Korean Road Trip Day 10: Gyeongju to Busan

Our “American breakfast” was interesting, first we were served a plate a soup (not sure what kind, but could have been asparagus and potato with small bits of meat) and a salad. All very nice but a little strange for breakfast. Our knife was also a fish knife, which is the second time this has happened, and we think that Koreans think that a fish knife is actually a breakfast knife, who knows. The rest was not bad, just an egg, toast, banana and some small tomatoes. Considering the amount we paid, and because I was still hungry, I asked for two more eggs.

We were planning on heading further south to Busan (looks like we are running out of time), so we headed that way but I was hoping to stop and see a few things on the way. We first tried to find some kings tombs, we looked for the Royal Tomb of King Sinmu, but couldn’t find it, but think we found the Royal Tomb of King Hyogong. I am not sure why, but the signage is terrible. When you are miles away, the signs pointing you in the direction of the sites are perfect, but when you get close or turnoff the main road, then all the signs disappear and you are left driving around searching. Maybe the sites are supposed to be really obvious, and no one can miss them, but we kept missing them, or driving around for half and hour trying to find the site.

We did find two other tombs though, but only walked to the one, Tomb of King Heongang. This was next to another beautiful palace, Tongiljeon Hall which had paintings and stories of some of the history and invasions of Korea and the battles that were fought.

By this time it was already past mid-day and we hadn’t left Gwangju yet, so we headed out through Ulsan and along the coastal road all the way into Busan. We went to Haeundae Beach area which is the main beach and the most popular beach in Korea ( you can see some pictures of what it looks like in peak season)

We found a motel, Sugar Motel which was quite funky, all the rooms were done up in different themes and styles. I am not sure what theme ours was, but something like Korean (K-Pop) pop culture. I disappeared for a swim at the beach while Carla and Brandon relaxed in the room. The beach was nice, long and wide and there were actually a few waves, these are the first waves we have seen on the entire trip.

I looked out for a place to get that elusive burger and chips, and we settled on Breeze Burns, a burger and grill restaurant, exactly what the doctor ordered! After our burgers we were trying to decide where to go for a decent cup of coffee because all the coffee we found on the trip, so far, had been automatically served with sugar or sweetner and suddenly the waiter brought us two cappuccino’s, the waiter must have read our minds. We don’t know why we got the free coffee because there were lots of expats in the Burger Place so it couldn’t have been due to our foreign appearance. Koreans are very generous and we have been so impressed with the level of service on our trip.

Sugar Motel: Our 6th Floor Passage