Travel Log - South Korea Day 3

Click here to read from the 1st post of this travel log! 😄

Day 3: Train to Busan & Night Scenic Tour with Klook

9 June 2018, Saturday

We had booked and reserved seats on the 11:00 am KTX train to Busan prior to the trip... so, we left the hotel for Seoul KTX station at 9 am (yes, 2 hours ahead of the scheduled train ride because 1. with the parents, 2. with the luggage) despite it being just 2 stations away (Euljiro 1-ga ↦ Cityhall (transit) ↦ Seoul Station).

Euljiro 1-ga to Cityhall (Subway Line 2), switch to Subway Line 1 to Seoul Station

So, having left the hotel 2 hours ahead of the train schedule, we arrived extremely early and the family sat themselves down at Paris Croissant for breakfast at the KTX station.

Found this at Seoul KTX station, from Dunking Donuts 😍

Lunch bentos can be bought from the KTX station before heading to the platforms

Each train carriage has 16 rows, with rows 1-8 in one direction & 9-16 in another direction (rows 8 & 9 are facing each other). When I reserved the seats on the KTX, I didn't know of the seating arrangement. Thankfully, for both our KTX journey, we were facing in the direction that the train was moving in. #woes of someone with motion sickness 😅

In Busan...

At Busan KTX station, you have to exit and walk across to get to their subway station. Took us awhile to understand how that worked. From Busan subway station, we headed to Jagalchi station (just 3 stops away) which was where our hotel was located at.

Hotel Foret Premiere, Nampo

Map (Metro: Jalgachi Station, Exit 7, walk straight)

The hotel is actually located between Jalgachi Station & Nampo Station.. but it looked nearer to Jalgachi Station on the map, hence the decision to walk from Jagalchi.

It is actually like a studio, 1 bedroom & 1 living room with the TV

Street food market near the Hotel (a.k.a Busan International Film Festival)

Our dinner at Busan KTX station before our Night Tour with Klook in Busan

Our meeting point for Night Tour in Busan

Unlike my tour experience for the tour to Nami Island where the company in-charge placed every travel group in a Whatsapp group, this one didn't have any contact points. Groups of travellers just appeared at the meeting point and waited for the tour guide to show up. The tour guide for the trip, Mr Kim, led the group in Mandarin.

The main highlight of the tour was the illumia park at Let's Run Park. I like lights. 😆 According to Mr Kim, its not easy to get to by public transport as it is quite far away from the city of Busan (it is about 40 mins away by car) and the frequency of the public buses is quite long (I would do a fact check on that if I ever learn Korean someday, he was promoting a lot about the tours so I can't help it but feel a little doubtful).

We were given about an hour and a half to walk around the park which was simply huge. A lot of potential picture spots... If only I had a camera that captures night scenes well. 😂

Following that, we were brought to two scenic spots just to view the night scenery of Busan.
1st was at the Gamcheon Culture Village, the colourful village of Busan. According to Mr Kim, despite the popularity of the place, the residents actually dislike having uninvited visitors into the village as they are not getting any revenue/benefits from the visitors. There is a history behind this cultural village that dated back to the Korean War which was quite interesting (about how the poor ended up living on the hills and the rich lived near the ports, or something like that).

The 2nd spot was... a viewpoint on the other hill/mountain, showing the night cityscape of Busan.

Having the choice of alighting at one of three locations, we chose to alight at Nampo as it was the nearest option to our hotel. Despite asking for directions from Mr Kim, we ended up being quite lost and the GPS on our maps weren't quite working (the importance of having a physical map 😅). Thankfully, we managed to find our way after asking for directions at one of the stores.

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