Daritdol Skywalk
Today we are heading to Haeundae to visit the market area, the Blue Line Park, and the Daritol Skywalk in the "park". We go to Busan Station, take the metro and head to Haeundae
Haeundae Beach is the most famous beach in Busan, with beautiful white sand. We stroll through the commercial district at Gunam-Ro Cultural Square, a promenade consisting of a wide pedestrian walkway with traffic running on both sides, that is currently decorated with lights for the upcoming holidays. (there is currently an effort by city of Busan to turn Gunam-Ro Cultural Square into a Korean equivalent of New York's Times Square). 
Nicely-decorated restaurants, cafes, shops and convenience stores line both sides of Gunam-ro. This morning many people are flocking to Miryang Pork Rice Soup restaurant, another one of the top "must try when in Busan" pork rice soup restaurants. 
Miryang Pork Soup and Rice Restaurant
Giant sticks of fish cakes adorns the front of Goraesa Fish Cake Shop, a fast food joint selling fish cakes that are heated up in a microwave.
Koreans love taking picture and making memories. Photo Drink is one of the many self photo studios in Haeundae. 
A sign post directs you to the Haeundae Traditional Market. 
An unlit sign marks the entrance into the street market. We see vendors selling a variety of fresh raw fishes such as eel, sea squirt, and fresh seashells and clams. Most of the food serving places won't open until lunch time. 
We admire some furry animals, live and stuffed and see a line of people at the north end of the market. 
It's the Haeundae Luxury Hotteok stand that is selling hotteok, a sweet Korean pancake, a very popular street food. 
There is a sign that indicates this stand was featured in a Korean TV show, Different Dreams Season 2 - You Are My Destiny. 
The Louies get in line to buy us some hotteoks. 
It's a one woman operation. You put cash in a box and she asks you what flavor you want as she is working on making the pancakes. (Our hotteok is 1500 won, or about $1.09). She pulls a fist size amount of dough from a big mound on the counter. 
She forms a depression in the center and adds the filling of your asking. We asked for honey, so she puts in what looks to be a mixture of sugar and cinnamon. 
HoneyFilling
She closes the opening and puts the ball on a heavily greased griddle. After a while she flips over the ball and flattens it into a pancake.
She wears heat resistant plastic gloves and handles the pancakes to move them or to patch a hole. 
Once they are cooked she places them upright in slots and waits for them to cool. If you are eating them right away you have her fold them and put them into a paper cup. 
They are delicious, but like many fried items, be careful when you get towards the middle. 
I bit near the middle and some hot syrup oozed out and onto my hand. I didn't have anything to wipe it away quickly, so it burnt a little. Fortunately I had not bitten into that hot syrup so I was saved from having burned my tongue or mouth. Visitors have different options when visiting the Haeundae Beach. Along the coastline an old railway facility has been redeveloped into the Blueline Park which opened October 2020. In this "park" (a loose Korean translation of park to describe this coastal area) there are three modes of travel for visiting the 3 mile section from Haeundae Mipo station through Cheongsapo to Songjeong. There is the Beach Train, the Sky Capsule, or you can walk. We decide to go to the mid point of the park, Cheongsapo in order to see the Daritdol Skywalk and to take the Sky Capsule. From the market we catch a bus that drops us as close to the Blue Line Park at Cheongsapo as possible. After it lets us off, we are still a 20 minute walk from the beach. The Ma's are walking. The over sixty group walks about a block before deciding, nah, it looks like it's uphill, so we'll look for a bus 
On the bus, we see the Ma's on the street, with Kingman pointing out the way to walk. 
Once we are dropped off at Cheongsapo Station, the Ma's arrive shortly. There are ladies selling fresh produce at a corner. 
We book the one way ride on the Sky Capsule. It will ride along the coast and drop us off at the Mipo station near the Haeundae Market that we had just come from. The ticket cost 30,000 wan. Even though there are no signs for senior discounts, Mike asks anyway, and as long as we show them our driver's license, they give us a 20% discount. This is the case for most attractions in both Singapore and South Korea. The ride is scheduled for 2:30. 
