Busan (Southern tip of Seoul)

Busan. 

Another great city to travel to while in South Korea is Busan.



Busan is South Korea's second largest metropolis after Seoul, with a population of approximately 3.6 million. It has Korea's largest beach (see the pictures below – one where the beach is busy and you can see a big difference between Koreans and Canadians in how they treat the sun and the other where you can actually see the sand!) and Korea's longest river.

That said, it will be important to take account of the weather forecast if you are thinking about going there. August and September, are generally hot and humid and the city may experience typhoons at that time and be generally rainy

The city itself is located on the southeastern-most tip of the Korean peninsula. It is located about 65km directly south of Gyeong ju (http://sayyestotrev.blogspot.ca/2012/11/trevs-really-short-testimony-about.html).

Shopping: There are also four substantial shopping areas of note: Seomyeon, Gwangbok-dong, Busan Dae Hakap in Jangjeon-dong, and Centum City in Haeundae-gu.

For information from a proper guide, see the link below to the Lonely Planet’s list of things to do in Busan:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/south-korea/gyeongsangnam-do/busan/things-to-do

From my perspective, it is a great place to go eat and drink and party, and see a few sites along the way.

Full disclosure, I was never more hungover than my first day in Busan after an extremely long night of drinking in Gyeong ju but I still dream about a meal I had there (while hungover). It haunts me because I couldn’t eat very much given the state of my stomach but my mouth knew what I was eating was insanely delicious.  It was marinated pork that you made lettuce sandwiches with and the pork came from the leg of the pig.  The name of the dish and the restaurant is Busan Jokbal. If you go there and don’t try it, I will hold it against you.

The other must do is to go to the fish market there - Jagalchi Fish Market. There you will find an assortment of seafood that you may never have seen before.  Attached to it, as close to the sellers of fish as can be, will be a variety of restaurants serving fish dishes.  Another vivid memory for me was the fried fish platter that we shared with Hwayoung’s best friends there. It also helped that I had fully recovered from my hangover and was able to enjoy that meal to its fullest. 

It is well worth one’s time to travel to the Southern-most part of South Korea and discover all that this city has to offer.

How to get Busan?
Seoul (Train) Station.
KTX train (Korail) will take you to Busan in 2 hours.
One way trip will cost Appox. CAD$50.


Some pics from Busan.

Busan Jokbal.

Kuk-Je market

Nuri-Maru

Haeundae Beach

Nuri-Maru

Yong-Gung Sa

 fried fish platter

Jagalchi Fish Market

In-sa-dong (Seoul)

In-Sa-dong (Seoul)

Subway line 3, Anguk station

What to expect from In-sa-dong?
Shopping, tea and food

What to eat here?
1. Get-ma-eul-mil-baht-jip (In-sa-dong, Seoul)
Seafood broth+soft noodle

2. Sa-rang-bang Kal-guk-su. (In-sa-dong, Seoul)
Paht-Kal-guk-su (Redbean noodle).
This is not Hwayoung's favorite, but her mom loves this noodle.

It is in the red-bean soup!

3. Bibimbab

Gogung (In-sa-dong, (Ssam Ji Gil), Seoul)
38 Gwanhun-dong Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea
02-736-3211

Reputed to serve the best Jeonju bibimbap, Gogung replicates the dish prepared for kings. The rice is cooked with organic bean sprouts from Jeonju and topped with a variety of thing such as fresh, appetizing vegetables, stir-fried beef, and gochujang sauce. Nestled in a traditional brass bowl, you'll want to dig in right away, but don't forget to mix it all up well first!

4. Han-Jeong-Sik
Korean full set meals - "Han-jeong-sik"

 This is a traditional royal cuisine served as a course meal which allows you to enjoy vegetables, meat dishes, fish and seafood in one sitting.

Gung-yean
Gungyeon offers royal court cuisine of the Joseon Dynasty (1392~1910), preserved by the lineage of Han Hui-sun, the last sanggung chef of the dynasty, who served under King Gojong and King Sunjong, Hwang Hae-seong and Han Bok-ryeo. The restaurant is managed by Han Bok-ryeo who was the food advisor for the Korean drama Daejanggeum. A meal at Gungyeon is truly the essence of Korean cuisine. Food is prepared with great care and served in the traditional way.

