Solo Korea Trip DAY 5 – Taejeongdae, Gamcheon Cultural Village, Gwangalli Beach

Welcome welcome back and let's just start the 5th day of the trip!

The 5^th day of my trip can be said as the main highlight of my trip to Korea this time. Wohoo! I think thanks to the Gamcheon Cultural Village that made this day awesome. Detail later below so keep on reading!

Before I went off to the first place of my itinerary this day, my Airbnb host was so kind that she prepared me a full set of simple Korean breakfast. So healthy I can't ~

It was enough to hold until past lunch! So glad I booked this place.

Satisfied with the meal, I went off to my first itinerary of the day: Taejeongdae Park which is a natural park in Busan with magnificent cliffs facing the open sea on the southernmost tip of island in Yeongdo-gu. I didn’t quite remember how did I go there. I only remember that I took subway first from the area I stay to one station named Nampo, and then transfer to a 30-min bus ride directly stopping at the entrance of the park.  

The park itself was beautiful, got this mini all-you can ride train called Danubi for a price that can take you to the main spot of the park which is the lighthouse.

Take notes that it took quite a while to walk to the lighthouse, not to mention all of the ladders that you have to go through when you want to go down or go back from the lighthouse. It was quite tiring, taking small breaks are recommended. It was quite hot that day but since the park itself was on the cliff, the wind is quite strong and it made the heat much more bearable.

The main spot which is the lighthouse:

Beside the lighthouse, you can actually stop between several stops to explore more of the park. 

They even sell some art stuff on the main road nearby:

After strolling a little bit more in those area, I decided to tick off my first spot and went out the park; it’s time to go to the next destination which is Gamcheon Cultural Village. I knew that I will spend a significant amount of time on that village so I decided to just go from Taejeongdae as soon as possible.

Before I forget, I have my lunch around Taejeongdae area, a dish which called Gukbap, some kind of pork soup that is Busan’s highlight menu. 

It was soooo nice!! Credit to my friend that recommend me to try this dish. Worth. Every. Penny.

The one that I had even not the famous one and it was already that good. Wonder how the famous one will taste like. And I start to conclude that Korean style soup dishes were mostly good, no matter what kind of soup that is haha. At least for Korean food, I prefer the soupy one now. LOL

From there, is the point when my brain got worse. I didn’t remember by what kind of transport I managed to go to my second itinerary which is the Gamcheon Cultural Village. All I can remember is I go back from Taejeongdae to Nampo by bus, and then somewhat I end up taking another bus that took me directly to the Gamcheon Village. I can’t remember what happen inbetween.. I’m so sorry.

Once reached the village, you definitely will know that It’s gonna be one exciting day. Every murals was there, wanting to be photographed. Welcoming myself to the village!

And can you see the Korean’s Santorini there!! So colorful af.

During the walk, there’s this map that you can buy from the post nearby and inside the map, they have places for you to gather stamps that were scattered around the village, it’s like a small stamp hunt, which when you managed to get all done, you get a simple postcard as a price. I bought the map and decided to do the stamp hunt too, because I realize when you hunt for the stamp, eventually you will explore every side of the village through fully without even you realizing it.

And keep up with me to a psychedelic trip to the village of art..

As high as I can get.

My stamp collection finally full and got the postcard as present!

All in all, this place full of art was just AWESOME, full stop.

I don’t mind go Korea just to visit this place all over again. It’s Gamcheon Cultural Village, if you forget. Please go here, I beg of you. It was so satisfying even word can't describe..

Sad to say that finally I have to say goodbye to this village for the sake of continuing my trip to the next stop which is Gwangalli Beach. Went back again by the same bus and then transfer to another bus that took me directly to the Gwangalli Beach area. Literally spend the rest of my day there. 

Managed to stop and rest at one coffee shop named BeansBins which were recommended by my friend (again).

Hands down. Best coffee latte and best blueberry waffle that I ever had in my life. A must try cafe if you go to Korea. Why they didn’t open one in Tokyo?? Already bored with the siren-labeled coffee shop haha.

After waiting for the day to get a little darker, I went directly to the beach bare feet and sat there resting, plus taking photos for the lit up rainbow bridge that was the main highlight for the beach itself.

Gwangalli Beach was much more crowded than Haeundae (and I don't even have the motivation to take photos of the crowd anymore), so I decided to take one small spot for me to sit that is quite far away from all the people. After a good (maybe around) 45 minutes, I decided to leave the beach after I’m satisfied resting on the sand and since I really wanted to get rid of tackiness from sweating all day, I went back to my stay, took a good sanitizing bath from all of those bacteria and went to sleep, facing my last day in Busan the next day.

