Haedong Yonggungsa Temple - A Review

Haedong Yonggung Temple is one of the few Buddhist temple in Busan that is located right next to the sea. Its picturesque view is definitely worth the hike up the hill. By the time we reached the temple I was already huffing and puffing. Since it was winter, the bitter chill that engulfed us despite my thick winter jacket did little to encourage my enthusiasm. There were lots of stalls lining up the climb upwards selling all sort of knick-knacks.

The temple is actually dedicated to the female Buddhist Goddess of Mercy if my understanding of all the various texts and articles circulating this temple is correct. It was believed that she came to this area where the temple was built upon on a dragon and brought rain to the water-deprieved land.

You will see a statue of the dragon I mentioned later on in the temple nearby the cliff.

During the walk/climb up, you will notice all the statues of the chinese zodiacs lining the path. The stone works are pretty unique and we stopped to take some photos (It's more of a break to rest for me!)

 

Other stone work would include these adorable elephants..

If you see here, the main gateway to enter the temple has decorations of lion statues guarding the sides. There are a total of four and believed to symbolize joy, anger, sorrow and bliss.

Then there are beautiful gold-themed dragons decorating more archways leading up to the main temple.

The main highlights for visiting this temple to me is probably to check out these views. Aren't these just amazing?

 
The other must-do on this tour of the attraction would be to go down the 108-steps, to get a nearer view of the ocean and also, the carvings and statues along the way. Pause and just enjoy the fresh air + beautiful sights before going on your steps up or down when you are out of breath.

 I will conclude this post with a happy smiling Buddha and also another perfect-as-a-picture view from the temple. :)

For more on my trip to Korea, check out my first day itinery HERE.
And my photos and review of Busan Aquarium HERE which I went before Haedong Yonggungsa Temple. I would suggest going there as both attractions are in the same area; or rather close proximity.

Busan Aquarium, Korea

In my honest opinion, attractions like these are just a heaven-sent especially if you have been in the outdoors for a while especially if it is during very hot summer days or even cold windy winter days. For this time around, instead of the heat, I escaped into the aquarium for much appreciated warmth. LOL. That, and also I'm pretty much a sucker for all things aquarium and zoo. You could probably ask me about zoos and aquariums and if I have been to that country, most probably I have already covered them. :S

Busan Aquarium was quite large and had "250 species and up to 35000 marine animals" inside (according to Wikipedia). If I remembered correctly, it had underwater tunnel, a big area for their penguins and lots of aquariums on display. There are a shallow interactive pool for touching the starfish and stuff too!

At certain time of the day, there are shark feeding and as you can see here there are lots of people getting ready for the show already.

Here's a shot of the underwater tunnel. Pretty cool, eh?

I especially like their pretty displays of seahorses, corals and all the tiny fishes. Some of them look so pretty that it is really hard to believe they are real. They look like they came straight out from something from a figment of our imagination!

And here's the interactive pool I mentioned above.

And on to the adorable penguins! There's this one fella who kept following my hands around and kept that up for a while before I walked off. So adorable, right?

Please ignore the flat hair. Too long with a beanie on resulted in the less than satisfactory look during photos. Urgh!

Busan, Korea: Itinery Day 1 (January 25, 2014)

After a lot of hoo-hah over getting winter attire and stuff, we are off for our Korea trip last January. The weather forecast were all about how cold it will be during our trip which is from 17 - 24 January. Undaunted, we set off and once we get off the plane, the first thing to do is to secure our Travel Card for all the trains and buses. We landed in Busan International Airport and the guy from the 7-11 recommended the XX Card to us with OnePiece design on it. LOL.

We started off from the airport to our hotel:

Comma Hotel

858-65 Beomcheon1-dong, 

Busanjin-gu,

Soemyeon/Busanjin-gu,

Busan, South Korea

The hotel is behind the main road, but it looked adorable even though surrounding it are some very garish (which I am sure will be nice inside) hotels (think love hotels with themes ;)..

The room we got for both times (the start of the trip when we came back from all the walking and sightseeing and for our last day) are wonderful.

Since it is still very early we left our bags there. They have locker for our bags with key and stuff (thumbs up!), and we left there with a cup of hot coffee *feels so loved*. I would say the service here is excellent, room clean and comfy. We stayed here on our first 3 days and the last day as well.  Soemyeon area is wonderful with lotsa shopping areas in the vicinity.

We made our way to Busan Aquariam and Haeundae Beach. All wrapped up and snug, the journey took a while only. A word of caution though, the bus drivers in Korea are mostly in a rush for time, so unless you managed to get a seat, hold on TIGHTLY or risk toppling over.  From there we made our way to Haedong Yonggungsa Temple (해동 용궁사) which is definitely worth a visit. Most temples in Korea are not built by the shorelines so this detail alone makes Haedong Yonggungsa unique. This temple was first built in 1376 by the great Buddhist teacher known as Naong during the Goryeo Dynasty and consisted of a few structures namely Haesu Gwaneum Daebul (Seawater Great Goddess Buddha), Daeungjeon Main Sanctuary, Yongwangdang Shrine, Gulbeop Buddhist Sanctum, and a three-story pagoda with four lions.
**Check out my post and photos about Busan Aquarium

Gwangalli Beach is next on the line. It took a while from the temple but instead of stopping at Beomnaegol Station, we got of Soemyeon to take in the sights and stopped at a side-stall, always shown in Korean dramas and such.
 

The famed staircase to heaven's bridge :)

Surprisingly, the food is good but more expensive than normal... It is pricier IMO to eat at such places as compared to eating in some restaurants in Korea. However, the experience is worth it! Even though the i-mo (auntie) who was manning the stall does not speak a word of English, through gestures and some fellow friendly patrons, we managed to order some stir-fried beef and dumplings. Each dish we ordered was accompanied by a free egg-based dish like SPAM with egg omelette and fried eggs. With a syoju as accompaniment, it is a pretty amazing experience.

[[This is a pretty half-hearted post it was supposed to be longer but it was left as a draft for so long that I might as well post it up..LOL]]