Korea D-6 – Lost in Jinhae, Busan (Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival, Haeundae Night Market)
- Isabella Ayu
- Jun 17, 2018
- 6 min read
Updated: Jun 18, 2018
It's time for us to explore deeper in Busan. For 2nd day in Busan, we planned to go to Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival, Oryukdo Skywalk , & Haeundae Night Market.
We had free breakfast from our Hotel. They served bread, coffee, & orange juice for breakfast.
Before we went out from Hotel, we asked the receptionist how to go to Oryukdo Skywalk since we didn't have much information how to go there. He helped us to give details information, he even printed the maps and wrote down the details.
It was rain in the morning and we checked the forecast that it will be rain all day. So we had to bring our umbrella because we don't want in wet.
The festival is held once a year but the exact date is depend on the cherry blossom. We didn't know the exact date when we bought the ticket plane. We had to booked twice for the hotel in Busan, first because our friend could not join the trip and the second because we changed the plan to Busan in the middle of the trip *At first we planned to Busan on the first day of our arrival in South Korea* And we just booked KTX ticket a week before arrival. Lucky us that the festival goes as expected so we could see the festival. FYI, this year, Jinhae Cherry Blossom festival is held on 1st-10th April 2018.
TIPS
The festival usually held on early April. If you didn't want to see crowd you have to avoid weekend
Booked hotel min a month before in case you'll change the itinerary
Booked KTX ticket min. a week before arrival, because you'll be charge cancellation fee if you cancel the ticket
HAEUNDAE TO JINHAE
After searching several transport options to Jinhae, we decided to take bus from Seobu Intercity Bus terminal. This is how to get there:
Take metro from Haeundae St. to Sasang st. (1500KRW, approx 45 mins)
Take exit 5 and the bus terminal will be on your left or exit 3 and then turn right
Buy the ticket and go to line 17 (5100 won, approx 1 hour)
We bought hotpack at convenience store in Haeundae St. We still not used with the cold weather here. This is my first using hotpack :D FYI, you have to shake-shake the hotpack to get it warm. I only bought one, so I still felt cold sometimes.
Actually we planned to go early since we got information from our friend, Rima, that there's so much crowd there couple days ago. And we know that Jinhae is popular among tourist and Korean people when it comes to Cherry Blossom Festival. But, I remembered that we off from Hotel at 7.30 AM or 8 AM so we arrived there around 10 AM :'')
The rain stopped when we get there. We bought a bus ticket to Busan for our return before we explore Changwon city. The ticket can be used anytime during the day.
After we brought ticket, we welcomed by many cherry blossom trees. IT'S REALLY BEAUTIFUL!! The flower started to fall and many petals on the road. We even forgot to check how to go to our next destination, Gyeonghwa Station. We just walked and walked so long, following other tourist. Because we think that Gyeonghwa Station is not far for the bus terminal. After we walked quite far, we realized something wrong. And it's true that we should walked to go there. Then we checked bus no. to Gyeonghwa Station by gmaps. We got off the bus after 3-4 stops, and just realized that we got wrong bus stops. Then we saw police station across the road and we decided to go there.
That was my first time going to police station and much more cool since we got lost in Jinhae XD We asked to police how to go there. They showed big map in the office and explained how to get there. But they don't speak english well, so sometimes we use gesture. But the police here really kind and really happy to see us. They even took picture of us *I forgot to take picture with them* And so we had to take another bus to Gyeonghwa Station :'''(
TIPS:
It's better to search more information (especially bus in Changwon) when you're in Busan because Busan people can't speak english well. It'll hard for you once you get lost there.
You have to take bus after arrival in Changwon to go to Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival. Please don't walk to go there!
I hope this will help you for city bus information for Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival. I just found this information two months after I went to South Korea *LOL* (Source: here)
There are many spots you could visit at Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival, you could check the
details here. But we only managed to go to 2 places.
GYEONGHWA STATION CHERRY BLOSSOM ROAD
This is one of the icon Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival. This place is famous because you'll find Korail train in the middle of cherry blossom road. There was so many people that day and rained when we get there.
If you're not lucky, you'll have to wait on long queue to take picture right in front of the train. And we were the unlucky one </3 Because we wasted our time just to get here, we decided to take picture far from the train.
We moved to the back of train, hope that the people won't be as much as in front of the train. But still we met many people there *of course since it was peak season* *LOL*
selfie is a must :D
taken from the back of korail train
We started to feel hungry. There was many food stall around Gyeonghwa Station, I decided to buy Corn Dog.
Then we moved to Youjwacheon Stream. We asked to information center there (because we didn't want to get lost again), but they also couldn't speak English well. We took another city bus to go there.
YEOJWACHEON STREAM'S CHERRY BLOSSOM ROAD
This place is known also as one of Jinhae's best spots for viewing cherry blossoms. Romance Bridge is the icon of this place.
Once we were here, I had to do office work for a while. I decided to sat at police tent since I couldn't find anywhere else. There were 2 police officers there and they were so nice even when they can't speak English well. They knew Bali & Jakarta. One of them even shared their cake to us *about to cry*
We didn't see flowers on on the river bank and the water wasn't high. So we can walk on the stream.
Yeojwacheon Starlight Festival is an evening event where Yeojwacheon Stream and Romance Bridge are decorated with illuminations and laser lights. We would like to see this, but we were afraid if we missed the last bus back to Haeundae.
And another disaster happened. The Pocket WiFi battery was died and we forgot to bring the USB cable. We hardly to found free WiFi also here T.T
Around 2.30 PM or 3 PM we decided to go back to Haeundae. Again, we asked to information center how to go back to the terminal. One of the volunteer escorted us to bus stop and pointed bus number on information board since she couldn't speak English well. *They really nice*
Once we took the bus, we didn't know where to stop. The girl didn't tell us since she didn't give us the details. So we decided to get off from the bus once we see the police officer (2 or 3 bus stops). We met two police and they couldn't speak English well also </3 Then they escorted us back to our last bus station!!! T.T We asked where should we get off, but they can't tell us the details in English <///3
We stopped before the last two stops, the driver also couldn't speak English also *we were doomed* But we didn't have another options rather than ask people since we didn't have internet. Then we asked Eonnie at bus stops, she also couldn't speak English. But she accompanied us riding to the right bus. She then told us where we had to got off the bus. Then we had to walk and finally we found the bus terminal *thanks a lot Eonnie* *crying after through many dramas*
We didn't go to Oryukdo Skywalk since we won't catch the sunset. Then we decided to go back to hotel. We slept on the bus after faced too many dramas. We had rest and charged our phone, cameras, and pocket WiFi before dinner!
TIPS
You have to really prepare mentally & physically when you're going to Jinhae. Don't forget to bring important items such as USB cable & personal medicine! Don't forget to save Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival busses it really helps once you explore Changwon city :')
Haeundae Night Market
The market is near from the Hotel. You could just walk 10-15 minutes there. You'll find many seafood restaurant here, but we weren't sure what seafood we should eat that time.
You'll find Korean snacks easily here. Teoppoki, Fish Cake, Korean Pancake, Steamed Bun.
And we chose to eat at Japanese Restaurant *LOL* *I forgot the restaurant name* We ordered seafood udon and it was good! The place & the ambience was good and many people eat here.
We got back to hotel early, since we'll have early departure to Seoul tomorrow. And we didn't want to miss our train. In the end, we learned more about the hardship of backpacker when we were in Busan. It's the bittersweet as the backpacker, right? :)
Comments