Day 5? Literally the BEST DAY ever from my whole trip! Thank God for offsetting my day 4's unsatisfying itinerary; so glad that I visited Busan and slipped this day itinerary to my plan. However it doesn't mean that the rest of my trip were dull, still so much great stuff to be shared to you guys so keep updated for my next posts!

Please click links below to see which day you want to browse (and will update the link one by one with every new post that I’ve uploaded)

See you on the next posts!

Solo Korea Trip DAY 4 – Off to Busan, Haedong Yonggung Temple, Haeundae Beach

Welcome back to my Korea post series! And without further ado, let's get going ~~

My decision to visit Busan when I'm in Korea was planned however I didn’t get to stack up my itineraries for it beforehand. I booked my KTX ticket just the night before, hence I struggled quite much on the Seoul station, where I have to print out the tickets and search for printing stores nearby.

I took some time on the train to plan my trip, and here comes my itinerary for day 4, 5 and 6. It was a rather slow moving pace compared to the one in Seoul since I didn’t know for sure where to go in Busan except on the day 5, when I really want to visit this cultural village that I always have my eye on.

I remember my train take off around 9.30 and I reached Busan around 1 I think. 

From there I took the subway again to my next Airbnb host’s house in Haeundae area, reached the place around 3 p.m.

Busan is calmer in a way that the road is much bigger, higher buildings here and there compared to Seoul where every area is quite dense with smaller houses surrounded with bustling sound of people and cars. It was a nice place to get out from all the busy pace of Seoul for a moment.

The area where I stayed were quite overwhelming, in a good way!

Busantopia.

I didn’t manage to visit much on my first day in Busan; I only went to 2 places which is Haedong Yonggung Temple and Haeundae Beach. As for the transportation, I mostly use bus when I'm there. It was quite convenient to use subway for several main city spots, however I found that for tourist famous spots, most of them have to be reached by bus.

After resting a bit in my room and put away all of my stuffs, I went directly for my highlight of the day spot which is the temple that I found to be very unique as it faces the ocean directly, and of course, by bus (which I forgot the route already).

Even though the entrance to the temple were a little bit far away from the main road, I knew that I'm on the right track since the road to the main temple were full of statues.

After passing several stairs and walk a little bit to the tip of the cliff, finally I can see what I called as the "postcard spot":

So many scattered little cute disciples!

Based on the websites I found, it was recommended to  go to this temple at night or early morning to see the sunrise or sunset; but I found that the view during the day from the top of the temple was breathtaking too.

Purely satisfied.

I only stay on that place until 6 p.m and decided to off to Haeundae Beach as it was getting late. 

After my visit to Gwangalli Beach on the next day later, I can say personally I liked Haeundae much more than Gwangalli since Haeundae was not as crowded as Gwangalli.

There are people having performances alongside the beach too, it was a nice way to spend a slow night either with yourself or with friends. 

Too bad Jakarta didn’t have this kind of entertainment, the one that I knew in Jakarta doesn’t have proper maintenance thus tend to get dirty. Thumbs up for Haeundae!

And here we are again! My visit to Haeundae concludes my day 4 in Korea and day 1 in Busan.

It was not the best day ever in my trip to be honest, as one small incident happen along the way. 

When I’m on the way to the temple from my staying place, one tiny bit of dust stuck in my eye from all the strong wind blowing, and it stuck for around good 3 painful hours that I even considering to go to eye doctor there. Spend quite time to search for eyedrops, bought one but still didn’t manage to make it go away with it. 

After several times re-examining my own eye wit a small mirror that I had, I finally found that the dust stuck on the inside of upperside of my eyelid (WTF). Finally managed to get it out with the help of a bobby pin. The dust was soooo tiny but damn hurt a lot, I mean, A LOT as I’m tearing up for those hours nonstop. The most WTF moment in my life I thought I’ll go blind. No joke. So glad I can get it out during the day and after that I feel that it was the greatest feeling ever, having nothing stuck on my eye as usually I take those feeling for granted. Who knew small tiny dust can hurt that bad. Phew.

However aside from that incident, the day goes well along the way. And I can’t wait to tell you my next day trip to the cultural village which is my most favorite moment during my whole 8 days trip to Korea!

Heaven forgive my day 4.

Please click links below to see which day you want to browse! (Will update the link one by one with every new post that I’ve uploaded)

See you on the next posts!