Busan, South Korea: Day 1

March 27, 2017

Day 1: Centum City, Gwangalli Beach, & Haeundae Beach

So before going on holiday, I had a few days left in Osaka to completely move my things from my apartment. Luckily for me, Caoliang came to hang out a few last times in Osaka as well as help me move my things out. Along with his help, I was super thankful to have help from Hitomi as well. She was really a life-saver for me this past week with her generosity and willingness to drive me back and forth to the recycle shops. Everyone knows it’s a pain for move from a place but it’s even more of a pain when it’s in a country where you can’t freely make phone calls to arrange cancellations yourself AND when you have no car to transport large items. So thank God Hitomi was there for me.

After all the busy work and moving hassle, Caoliang and I booked ourselves a trip to Busan, South Korea. It was going to be a vacation/celebration of finishing work, but it turned out to be something completely unexpected. What, you may ask? Well this vacation for two ended up being a lonely trip for one.

So if you didn’t know, Caoliang is a Chinese passport holder. If you don’t know much about that well let me tell you, it’s not a fun passport to have. We get to the airport a few hours earlier than we planned to and go up to the check in counter. We hand the lady our passports and she pulls up our reservation. This part is always a little nerve-wrecking but being an American citizen I don’t worry too much, for Caoliang it’s a bit different. After flipping through his passport a few times she says to him, “Where is your visa for Korea?” Stunned, both of us were confused as we checked online weeks prior about this very situation. Caoliang knows that a Chinese passport isn’t always welcome in all countries so we had prior reserched if a visa would be needed for him to travel. In our findings, it stated that if he has Japanese residence and/or American visa, a visa would not be needed to travel to Korea. Sadly, we were wrong. The internet findings we had found weeks prior were outdated! According to the lady at the counter, the law changed about a year ago that now stated Chinese passport holders did need a visa to travel to South Korea.

In a state of shock, both of us got out of the line and tried to think of a solution for this sudden issue. Luckily we had a bit of time before the departure but a lost at what to do. Caoliang spend the time calling consulates and the airline trying to see if we can transfer credit/payment, get a visa in time, anything to make this holiday work for us. I spent the time trying to look up flights to other places we knew he could travel, in case something would be affordable. In our findings we figured out that no, all flights were going to cost us at least a grand and also that to get a visa for Korea he would need to go to Sendai first and apply to the consulate there which still would take up to four days. I felt sad and just really bummed about the whole situation. I wanted to cry but I knew that any emotion would be pointless and wouldn’t change the situation. In the end, we decided I should still go. We had paid for the flights and hotel and I should at least go and enjoy it. With an addition to paying for everything, I needed to leave the country to come back to Japan on a Tourist Visa instead of the visa I was currently on.

So with barely enough time to make the flight, I hurriedly got in line for security and try to sort out mentally what to do for the next four days. When I usually go on solo trips, I plan it so I have time to mentally prepare for being in a foreign place alone. But in this case, it was a sudden shock that I would be alone! I wasn’t ready for it! I just slowed down my thinking and switched into travel mode to get me through this trip. It was hard to be excited about going to Busan even though I never been because I was leaving him behind. There wasn’t much else to do so I just sucked it up and got on the plane.

The flight was really short because I slept the whole way. We had started the day so early and already been through so much, I was mentally and physically drained. Soon it was about noon and I had landed in Busan.

First thing was first, getting internet. I knew the one thing I would really need in a new place was internet. So, like in most airports, I found the phone counter that had sim cards and pocket wifi’s for rent. I didn’t know how much one US dollar was worth in Korea so it was hard for me to decide what prices were appropriate. I ended up renting a pocket wifi for the time I was there which cost me a little under $30. Once I got my internet sorted and my phone working, I got into a cab and headed for the hotel.

Driving through the city in the cab was long. There was so much traffic on the highway I felt like it would take forever to get there. It didn’t help I was still tired and I wasn’t sure the cab driver knew where he was going. Luckily, I eventually made it with a cab ride that cost me 2,300 won (about $23 USD) and was happy I was along the beach.