☞ Address: Seoul, Jongno-gu, Gahoe-dong 170-3
☞ To get there: Subway line 3, Anguk station, exit 2, walk 5 minutes in the direction of the Board of Audit and Inspection. The restaurant is next to Bukchon Art Museum.
☞ Tel: +82-2-3673-1104 (Reservation required)
☞ Hours: Lunch 12:00~15:00, Dinner 17:30~21:00
☞ Recommended menu: Gungyeon bansura (궁연반수라) lunch course 30,000 won, Janggeum dinner course (장금만찬) 76,000 won, Jineobyeol dinner course (진어별만찬) 130,000 won
☞ Official site: www.jihwajafood.co.kr (Korean)

HongDae (Seoul)

HongDae (Seoul)

HongDae, Seoul - Metro Green line (Line #2).

HongDae is one of the hottest places in Seoul to go to go to fun clubs, have a few drinks and eat some good food.
HongDae means, Honk Ik University in short. Hwa-young spent much of her childhood in this area (well not in the clubs!).
The area has changed a lot since she left, but it has a unique atmosphere as well as endless fun to be had at night.

Here's some random maps of HongDae,

Basically, it is pretty big downtown areas full of pubs, clubs, restaurants, cafes and little shops! Here's a link in wiki! Sorry we always link you to wiki, but we'd just copy and paste from there otherwise!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hongdae_area

Another website, visitKorea, explains that HongDae is a club area, as the center of Korea's youthful nightlife. If you love dancing, do not miss HongDae Club day!
http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_4_4_7.jsp

Club Day* Schedule: Last Friday of each month, 20:00-06:00 * Venue: M2, Via, Jokerred, Tool, NB, Q-VO, DD, Saab, Hooper, Ska, O.R, Myeongwolgwan, Evans, FF, WATERCOCK, Freebird, Soundholic, DGBD, Hole, Liveclub Ssam, Spot (Total of 21 clubs in the area) * Admission fees: 20,000 won (1 ticket for entry into multiple clubs + 1 free drink) * Inquiries: +82-2-333-3910

So with $20 ticket, you can get one drink in each club for free, and they do not charge you any other fees. (Remember, no tips in Korea)

One more unique thing to go and see in the Hongdae area:

Free Market* Schedule: Every Saturday (March-November), 13:00-18:00
* Venue: Hongik Children's Park
* Directions:
Exit 9, Hongik University Station (Subway Line 2).

Go 150m straight, and cross the street.

Turn left, and go 500m straight towards the Hongik University entrance.

Turn right to arrive at Hongik Children's Park.
* Programs: Handicrafts exhibitions and sales, indie music/mimes/performances, art workshops, street portraits & caricatures
* Homepage: www.freemarket.or.kr (Korean)
* Inquiries: +82-2-325-8553

Also, you can easily find the buskers in HongDae! They are very talented people.

What to eat in HongDae?
You can find one small street which is full of Korean BBQ, you can easily find bbq beef or pork at cheap prices.
Whenever, Hwayoung gets a chance to go to HongDae, she is actually eating the Japanese food there!
They have famous Donburi restaurants.

Also, another of Hwayoung's favorites - Korean rice cake (DdukBboki) - very spicy but very delicious (J-Halibut, this one you will also love!).

And, HondDae has lots of cute coffee shops! I know it sounds silly, but they have great atmospheres!

Below are some youth hostels/guest houses around the HongDae area.
The websites are available in English, so you can check the rate there. You will find average prices starting from CAD$15 to $25. This seems like the cheapest way to stay in downtown Seoul.

https://hostelhongdae.com/
http://www.housetay.com/
http://www.stayorange.co.kr/
http://www.bigchoihostel.com/
http://www.seoul.a-korea.com/lee-no-guesthouse-hongdae

Bibimbab

Bibimbab

Bibimbab is also one of Trevor's favorite foods. Oh, this guy has too many favorite Korean dishes!

