Busan 2016 : Beomeosa and going around the university areas

Itinerary summary:

Day 1

Gwangali beach and surroundings

Day 2

Haedong Yonggungsa Temple - Dalmaji street and surroundings - Haeundae beach - Dongbaek island

Day 3

Gamcheon cultural village - Jagalchi Market - Nampo and surroundings

Day 4

Beomeosa temple - Pusan National University Youth street

Day 5

Taejongdae - Seomyeon

Day 6

Haeundae beach - Centum City - Pusan National University Youth Street

Day 7

Busan Museum - UN Memorial Cemetery

We started the day late thinking that we can hang around the university area. We went to wrong university stop and were at a deserted area around Busan National University of Education. Nevertheless, we did walk around together the university area and had a simple lunch together.

The simple lunch was about 4,000KRW each. That's pretty affordable compared to the cost of a simple Korean meal like this in Singapore.

There is a nice oval in the middle of the university area, which looks like it's for baseball. The university was pretty deserted although it was a weekday. The entire area wasn't big and since I was not able to find the youth street (because I was at the wrong university area), we decided to make a move and head to Beomeosa temple which is a few stops away.

From the subway station, we took bus 90 and headed to the temple. At the entrance, there is a path that leads to a mini hiking trail. It was a really nice forest area.

The mini trail has some really tall trees that provides a good canopy from the sun. Some of the tree barks were really interesting as well, like a crackling pork skin.

From the trail, we then walked up the slope and reached the entrance. The whole path was decked in lanterns on both sides, in pastel colours!

And the lantern festival continues at this temple, with even bigger paper lanterns in various shapes - a boy, a girl, a lotus, a Korean drum and many more.

The structure of this temple is very similar to the Chinese palaces or temple complex. You'll have to go through gates after gates and even the ceiling motives are very similar. However, the building seems a lot newer, or much work have gone into refurbishing the place as the structure looks fairly new.

There are also stones along the way as you walked towards the complex which looks like tomb and right at the top, there are many more lanterns in display. Tourists are not supposed to take photos of the monk intentionally, especially when they're in the middle of worship.

We saw the right university stop on our way to Beomeosa temple, which is Pusan National University. Therefore, on the way back from the temple, we decided to pop by and check out the Youth street. There was a shop at the subway station selling socks of all types and once you exit, you'll see the typical skin care shops and loads of eateries. This is like Hongik University area in Seoul but on a much smaller scale.

We also popped by McDonalds to check out their menu and to utilise free wifi to know what to look out for at the university area. We tried the cheapest burger on the menu which is the Bulgogi burger for 2,000KRW. It tastes pretty much like McChicken with gravy.

One of the key items that I read from blogs is this sandwich. This stall is right outside the university entrance. Actually it is nothing too special and the sandwich that we tried with egg and ham costs about 2,500KRW but I think it makes a good and quick breakfast or snack for the uni kids.

The university was located right next to a small, how convenient! We just walked around the university and since it is a campus in the city, it is not big but there seems to be a lot of activities going on. The university is celebrating her 70th anniversary this year. Just as we were about to leave the area, we were handed 2 bottles of raisin water for free by some random marketers.

We ended the day with another round of Korean BBQ. This time, we stroll down the street towards Gwangali beach and found a shop that was really cheap. It was selling some pork belly at 3,000KRW per 100g, which is a third of what we paid on our first day. We had a mix of beef which costs about 5,800KRW per 100g and the pork belly. The boss came out to help us again, and showed u how to eat with the panchan of bean sprouts, raw onions and kimchi with the usual 豆瓣酱. It was a really satisfying dinner and once again, we were blessed with a neighbouring table that is able to converse in Chinese to help translate the minimum order message from the lady boss.

A good meal to end a relaxing day indeed!