Belated Korean Honeymoon Part 2 - Busan

Returning to the mainland, we had more adventures in the city of Busan!

We initially planned to go to Busan right after our time in Jeju Island, but there were some changes to our plan. The final plan layout to the first part of our honeymoon plan is in my earlier blog post,  Belated Korean Honeymoon Part 1.


So, when we first planned to go to Busan, there were some questions that my husband and I had to answer in regards to our one-night adventure.

1. Ambiance?
2. Do we want to take a bus, plane or train to Busan?
3. Do we want to stay near the coast or more inland?
4. Do we want to pay a little more for a nicer hotel or just an affordable motel?

Our answers:

1. Due the length of our excursion being one night, we wanted to make it as romantic and relaxing as possible, with no schedule because the time in between our first and second excursion was about a week.

2. For transportation, we decided to take the bus because it was more affordable and both, my husband and I had never travelled by bus for long periods of time. The bus travel would take 4.5 to 5 hours one way to Busan. And on the way back, we would take the KTX bullet train which would allow us to get back to Seoul in about half the time.

3. Our romantic, relaxing destination, we chose near northern coastal part of Busan which was an area called Haeundae. Internet research had described it as busy area, so we were looking forward to observing the nightlife in the area.

4. The accommodations that was chosen was a beachfront hotel in Haeundae called Novotel Ambassador Hotel. We will give our review in more detail below.
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Summary of our experience:

Entertainment:
My husband and I went in the middle of the week, so the nightlife was practically nonexistent in Haeundae.
The day that we left, there was ample enough time that we could sightsee some more, but we were not on a hunt for the next attraction and the staff at the hotel was not so helpful.

Travel time:
The distance between the bus station to our hotel was about an hour away which was inconvenient, but we did not mind. We used public transportation because we were on a budget and taxi would have been a little expensive and travel time was the same between the train station and our hotel. This was our first international trip together, so we learned the lesson that packing lighter is best because even if you have a small carry on luggage, unless you plan on taking a taxi, is very inconvenient. Plus it does not help when the bus driver and other users of public transportation are not as friendly.

The Novotel Ambassador Hotel. The lobby was beautiful and the ambiance of the hotel itself gave an upscale modern vibe., plus a tropical feel. Now the room itself was a little mismatched in continuity.
The design of the hotel room itself was different than typical U.S. hotels:

• First, the sink counter was separate from the actual toilet and bathtub, which I actually liked.
• Second, Korea does not see the importance of actual full drawers, but they have drawers that are divided for undergarments and I am assuming that the way that Korean people usually fold their laundry is different because it is compartments were very small.
• Third, it was difficult in locating a hotel room with one queen bed because most only provided two twin, or two full-size beds. We were lucky and received an upgrade which initially we signed up for a city-view, but was upgraded to a room with half city-view and half ocean-view.

The hotel staff were really helpful at first, but when we asked what was around the area, they suggested the beach. I wonder how much the staff is trained to know the area to be helpful for those who are there just want to know about the area.

Food:
We arrived at in Busan in the afternoon, just in time for lunch!
I was craving pork, so wandered around the area around the hotel and noticed that there was the same food at every other restaurant which was a stew that has pork in it, steamed pork, or pork sausage stew. We tried a traditional steamed pork with this stew that was really good, but pricey for the amount that we received.

That evening, we had dinner with a family member, but we were craving a late night snack and the only restaurant open past midnight was a chicken/pizza house. We ordered fried chicken and it was delicious!

The morning that we were leaving, we wanted something warm and easy to eat, but not too heavy. So we found this restaurant that sold steamed dumplings. My husband is not usually keen on steamed dumplings, so he took a chance and actually liked it. Of course, I loved it! They were called 왕 만두, which is translated to "King-size Dumplings". They were large and filling enough, plus they were only $4.00. Awesome!

Returning to Seoul:
We took the KTX train back to Seoul. It was really comfortable and there were two options of a four-seater or standard seats as well as premium seating. We chose the standard seating which was $58,000 won per person, which would probably come out to about $58 per person. Well worth the experience.

The overall trip was relaxing and a great time to be alone with my husband aside from fulfilling our family visitations in Korea.

If you want to see my vlog on our Busan trip, check my videos on my YouTube channel in the Korea-2015 playlist:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpmd9q3GyXE&list=PL2SrLrHd5__ANJFzKmWckGNkyZrqHAwYN

I hope this post was informative and helpful!
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