8/13~8/15 Busan in Style with DealiciousKorea

August 18th, 2011 marks the 66th year since Korea has been liberated from the Japanese colonization. DealiciousKorea decided to use this opportunity to acquiant our friends with the Southern part of Korea - BUSAN.

For this occasion, Henry once again, pulled out his magic wand to bring us the deals of highest quality at the price offered.

- First, we rented out 3 Starex vans (accomodates 11 people per vehicle) at the third of the market price and a sixth of a round-trip KTX ride.

- Second, DealciousKorea's lodging was right at the Haeundae beach (behind Bennigans), not Gwanganli. Hello Guest House was only built in 2011 and offered the newest facilities, including BUNK BEDS!!

- Third, we all got to go to Club Mak Tum for free!

- Fourth, our package included a dinner at The Party, rated the best hotel buffet in Busan.

For Mak Tum and The Party, we have to thank our friends who helped us set the deal. Mak Tum never had to work with us to fill out the club since their is always a 100 meter line out the door, especially during the vacation season. Furthermore, The Party is PACKED every dinner, whether it be a weekend or week day--The Party's management never had to set this sort of deal for us either.  Thank you once again!

Remember how our bus for the Pirates of Naerincheon event ran into some problems? To avoid such situations, we made sure to drop by a car center before we left for Busan.

Nick's idea. So that we don't get confused as to which van is our van.

Took a while, but we finally arrived at Hello Guest House, right by Haeundae.

Herbie and his friends

Beds!!

Flat screen TV

And breakfast provided :)

Then, we headed over to The Party, one of the top 3 buffets in Busan!

And we went to Club MAK TUM!

Under the 'penus' tower

It was around 11PM. Look at that line.

In the club part.



As we are waiting.



In our VIP room Part 1.

In our VIP room Part 2.

It was around 3AM, and the line is still stretching far back.

Then, a few of us went straight to bed, a few went to drink at the rooftop of the guest house, and others conitnued to party throughout the night.

Next day was Sunday, which meant a Church day for Henry and Herbie. Henry convinced me and Woohyun to tag along to Church under the promise that he will buy us 밀면, Busan's special noodle dish. We were all slightly hungover from the previous night's playing but managed to actually pay attention to the sermon (except for Herbie, who slept through a good 90% of the service).

Then...we had LUNCH!

밀면 with broth

Herbie looks like that cuz he just woke up from Church

Hungover Woohyun

밀면 without broth

After lunch, we went over to Haeundae to hang out, went shopping, had more food, and..drove over to Gwangahnli! When we got to Gwangahnli, we split up, and the DealKo team with a few other friends drove to Yasumi, an izakaya owned by Henry and Nick's friend.

Oh, and before we headed over to Yasumi, we decided to hang out at the Gwangahnli Beach for a bit.

Margaret, Me, and Gloria

Sohyun and Woohyun

Herbie and Layne

Layne and Aidan

Woohyun and Nick

And..we went to Yasumi, where we ate a lot, drank a lot of Busan's very own sojus, and celebrated Henry's 3X birthday.

Entrance

Hanging out

Our friend cooking

Okonomiyaki

Yakidori

Okonomiyaki posing

Happy birthday, Henry!

Henry wishing for a new car

He looks 21 :)

Afterwards, some of us went back to Haeundae to hang out while others stayed in Gwangahnli. Henry and Woohyun went to Mak Tum to say hi to the manager (and then got drunk and dance throughout the night), Herbie and I, with some other friends, went over to a bar, and Nick..being the old man he is took it easy and stayed at the guest house.

Now, on day 3, which was a Monday and also the day that we were going to head over to Seoul, I had Henry promise to take all of us to try 돼지국밥 (pork soup..does not sound very appetizing, but it's actually delish~). Fortunately, most of our peeps also wanted to have some of that 돼지국밥, and we all headed over to a random 돼지국밥 restaurant by our guest house.

Walking over

Woohyun explaining to me why I should get on the van that he is driving (lucky that I did!)

Waiting for food

Sadly, we did not take any pictures of the 돼지국밥. We were all (at least the people with a camera) overwhelmed by the thickness of the soup and flavorful meat.

After we were done eating, we had a pepper eating contest..



Then, we checked out and left for Seoul!!

Bye Hello Guest House

Bye Busan Baby

We actually never went to that hof..

It took us...6 hours to get back to Seoul. Luckily, I was in Woohyun's van, and aside from the sudden panic of being low on gas, we got back safely to Seoul. As for Herbie's van, its fan-belt got disconnected, and the Herbie van folks got stranded for an hour or so.

Lesson from the trip: Take the KTX or get a charter bus or take the plane.

As for the Busan trip this time, van travel was the most affordable..hopefully next time, we can actually travel on a private jet..

Crazy Good Savings!