Barely Busan: Culture and Art immersion trip to Gamcheon Village

a photo spot entitled "Becoming One" near the bus stop overlooking Gamcheon Culture Village

A village like no other we've ever seen before. Said to be Korea's Santorini, Machu Picchu, and Lego village with its colorful houses, interesting art installations as well as rich history, this destination appealed to me. The village also known as Taegeukdo Village  was a must in our Busan itinerary. We spent an afternoon in the village but a whole day can also be allotted specially if you want to take your time to have a leisurely walk and admire each and every art work and exhibit area in the village.

Barely Busan: Shinsegae Centum City - the world's largest shopping complex

When we found out that Busan has the Guinness Book of World Records' holder for the largest shopping complex in the world in it's backyard, we were curious to see how humongous this mall was. On our second day of sight-seeing in Busan we decided to head straight to Shinsegae Centum City to see it for ourselves.

Barely Busan: Off to Dadaepo - Beach, Sunset and Fountain of Dream

Following our Jeju Island itinerary of ending our day by the beach, I scheduled a trip to Dadaepo Beach in the late afternoon of Day 1 of our Busan sight-seeing so the boys would have time to play by the beach and we could watch the musical fountain show after watching the sunset, which according to my reading was the best place to do so in Busan.

Barely Busan Day1: Going around Taejongdae Park on the Danubi Train

On Day 1 of our Barely Busan sight-seeing we were off to Taejongdae Park. It is a natural park with magnificent cliffs on the southermost tip of the island of Yeongdo-gu. It was named after the 29th king of Silla Dynasty during 57 BC to 935 AD King TaeJong Mu-Yeol. It was said that he has traveled to many places but it was at Taejongdae Park that he enjoyed shooting arrows. It is also designated as Scenic Site No.17 with the sea cliff, thick forest and blue ocean overlooking Oryuk Island and sometimes even Tsushima Island (part of Japan). We love beautiful landscapes so this destination has to be among the firsts on our list of places to visit.

Barely Busan: Haeundae Beach at night

We settled our things in our room (simple traditional Korean style) at the Mobydick Hotel and stepped outside for dinner and a stroll. We spotted a Lotteria fast-food restaurant on our way to the hotel when we arrived and we've decided we would be having our dinner there. Chicken galore! Conveniently located just a few steps away from our hotel. That sealed the deal. It was Lotteria every night for dinner. It's a Korean brand after all - founded by Shin Jun Ho, a Korean entrepreneur in Tokyo, Japan in 1972 (the brand was then established in 1979 in Seoul).

Barely Busan in 3 days (May/June 2014)

It was not until the 12th day of our South Korea holiday when we went back to Busan. We flew from Jeju Island via Jeju Air. We left Jeju Island in the afternoon (and spent the last few hours soaking in the island breeze) and arrived early evening in Busan (which gave us some time to stroll by the beach before we dozed off), after a short delay (10mins wasn't that bad). We stayed for 3 nights and had 2 full days to see some of Busan's sights. That wasn't enough time to really see most of Busan's attractions, thus the title Barely Busan. I just had to make the most of our stay there by choosing the attractions I knew our family would be interested in and enjoy the best.

Jeju Island Attractions useful GPS / phone numbers

Going to the different places around Jeju Island is much easier with the help of GPS. In Jeju you can input the seven digit telephone numbers of certain attractions into the car GPS and it will lead you to your destination. I found out during my research that some attractions have different numbers listed in different sources so it was a challenge to choose which numbers would give the correct location. What I did was compare the numbers and list down the ones which appeared more than once in several resources. Every day on our road trip I would input the numbers and then check from the map if the location indicated was where exactly the place was. Of course, for me to know if the location was correct I had to have prior knowledge of the attractions' locations by marking them on my own map (google map as well as paper map).  

Jeju Island Road Trip Day 6: Farewell, Jeju Island

Our last day in Jeju Island and there were still a lot of places we wished we could have squeezed into our itinerary. For an island this small Jeju Island does have a wide variety of attractions for visitors to enjoy and keep coming back for. We had one more island attraction that we had to drive to before we head to the airport for our afternoon flight to Busan.

Jeju Island Road Trip Day 5: IHO TAEWO BEACH

Our last stop before heading back to Jeju December Hotel for our final night in Jeju Island was Iho Taewo Beach. I included this spot in our itinerary not for the sand nor the beach but for its peculiar lighthouses - big horse-shaped structures, and not only one but two!

Jeju Island Road Trip Day 5: GEUMNEY EU HEUMON BEACH / HYEOPJAE BEACH

From the beach (Hwasun) to Mt Sanbangsan to the Chocolate Museum and yet another beach (Geumney and Hyeopjae) before we make our final stop for the day at Jeju City. This was the second to the last beach we visited in Jeju Island and it was the best. White sand beach, longer shore line, cobalt colored seawater and overlooking Biyangdo Island. A perfect afternoon awaited us.