We walk around a bit and check out the Twin Cheongsapo lighthouse (also called the Husband and Wife or Couples Lighthouse). 
sign
Busan has about 100 lighthouses. The Twins are a well known landmark of the Cheongsapo fishing village and a scenic photo spot. We only see one lighthouse, the red one. The white one had been removed due to a crack in the breakwater. 
Some of us are starting to get hungry, especially after passing by a restaurant that had an enticing aroma. We decide to head back to the eatery and enjoy lunch before going to one of the major attractions at the beach, the Daritol Skywalk. 
At the Pho restaurant we are given a number and wait outside to be called. 
What Are You Waiting Pho?
Trina and Janet go back to the Sky Capsule ticket booth to change our departure time to 4:30 to allow for time for lunch and the Skywalk while we wait. The Pho menu is very short and simple, there are 3 kinds of pho and if you order 2 pho you get banh xeo for free.
One of the pho is beef tripe, so I order the chicken pho and Mike and the Louie's order "Direct fire beef pho", which may mean grilled beef. 
The first item that arrives is the banh xeo. 
We have never had this Vietnamese specialty in the states. It's a crispy rice pancake stuffed with shrimps, bean sprouts and other veggies. It's cut into strips. Thin rice paper and hot water is provided. 
The server tells us to stick the rice paper in the hot water to soften the paper and wrap the banh xeo with it. You can guess by the photograph I included, who was the best at wrapping their banh xeo. 
Since the four of us ordered 4 pho, we get two sets of banh xeo. To be honest, that alone would have been sufficient for lunch. Now came our pho. Mine had a whole chicken leg on top of the noodles. 
It was delicious and filling, but too much for me. Fortunately Mike was able to finish his pho and the rest of mine. 
After lunch we walked the short distance to the Daritdol Skywalk. Walking along a raised platform, we can see vegetable gardens below, a flock of birds in trees, and the Beach Train. 
The Daritdol Skywalk is a walkway over the sea that extends 240 feet out and stands 65 feet high. 
It has a U shaped steel glass transparent portion that allows you to see the sea below your feet. 
It is curved and streamlined to resemble a blue dragon motif. There is a grated section to look down to the sea as well. Entrance is free and you are given booties to put on your feet to protect the glass. 
You can see from the photos who could not bring themselves to peer into the sea while standing on the glass from a height of 65 feet above the sea. I dug up some courage from being in a group, but I could not bring myself to look down while standing on the glass. 
We head back towards the red lighthouse and explore the Cheongsapo fishing village. You can rent a fishing pole and spend a leisurely morning fishing. 
Going Fishing
There are a few restaurant and cafes and a donut shop named Alice Donut. 
Cheongsapo has a small mural village. One of the popular murals of a 'dog with sunglasses' is actually a gallery cafe. 
In the yard of a house with a colorful pencil fence, we see a sad looking, bedraggled tri colored cat huddled up in a ball. 
Overhead the colorful houses runs the Sky Capsule line. 
It's time to get to the station and board the Sky Capsule. 
Each capsule can hold 4 people, but we go in by couples to give us more room for moving about to take photos. 
It runs along an elevated railway and moves slowly. 
You can take photos or just admire the coastal scenery, village farmland, and mountainside. 
This is a view of the breakwaters. The breakwater that is adjacent from the red lighthouse is where its twin, the white lighthouse used to stand. 
By the time we reach the end, the sun has gone down and lights are beginning to come on. 
We reach the area where there is a Light Festival and stop by each set to take photos. 
There is a large Christmas tree, a 2022 and 2023 sign among some of the light sets. 
Christmas is heavily advertised in both Singapore and South Korea, with stores, hotels and attractions adorned with Christmas decor. The Haeundae Traditional Market sign is now lit up brightly. 
"What do we want to eat tonight?" asks Kingman. We see a Korean BBQ across the street and head there. 
The first thing they put on the grill is a small meat dish with chili sauce and another with garlic in oil. 
The chairs are designed for the seat to open so you can put your belongings in the bucket below the seat. 
We enjoy another delicious Korean BBQ and head back to our hotel to pack up and take the train back to Seoul in the morning.
This featured blog entry was written by Helen K. from the blog Singapore and South Korea 2022.
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