One thing that I did not appreciate when I decided to take a day trip to Busan was just how big the port city was.  Yes, I knew that it was Korea’s second largest city with just over 3.5 million people, but I’m from London.  We can pack in 3.5 million people into just a few square miles (it seems!).  Busan on the other hand is sprawling.  If you are planning seeing several sights in a day trip, then think again.

I left Daegu bright and early on Sunday morning on the 8.50am limousine bus from Dongdaegu Bus Station (at the bargain fare of 10,400 won) with grand plans to see a temple, take a coastal walk, visit a national park, explore a traditional culture village, and eat a ssiat hotteok in BIFF Square before heading back on the late 9.30pm bus.  Sadly, I only found time to visit two of these landmarks.

Maybe it was the fact that I went to Busan on a holiday Sunday, but it seemed to me to be unbearably over-crowded.  Traffic moved at a snails pace, and the Busan city bus (The 181, 9 and 100 all go there) from Haeundae subway station (Exit #7) to my first destination – Haedong Yonggungsa Temple – took over an hour.  The cars were stop and go, bumper to bumper the whole way and the bus so crowded I could smell the armpits of the person standing next to me. To keep my calm, I kept telling myself, “Shortly you will be out of this chaos and enjoying the serenity and peacefulness of an oceanside temple.”

I was so wrong.  Yonggungsa Temple turned out to be as crowded as Disneyland during Spring Break holidays and it had the same amusement park feel.  Just like any good theme park, the crowds had to park their cars in a designated area some way away from the main attraction and walk up a long and windy road to get to the entrance. Ah, but before you could see the temple there the lines of tempting stalls selling all manner of food and souvenirs.  Keepsakes ranged from Hello Kitty balloons to beaded bracelets galore.  The delicacies included undesirable meat on sticks, spliced and grilled octopus, gold brown bugs fried and served in cups, buckets of seaweed and soybean paste, and Arrowroot tea.  Once through the carnival, I finally made it to the temple entrance.  Or so I thought.

No.  There was a snaking line of people queued up to go in.  It suddenly reminded me of the wait at the ‘It’s a Small World’ ride in Disneyland. Never-ending with no end in sight. Disheartened I joined in behind a long row of Koreans an patiently shuffled my feet forward inch by inch for over 30 minutes through the soaring heat before the temple finally emerged before me from a tunnel of tall bamboo stalks arching over the stone path entrance.

Unusually nestled on the cliffs of the ocean instead of high up in the mountains, this Buddhist temple was originally erected on this site in 1376.  Sadly it was destroyed by arson in 1592 during the Japanese invasion and rebuilt to its original glory in the 1930s.  It’s location was spectacular, but I didn’t not find the temple itself remarkable in any way. Maybe it was the hoards of people that ruined it. Anyway, I explored extensively, took the obligatory Facebook picture post, lite a stick of incense and said a prayer for my uncle in underground temple before vacating and heading on to destination two.

Well, destination two – the coastal walk – had to be scrapped. There was only time to see one more attraction before I headed back to Daegu.  Feeling stressed out and needing some fresh air, I choose to venture to Taejongade, which was described as having magnificent coastal views.

The journey there was equally stressful, frustrating and long.  I didn’t accurately time the whole journey but in recollection I think it took close to two hours to get from Yonggunsa temple in the east side of Busan to Taejongdae Resort Park on the southernmost end of the Yeongdo Coast. The section from Semoyon subway station to Taejongdae I did time, and that took one hour. By the time I arrived, the time saving and relaxing shuttle train through the park had sold out of tickets, which meant I’d have to walk the 2.5km one way to the Observatory and Lighthouse to see the coastal views.

Needing to unwind a bit, I grabbed a can of makgeolli from the corner store at the entrance and headed off.  There were still a lot of tourists here, but much less than at the temple. With each step the stress of the temple visit melted from me. Slowly my frustration from the days tour to Busan subsided.  I’m not sure if it was the sound of the leaves rustling in the trees and the lapping of the ocean waves on the rocks below, or just the 14.4% Makgeolli I drank on the way, but by the time I was finally sitting next to the Lighthouse with the expanse of the Sea of Japan in front of me, I finally felt happy and at peace in Busan. In that moment, sitting on Sinsea Rock with the sun setting in the distance and the fresh sea salt breeze whipping through my long blonde hair I finally felt that the trip to Busan was worth all the hours spent on buses.

On the climb back out from the Lighthouse, I treated myself to a freshly dipped corn dog.  I figured it was a fitting dinner in my second amusement park of the day in Busan.  By the time I caught my last bus home, the sun had set and Busan Harbor Bridge was lite up in ever-changing pastel blue and pink lights. It was interesting to see this bustling Korean town, with more foreigners, more tattoos, more ladies shoulders on show, and more modern than Daegu, but by the end I was ready to head back to my more conservative and quieter ‘home’ town of Deagu.  I decided apart from ocean views, it has all I need.