Jeju Island Road Trip Day 5: CHOCOLATE MUSEUM

For chocolate lovers like us (me, specifically, and my kids, sometimes), a visit to the first and only museum in Asia specializing in chocolate and cacao was something worth looking forward to. To add to the excitement, the Chocolate Museum in Jeju Island was said to be one of the largest in the world after the one in Cologne, Germany (which we didn't get to see). I'm already imagining it's raining chocolates when we get there.

Jeju Island Road Trip Day 5: HWASUN GEUMMORAE BEACH, MT SANBANGSAN and YONGMEORI COAST

our final farewell to Dreaming Forest and to May's mom

It had been a pleasant 2-night stay at Dreaming Forest Pension, our retreat at the end of everyday after exploring the attractions at Seogwipo and beyond. The morning of Day 5 of our road trip I got a personal note from owner May. She apologized for not being able to say goodbye to us (it's our check out day) because she had to go to Jeju City and thanked us for staying with them. I was touched by her note and felt sad that we didn't get to say goodbye to her, too. Her note will have a special place in my South Korea trip scrapbook. We will defnitely go back to Dreaming Forest Pension, soon!

Jeju Island Road Trip Day 4: ALIVE MUSEUM

Alive Museum is an optical illusion theme park with five optical illusion experiences visitors will love. It's also a night time tourist attraction open till 11pm. Just right for our after dinner activity. We were very excited to see what optical illusions would top the weird and crazy exhibits at Ripley's.

Jeju Island Road Trip Day 4: RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT

We didn't really plan to visit Ripley's Believe it or not Museum at Jeju Island since we already had Alive Museum in our itinerary. But since it was within the vicinity and we had some time to spare (we didn't spend much time at the Duty Free Shop because the area was not too big), we decided to give it a go. At 8,000 won ($9.47) for adults and 6,000 won ($7.10 ) for children, it was an amount we could spare for the exhibits we hoped to see - a lot of believe it or not moments.

Jeju Island Road Trip Day 4: JUNGMUN RESORT COMPLEX and CHEONJEYEON FALLS

Jungmun Resort Complex is a multi-tourism area in Jeju Island where several attractions are conveniently located. There are natural attractions, museums, theme parks, and unique tourist attractions. We started our day at Jusangjeolli Cliff then headed straight to Jeju duty free shop in the resort complex. I was quite excited about this shopping trip hoping to find something nice and reasonably priced. But it didn't pan out well for me (again). I'm starting to feel that I wouldn't be able to find anything from this trip (aside from the usual souvenirs).

Anyway, the Duty Free Shop also had a tourism counter where I got some of our brochures from. Having several brochures and maps in hand really helped in our Jeju and Jungmun adventure. Pro, I got to plan the day well. Con, with additional attractions I've seen on the list we wished we could have more time in Jungmun Resort Complex alone! With this statement at the brochure/map, "Start your travel from Jeju duty free shop in Jungmun," I guess we were on the right track. "Prelude of happiness and impression, Jungmun has all for true relaxation and pleasant memories of Jeju." Now we would get a chance to prove that on our day-long Jungmun Resort Complex exploration. 

a preview of what's to see at Alive Museum, taken at the Duty Free Shop complex

Jeju Island Road Trip Day 4: JUSANGJEOLLI CLIFF

A designated cultural monument of Jeju Island, these stone pillars can be seen along the Jisatgae Coast. The Jusangjeolli stone pillars were formed when Mt Hallasan erupted into the sea of Jungmun. If you look closely you can see that these stone pillars are usually hexagonal in shape nad looks like they were carved by stonemasons. 

Jeju Island Road Trip Day 3: PYOSEON BEACH and JEJU WORLD CUP STADIUM

On our way back to Seogwipo from Seongsan Ilchulbong, we passed by Pyoseon Beach, another one of our must-have beach pit-stop to end our daily road trip. I noticed some similarities with the beaches in Jeju Island we've seen so far - volcanic rock formations and smaller, shorter shorelines. The good thing about these shorelines is that it's easier to watch the boys as they play in a smaller, almost secluded area.

Jeju Island Road Trip Day 3: SEONGSAN ILCHULBONG

Our Jeju Island road trip wouldn't be complete without a visit to the famous Seongsan Ilchulbong. I scheduled it to be on Day 1 of our drive around the island, welcoming the sunrise at the peak of Ilchulbong. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate with us. It rained on the morning of our supposed drive to Seongsan Ilchulbong and we didn't want to risk driving on slippery roads and not even getting a glimpse of the bright yellow sun so we postponed our visit there. I looked for another day where we could fit a drive there during our stay in Seogwipo and Day 3 it was.

Jeju Island Road Trip Day 3: SEOPJIKOJI

One of the smallest lighthouses we've seen by far is located at Seopjikoji. We drove, for less than an hour, from the southern part of the island to the eastern part to get to this coastal beauty.

Jeju Island Road Trip Day 3: JEONGBANG FALLS (where fresh meets ocean water)

Who wouldn't be enticed wading in the waters of the only waterfalls in Asia that falls directly into the ocean? We definitely wanted to bring the boys over and have their say about this world famous natural wonder. So on our third day on the road we had Jeongbang Falls in our itinerary.