Korea Trip Day 3 [Busan] - Jagalchi Fish Market, Taejongdae, Yongdusan Park (Busan Tower), SinchangDong

Rise and shine! We took the 8:50am KTX train to Busan, reached 2,5 hours later and walked from Busan station to our hotel (Toyoko Inn 2). This hotel was the cheapest out of the 3 hotels we booked but it was surprisingly decent. Toyoko Inn is a Japanese hotel chain that has very small rooms and toilets, but very clean and cold air-con. Hence, no complains at all from me!

Our Hotel in Busan!

 The check in time was not until 4pm, so we left our luggage at the lobby and went on to our first itinerary, which was the famous Jagalchi Fish Market. This fish market was very famous according to Trip advisor and Google. Apparently, it is famous for the raw seafood available which is similar to Japanese sashimi. The pictures in the menus are full of raw fish meat which was sliced thin and arranged nicely in a round plate. It is also supposed to be very fresh because this fish market is located near the sea. 

Jagalchi famous fish logo

From the very start, I don't like the sound of this place, but O wanted to try out the live octopus. Well, I would like to see her eat that so we went there anyway. Once we entered the Jagalchi street, we could see that on both sides were tanks full of weird, funny sea creatures. It smells awful as well and at the end of the street was a building that contains the wet market selling raw seafood as well as the restaurants.

The wet market was on the first floor and the restaurants were on the second floor. We went up and we saw many restaurants with similar menu fighting for customers. We were pulled and also persuaded with name cards to come and try out their place. After walking a few rounds and discussing where should we go, we sat at the most crowded stall. Lucky we sat there because it was crowded, hence the patron did not push us. 
Looking at the menu, I was perplexed at the atrocious price they charge for all the dishes. Small grilled fish costs USD $30 and mini steamboat USD $40. Furthermore, that's the only 2 cooked dish that they offer, the rest was the raw stuff. I asked O to order the live octopus and told her I will eat somewhere else. Small live octopus costs USD $30 and apparently they DO NOT allow her to order just that. They said that the live octopus was a side dish and we are required to order a main dish before we can order the side dish. My friend B was actually on the verge of agreeing to the grilled fish, but my stingy side couldn't bear to pay such high amount of money for a dish that wasn't even certain to be nice.

So we finally decided to leave. Luckily, we do not have a person who felt bad and wanted to stay just because it is not nice to leave. And we were lucky as I mentioned, because the host did not get angry when we left because her stall was crowded anyway. Phew!!!

After we staggered out from this place we have to search for lunch again! Where??!!! We were in the compound of the market and all the restaurants are selling the same damn thing. We were famished and luckily! Again, by the stroke of luck, we chanced upon a poster saying that there is a buffet restaurant upstairs of that building that we were about to pass by! My pessimist side was thinking, buffet? It is surely going to cost more after what we saw earlier. And I thought that they will definitely serve the same thing as every where else. But my friends were saying let's take a look! And so we went up the dingy lift, and when the lift opened, it wasn't so bad. There was this long table like a normal buffet filled with spreads of cooked food. Then we went on to ask the waiter how much does it cost per person. He said 12,000won (~$12) and again I was like, surely they are going to add this and that and the final amount could be 30,000 or more.. So we confirm and double confirm until they called out 1 woman waitress who could speak Mandarin. I asked her how much and it is really 12,000won nett! We were so happy and so we ate there! There was also a BBQ grill at the table for the raw fish and seafood that they serve. Amazing! I ate the kimchi, sweet and sour pork, bulgogi, grilled some fish, beef and chicken. All tasted alright! Not 5-star hotel material but with this price, it is already a very good deal. We felt so so so lucky to get out of that stall and got to eat at this place. =)

Buffet BBQ 

After filling our stomach, we quickly got out of the worse place in Korea and took a bus to Tae Jeong Dae, which was one of my favourite places in Korea. It is a lighthouse situated near cliffs where the road leading up to it was nicely taken care of for tourists. So we reached the entrance and we saw that there was this ride to take us straight away up to the cliff by tram. But I wanted to walk up myself and enjoy the scenery, even though it was sweltering HOT again, and it was a tiring walk. But the pavements were nice and there was a temple that we passed by at the side of the road. The road leading up to the temple was decorated on each side with flowers which made a very pretty walkway.

Pretty walkway with flowers

After taking photos and catching a glimpse of the temple, we continued our journey up to the peak! Once we reached there, the view was suddenly open to us. I think a picture speaks a thousand words and so I will just post few of the many pictures I took there!

Lighthouse just right behind

Pretty ocean!

Then my friend O panicked because it's already 5 and she don't want to waste time, so we walked back to the terminal to take a bus to Yongdusan Park. I was very tired and wasn't very keen on going to Busan park but we went anyway. On the way from the bus stop to Busan Tower, we went through streets beside Jagalchi market that is more Diana-friendly; meaning no fishy smell and the streets were lined up with modern shops like KFC, Etude House etc. So we decided to get dinner there after we saw Busan tower. We took pictures outside the Busan Tower and we did not went up as Seoul Tower itself was already a disappointment with its stuffy interior and dirty window.

For dinner, we ate at this small eateries and I ordered the bulgogi fried rice. It was a large portion and it tasted decent! I was bored of korean restaurant so this was a nice change. O however ordered the fried noodle and it was not nice. 

We took bus back to our hotel and rest.