Similar to Kal-guk-su, basically you can find tons restaurants which serve Bibimbab.
Let me introduce you to some restaurants in Seoul!

1. Go-gung 
Go-gung's Bibimbab originates from Jeon-Ju where Bibimbab was born in Korea!
Go-gung uses beef-broth to make a rice (sorry vegetarians!).

i. (In-sa-dong, (Ssam Ji Gil), Seoul)
38 Gwanhun-dong Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea
02-736-3211

ii. Myung-dong, Seoul
12-14 Chungmuro 2-ga
Jung-gu, Seoul
02 776-3211

Price: CAD$20-40

2. Na-Mul-Muk-neun-gom (HongDae, Seoul)

Na-Mul-Muk-Neun-gom is such a cute place, it looks like an Italian restaurant.
Price: CAD$10-15

3. Basically, you can trust most places that serve Bibimbab as their main menu.
Price will range from $4 to $20 depending on the ingredients.

This is Bibimbab-Korean dish.
Mix your rice with various vegetables, egg, and meat.
You can use chili-paste (Go-chu-jang) for this, I found that regular sauce (the red one you see above) is too spicy for Trev, so I made a less spicy sauce for him.

Chilly-sauce(Go-chu-jang)

Ingredients
Gochujang 4 tbsp
honey 2 tbsp
(if you don't have honey, use sugar instead - in this case, you cannot keep the sauce in your fridge, it will turn too hard)
Asian pear, grounded 2 tbsp (I did not have this, so I used ground pineapple)
Grounded beef 4 tbsp
water 6 tbsp

How to make?

1. Put some oil in a pan (any vegetable oil, I used olive oil), and cook meat first.
2. When meat is ready drain oil from meat.
3. put gochujang, honey, pear in to the pan and mix well with meat.
4. Put them on the pan again and pour water on it, and boil it until it reduced and little thick.

Now, the sauce for bibimbab is ready. we could make main dish (remember if you can take the spice, you can skip the above and simply use gochujang in your bibimbab.

BiBimBab

Ingredient
(this totally depends on what you have in your fridge on that day)
onion, zucchini, bean-sprout, spinach, carrot, lettuce, mushroom, ground beef.

1. Put your rice on.
2. Slice (shred) vegetables.
3. cook carrots without oil on the pan, low heat. You just want to dry them, not fry them.
4. cook onion with olive oil, cook zucchini, and mushroom as well.
5. steam bean sprout (using salt water), steam spinach as well.
6.cook beef
7.cook egg.

See, it is really simple,
you could easily skip any vegetables, or add any.
sometimes I like to put different kinds of mushrooms rather than using meat.

Anyways, now we are all ready to eat.
Put 1-2 tbsp of sauce on the top, one spoonful of sesame oil, and mix well.

It is delicious and pretty healthy.

Places to stay - Vabien Suites

Vabien II (Seoul)

Here is another option for a place to stay in Seoul.

The Vabien Suites II Serviced Residence: It will cost you approximately CAN$100 (standard) - CAN$200 (two bedroom) per night (for 2-3 people). The price will vary by the type of the room and the season. See the link below.

http://www.vabien2.com/src/main.php


Take a look,Trevor & his family will likely stay at this hotel, so we may well look for our reception around there. Unfortunately, it is too early in the year so they do not allow reservations for September to be booked online yet. If you think that this option makes sense for you, email us at sayyestotrev@gmail.com so we can get a sense of numbers for blocking off rooms there. Please include information such as: the type of room, number of people, and the period you are staying.

* Trip advisor reviews
*Vabien Suite I Serviced Residence
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g294197-d655897-Reviews-Vabien_Suite_I_Serviced_Residence-Seoul.html

*Vabien Suites II Serviced Residence
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g294197-d598299-Reviews-Vabien_Suites_II_Serviced_Residence-Seoul.html

*Somerset residence
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g294197-d581445-Reviews-Somerset_Palace_Seoul Seoul.html
http://www2.somerset.com/

All three hotels are located in the center of Gangbuk, Seoul (sorry, it is not Gangnam style.people) where you can walk to the old palace or the gates or get there with a 5 minute cab ride.