a late summer memoir (going far east) - Yongdusan Park, Busan Tower & Gukje Market

Busan Tower
October 2014

from wikipedia

Busan Tower is a 118-metre-high tower at Yongdusan Park, located in Jung-gu, Busan, South Korea. Busan Tower was built in 1973. It's only used for entertainment purposes and doesn't have any transmitting equipment which sets the tower apart from many other towers with observation decks primarily built as TV- and radio towers. The deck features panoramic view and a small cafe, it's only accessible during working hours via two high-speed elevators. The base of the tower is interconnected with a few galleries and souvenir shops. The tower is usually mentioned in tourist guides as a good place to get a view of the city's port.

continue from - here

a day trip to Taejongdae park really drained our energy. obviously because of the so called hiking and walking along the road, from and to each attractions of the park that we tried to cover. hence, the plan to go out again, and riding the train to Gwangali beach to see the fireworks festival was no longer in the mind. both sisters totally flat and we decided to rest for the night.

i met my new roommate - a japanese guy from fukuoka. he was on weekend trip to busan, solely to see the firework festival. despite our language barrier, i could appreciate his effort to share his excitement towards the event, as well as promoting fukuoka to me as another place to visit. at one point, i was like doing charade, guessing what he was trying to imply etc. LOL

the next morning started early with us preparing the brahim's instant nasi lemak for breakfast. i must say that it was really good. good to taste this staple, good to have sambal in your meal etc. hehe. 

it was quiet morning at the guest house, it was only three of us having the breakfast. ah...we met another group of malaysian again yesterday, who just arrived from Jeju and staying for one night at the guest house before heading back to Seoul. and by the time we were preparing the breakfast, they were already packing up to leave the guest house. 

so, the plan for today...nothing other than wandering the city of Busan. i had few places in mind, but then considering my lil' sister wasn't feeling well, we decided to visit the attraction nearby - Gukje Market, Busan Tower and Yongdusan Park.

Busan Tower located within walking distance from the guesthouse. we had our morning walk ( it was a pleasant morning), passing the Gwangbokro Street until we reached the escalator that led us to the Yongdusan Park.

we decided to go straight to the Busan Tower, instead of wandering around the Yongdusan Park, as it was still early and the place was yet to be flocked with other tourists.

we were up there for quite some time, as we took time enjoying the breathtaking view of Busan City, sipping our latte, while let others passed us by.

we went down, and made a stop at the souvenir shops of the Busan Tower. as we didn't aware that Gukje Market had a better deal, we bought some mementos from the shop.

upon leaving the main entrance of the tower, we just realized that the tower was also surrounded with the lovelocks. another photo moment!

well...just for sake of fun, we bought left ours too there. LOL

and we met Jiwoo replica too, waiting for memographers.

#creepytengokpatungneh

we left the park, and routing ourselves wandering around the Yongdusan Park. too bad, it was not autumn yet, else i bet the place would look lovely.

local artists exhibited their artworks around the park.

we went back to the escalator, and then took it down to the Gwangbokro Street back. it was already passed 11am, and the street now bustling with visitors.

as we decided to walk along the alley that led us to the BFF square from the Gwangbokro Street, a guy passed me a pamphlet below.

Yes. A Halal indian Restaurant in the middle of city of Busan. you no longer have to take a long ride to the Busan mosque, hence the Turkish kebab restaurant, if you wanted to eat a proper halal meal. pardon me, i don't recall exactly the location, but as a landmark...you can try to find the cat-cafe, and there was an alley nearby that connected Gwangbokro Street and BFF Square. yes...one of those alleys.

anyway...another halal option - Kebab. yeap..it was one of the stalls at the end of the street at the BFF square. i had a chance to talk to the owner and the daughter (i assumed) told me that they were opened only during weekend (hence explained why we didn't encountered them days before).

we bought chicken kebab at price of 3k won each, and had it at our guest house. we had a quick rest, and settled our jama' prayers, before went out again...and this time - shopping time at Gukje Market!

ah..did i mention that the guest house was only 100 metres from the market? if only we knew that the place was that interesting to wander, we would have came earlier...i mean the day before.

we ended up went back to the market for 2nd time that afternoon as both sisters felt that they missed few things. in fact the price of souvenirs there, obviously cheaper compared to other places that we went earlier, even from the sellers at the roadside of the city.

we went back to our guest house once everything done, and made a stop at the nearby seven eleven to buy our power drink - the banana milk...eheh..

the 'boys' were sleeping when we arrived at the guest house.

 tbc.