We had booked The Marine View Hotel which was on Gwangalli Beach. It took up the 11th and 12th floor of a building and looked really modern and swanky. After getting the key card, I went up to my room and put my stuff down. Along with my key card, the receptionist also gave me a care package bag. When I got in my room I saw in the back was some very handy things! In the bag were basic necessities like a tooth brush, razor, cotton swabs, but then also not so usual but very useful things like a bath sponge, face wash, and condoms! Even though I wouldn’t be using condoms I thought it was really handy and thoughtful they would give that to their guests. As for the room, it was really nice with a big sized bed, clean floors, window that looked out the the coastline, big tv, clean bathroom and just really comfortable feel. I was thankful that it was also in a busy area because being there alone would feel even more lonely if my surroundings was empty and quiet.  

What to do? What to do? Fortunately for me, I’m a planner and prior to this trip I had researched things to do and made a rough outline of things to do for each day. Even though the trip suddenly turned into a solo trip, I was determined to still do everything I had planned for the two of us to do. I mean what else was I to do? I surely couldn’t mop for three days in my hotel room so I strapped on my big girl boots and set out for the city.

First before anything, I had to eat. It was nearly 2 pm and I hadn’t eaten anything all day except for a small Kit Kat I had found in my bag on the plane. I was starving! So I set out to walk along the beach, hoping to find something tasty. I ended up in a Korean shop with no one in it. The pictures of food on the window seemed good though and the prices not so outrageous. I don’t know any Korean or how to read it so luckily this place had a menu in English. I chose a bibimbap because it looked familiar and knew it would be good. One of the things I like about Korean cuisine is that they give you a bunch of small dishes along with your main dish. So along with my bibimbap I also got a few small plates of different kimchee. The food was good but really big so I couldn’t finish everything.

After sitting on the beach trying to figure out what to do after lunch. I decided to check out Centum City. I put this on my itinerary because in my research I saw that it is the world’s largest department store according to Guinness World Records. So I walked the 15 minutes to the green line and took Gwangan Station to Centum City Station a few stops away. When getting to the department store and walking around to each floor I wasn’t very impressed. I had seen many department stores before and this one didn’t stand out in anyway. It was just a department store filled with lots of designer brands. I guess the things that were different about this place was it included Spa Land and had a strange park on the roof. The rooftop park was probably the only thing I enjoyed about Centum City. The place was called Zooraji. I headed up that way because I like rooftops and also the name interested me. It was rainy this day so there weren’t much people up there but what it was, was just a big playground with large models of dinosaurs, slides, and a random pirate ship. This was definitely a place meant just for kids and I could imagine if I was a child, this would be cool. After walking around Zooraji, I went down and sat on a couch in the department store trying to think where to go next on the rainy afternoon.

I had mentioned before that Centum City also has Spa Land. If you remember my post from Seoul, you will know that Korea is really big on spa and sauna places. Spa Land has really good reviews and many bloggers I found had written about it online. I figured I would check it out but when I went to the entrance earlier when coming to the mall, I had seen the sign had said if you have tattoos or skin infections, you couldn’t enter. Fabulous, tattoos are just as bad as skin infections! It’s a reality I’ve had to accept a lot in Japan so having a place in Korea have the same views about tattoos, wasn’t too surprising. So I guess that was out of the list of things to do.

After some time of watching the rain and contemplating where to go next, I decided to checkout Haeundae Beach. It was on the same train line and figured it would be pretty easy to get to and come back from. It was about 4pm when I headed out there. Once I arrived to the station, the beach was pretty easy to get to. Just a few minutes walk and pass some construction I was standing in sand surrounded by other people who came out to enjoy the open air. Unfortunately, the weather was still a bit muggy and skies not so clear. But I still figured to snap some pictures and videos on the beach and surrounding area. As I walked along the coast, I saw that there was also an aquarium right on the beach. Usually I love going to aquariums but with it being past 4pm and the place closing in a couple hours, I figured it wouldn’t be worth it to go in. So I just kept walking. I ended up back tracking and going down a street I saw earlier coming from the station that looked to be of interest. It turned out to be a street filled with traditional Korean food shops, most of them selling fresh seafood. Intimidated by the shop clerks, I just quickly walked through and lightly skimmed the shops’ goods.

Afterwards, I walked around the Haeundae area, stopped in a beauty shop to buy some face masks, and then headed back to Gwangan Station. That evening I had some noodles with brown sauce at a random shop on the way back to the hotel. It was only 7pm but I was exhausted from the day’s travel and activities. So after getting back and getting cleaned up, I called it a night early and fell asleep around 9pm.

Phew! Survived day one!


xx
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