Bar Trip Series: Busan's Jagalchi Fish Market and Korea's Most Outrageous Spa

Busan is a city on the southeastern tip of Korea with about 3.6 million residents. Many describe it as Seoul by the beach. We wanted to visit Busan mostly for the fresh seafood and because of a movie called Chingu (Friend). It was set in Busan and was also the highest grossing movie of all time in South Korea. Because we didn't have much sightseeing planned, we only did a quick overnight trip there.

JUMP AHEAD: Haeundae Beach and its Love Motels | Busan's Jagalchi Fish Market | SpaLand - Korea's Most Outrageous Spa

My friend Jay didn't have many great things to say about the beach there, only that it was extremely overcrowded especially in the summer (as you can see in the photo below). [Photo from World Tourist Attraction.] 

Haeundae Beach and Love Motels

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Haeundae Beach is the main beach in Busan. It reminded me of a really modern and trendy boardwalk with fancy coffee shops, bars, and roadside boutiques. While there, we were able to get liquid nitrogen ice cream, Italian coffee, and Korean desserts! In the smaller alleys, there were still more traditional looking hole in the wall restaurants and mom and pop shops.

It was rainy and empty when we visited though, so it was actually quite peaceful!

There were also quite a few "love" motels around the beach too with cheesy names and rainbow neon lights like they were in Las Vegas. I thought they sounded really seedy when I was there, but I read that they started because traditionally, Koreans live with their parents until they get married, so young couples need places to get away from parental scrutiny. Yes, those conducting affairs also use them and they can be rented out for 2-hour stays, but it seems like families and business travelers also rent rooms. For tourists, these love models can also be a great deal, as long as you're ok with some sexy decor.

Example of a love motel room from Southerner Abroad. Good article explaining Love Motels on Waegukin.

Busan's Jagalchi Fish Market

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Our main focus was to visit the fish market so we went straight there after getting off the train! We wanted to eat live octopus (like in Old Boy -- one of the craziest movies EVER, a must watch) and other fresh seafood!

Gigantic octopus! We didn't eat this kind though haha

Navigating the outdoor portion of the fish market in a storm wearing sandals was quite difficult... I think I stepped into puddles of fish entrails a couple times =T

In the indoor portion of Busan's Jagalchi fish market. 

This was in Busan fish market's "indoor" market. There were so many kinds of seafood! We told the vendor how many of each thing we wanted, and they put it on a platter and led us upstairs to an "eating" area where they slice/cut up the food for eating.

But before we got to eating, she was nice enough to let us play with our food first!

Live octopus a la Old Boy

They call it a sea squirt

Upstairs from the market, there are tables covered in thin plastic sheets.

This is where you are served the prepared seafood, and of course, when eating raw seafood for lunch, we have to order beer and soju!

Sea urchin and abalone

Another seafood feast in Busan, immediately after our fish market meal! We had live shrimp, an eel stew (the eel wiggled around while it was being cooked at our table) and a fish stew. All so delicious!

(Note everyone diligently capturing photos of our feast while Jay digs right in!)

Korea's Most Outrageous Spa - SpaLand

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Korean spas are like public bathhouses, except 10x more awesome than any other I've ever heard of. They usually consist of separate locker rooms for men and women. In these separate locker rooms, there are bathing areas, and then at least a few different hot tubs with varying temperatures and using different types of water. Then you put on uniforms they give you to go to the unisex areas where there are usually saunas that look like little igloos. There are usually at least a few different ones with different temperatures and different "purposes" (i.e. salt rooms, rooms that make wave sounds, etc.) In addition to all this, you can get all the different massages AND they even have movie rooms and a Korean restaurant!

Amazing right?!

Oh, did I mention you have to be completely naked in the single sex bathing areas? Yea, that's the only thing that may be difficult to adjust to.

We were lucky to find out that the craziest and most luxurious of these types of spas was Spaland located right in Busan! Because we were staying in a hostel with shared restrooms, we decided to go to Spaland after dinner to relax, unwind, and shower and get ready for bed before returning to our hostel. It was probably our best night in Korea =P

(If you want to experience a Korean spa without visiting Korea, just go to one in Los Angeles!)

SpaLand is focused on a more refined spa experience, so children are not allowed during certain hours. This may sound like a superfluous rule, but surprisingly, a ton of families visit the spas together with kids, which sometimes disrupts the relaxing atmosphere... I even went to a Korean spa in LA once to stay overnight (most are open 24/7) and a lot of kids were sleeping there too!

This movie theater room was so relaxing I almost passed out completely here! The massage chairs are so soft and the speakers are nestled into the headrest so only you can hear what you're watching (in surround sound!).

The night we went, it was raining, so the glass window looked like a waterfall (or maybe there is always a waterfall?)

We didn't get to eat at the restaurant in the spa because we went late at night, but here's a picture of it. Beautiful!

Saunas -- they look like igloos! There must have been at least 10 different themed ones at SpaLand

The women's locker room had this outdoor natural looking hot tub that was awesome because it was also sprinkling a bit when we went out there. I confirmed that the men's locker room didn't have such a cool pool.

This is the inside of the woman's locker room. Note the stalls in the back for SEATED showering/bathing. To the left (not pictured), there are stalls for those who prefer to bathe while standing.

All the photos above are from CNN

Now that you've seen how amazing SpaLand is, here are some tips on how everything works. I know I was pretty nervous and confused the first time I went to a Korean spa.

Here are some pointers about how this Korean spa business all works!

1. Pay and receive spa uniform and locker key (usually an RFID tag)
2. Take off shoes (put into a shoe locker associated w/ the number on your RFID tag) and enter changing room. There, you take off your street clothes. 
3. Shower and bathe BEFORE getting into any hot tubs -- feel free to bring your own products and also those sheet face masks! At SpaLand, the bathing area felt like a gossip corner, with many women (friends, mother/daughter, etc.) all scrubbing and bathing each other whereas my friends and I all split instantly once we got into the locker room. SpaLand also had a vending machine that sold toothbrushes/toothpaste/mouthwash too.
4. Enjoy the hot tubs in the area until you... 
5. GET A BODY SCRUB! My favorite thing to get at Korean spas is the full body scrubs. Korean women with these rough loofah gloves scrub all the dead skin off your body -- you can literally see clumps of gray around you as they're doing this. Just so you know though, it's usually just a wide open room off the side of the locker room area with plain tables. You just lay on the table in the middle of the room while they scrub you down. Oh they also gave us a little massage and put something on our faces (not sure what? some kind of facial stuff?). At SpaLand, we just approached that area and pointed to what we wanted and the ladies wrote our numbers down on a whiteboard and yelled for us when it was our turn. 
6. Onto the unisex relaxation room ("Fomentation"): After you're properly scrubbed and hot tubbed out, you can enter the unisex relaxation area that usually looks like a big room with marble or wood heated floors. There are wooden blocks with a semicircle cut out that you can use to support your neck while you sleep on the floor. 
7. From this room, you can also visit the 10+ saunas, ice rooms, movie room, massages/facials, restaurant, sometimes there are PC areas, or even gyms!

What to bring to the spa:

• Any bathing/skincare products you want to use
• Toothbrush if you dont want to buy one there
• Change of underwear and clothes (since you'll be so clean!)
• They have hair dryers, body lotion, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, etc. 

Jon modeling SpaLand's uniform

Information on hours, location, pricing for SpaLand found on Visit Korea's site!