-full bottle of soju. I think he wanted us to give him the bottle but hubby said to ignore him as he was already in a very drunk state.
We then walked back to the hotel and went to sleep, feeling exhausted and extremely full from our hearty meal.
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