South Korea Trip #3-4: Haeundae Beach, Shinsagae Mall, Dinner with June

With all of the logistics and travel behind us, we’ve arrived and are off to an exciting start! So much happened yesterday (Sunday) so I’m just going to start from the top. Hold on, a LOT happened on day one.

We’re staying at the Park Hyatt Busan, and the morning began with a ”grand reveal” as we lifted the automated shades to see the highly touted view from the room. It is a sprawling view of the ocean, coast, and the Gwang Andaero bridge. The hotel overall is top notch and the view didn’t disappoint!

Shortly after, Meghann and Sage went for a three mile run to the beach while Vivi and I hung back at the room. Viv couldn’t wait to try the super fancy bathtub with a TV (mind blowing for a four year old) and I put on some Korean cartoons for her while she took a relaxing bath.

After Meghann and Sage returned, we decided to walk to Haeundae Beach (where Meghann and I got engaged ten years ago) and find lunch along the way. We found a traditional Korean restaurant on the boardwalk, which was also the girls’ first time eating at a traditional Korean restaurant. The restaurant required a phone number to get on the waitlist and wasn’t able to accept US phone numbers (happened several other times yesterday as well). Despite this they were very accommodating and we managed to get through the process.

We ordered mostly beef-based dishes, which came with the full assortment of Korean side dishes. The girls were good about trying most everything, and even found a few items they really liked. The gogi (beef patty) was delicious and gone first. No one else liked the Kimchi (yet! an acquired taste) so I got to eat most of it – yum!

After lunch, we headed to the beach. Sage, Vivi and I swam in the ocean, while Meghann walked the beach looking for shells. Sage and Viv were fascinated by a dead crab that kept washing up the beach. We went out to a sandbar a little ways out and the girls practiced diving headfirst into the waves. Overall a fun but not terribly eventful experience, other than a group of models doing a photoshoot nearby.

After the beach, we cleaned up and headed out for Shinsegae, which is the second largest department store in the world attached to a huge mall. We’ve been here each prior visit but it’s always worth a revisit. We had an awesome taxi driver on the way. He pulled up live translation on his phone and we had a great conversation, with his recommendations on things to see in Busan as well as asked a lot of questions about where we were from. Once we arrived, we hit up the designer stores, visited an ice rink, and briefly stopped by a couple arcades. There was also a wildly popular popcorn booth where we managed to place an order despite the all-Korean digital ordering system. It was a click pictures and cross your fingers kind of experience.

Up next, we had a quick rest and headed out for dinner with June, my close friend from college. We originally were going to meet him in Seoul, however when our trip logistics reshuffled that was no longer possible. Instead, he took the train from Seoul all the way down to Busan to meet us for the evening. Our dinner was at a restaurant called Han Wa Dam, a steakhouse-like restaurant. The only word in english on a website describing restaurants like these was ”meat science”. June reserved a private room for our dinner and brought the girls gifts.

June explained that for dinner he ordered the entire menu – they would be cycling through each dish, cooking most of them right at our table. It was a great way to experience a lot of different things in one meal, and also let Sage and Vivienne try several new foods as well. Whenever Viv tries something new, and it doesn’t gross her out, her response is usually, “That’s SOO good, I couldn’t even taste it!”

The first dish was Yukhoe (raw beef), which I’d never had before. We had the girls skip that one for health precautions. It tasted just like you’d expect. The first bite took some adjusting, however after a couple bites it wasn’t bad. Let’s just say I won’t be tempted to snack on burger patties before grilling them anytime soon. Much to my surprise, Meghann actually tried it as well. She’s doesn’t eat steak and will only eat beef if it’s cooked well done, so a bold move on her part!

We cycled through each cut of beef (all cooked) as well as a mix of traditional Korean dishes including a few that I’d never seen before – naengmyeon (black noodles served cold with an egg on top) stood out, and ggaeran jim (baked eggs) was something the girls seemed to like. We also had some specialty soju (Korean liquor) I that was delicious. Overall it was an incredibly unique and awesome experience.

After dinner, Meghann took the girls home to put them to bed, and June and I went out to spend more time catching up. The night was crazy and went until nearly 2AM. We reminisced about college, talked about June’s new startup, and covered life in general. We also sang happy birthday to someone out celebrating while wearing happy birthday tiaras they’d given us, exchanged Apple Watches, and played beer pong with strangers – it was that kind of night.

Learning about June’s business was fascinating – he founded a company called ”10 Minute Squad” which delivers grocery items across Seoul with the goal to deliver products to his users within 10 minutes of ordering. He was also the first company primarily serving the Korean Market that was accepted into Y Combinator (a big deal, they’re one of the most prestigious startup accelerator out there) and raised a $3.2M seed round – he’s off to a great start!

Each round of drinks June ordered consisted of a beer, a mixed drink, and a shot for each of us. Each time we took a drink it became a cheers (gombay!). I have a neighbor from China who once told me that Koreans are the Russians of asian drinking culture – at least in June’s case, I now know that to be true. After we wrapped up the night, June decided to take an overnight taxi ride back to Seoul while he slept (I didn’t even know you could do that, that’s a ride across the entire country), to get into the office the next morning and not miss any meetings.

That’s a wrap for day one! I meant to get this finished this morning, but had a particular rough morning after trying to go toe to toe with June last night. We spent today (day two) with Meghann’s birth family so more to come on that after some much-needed sleep. Happy 4th of July!