Saturday part 2: Thai food and Christmas Tree Festival

First, read part 1.

So the 13 of us went to a Thai place called Arun Thai. The wait staff there was incredibly nice and sat us in a room off to the side. Conrad and his mom left before we ordered food because they were super tired. The whole restaurant was nice, from the decor, to the menu and food, to the staff.

Snowman near the door inviting everyone to enjoy wine (some of our group took his advice)

Table decorations. We think the squares are made from coconut but we aren't sure.

Place setting

I ordered a thai milk tea to start and it was awesome. It's cold and a combination of coconut milk and chai tea (I think). Then our food started arriving. I ordered pad thai and it was amazing - some of the best I've had. The funniest part was that the people who ordered curry got sides of rice in the shape of teddy bears!

Thai milk tea - you mix it up before you drink it

Pad thai. It was great. The little spice things to the right are ground up peanut, salt and something super spicy (from top to bottom).

After dinner, they brought everyone plum juice and tiny peanut butter and chocolate chip muffins. The juice was great. I will definitely go back there if I'm in that area again.

Elephant coaster that came with the plum juice

Rabbit coaster that came with my milk tea. I told you this place had cute decor.

After dinner, we went outside for the main reason I decided to go - the Christmas tree festival. Another group of 4 decided to call it a night and left at that point as well, so we were back to 7. A couple of streets were all decked out in lights (aka festival). They had lights hanging from in between buildings, random light structures set up and a variety of trees lined up along the road.

One street off of the main square

Another street off of the main square. Another tree had the same trees, but they were red

A group of trees with lights. They also had some pine trees set up with decorations.

The main square had a huge tree with a net or lights coming out from the point. In the center of the tree was a nativity scene. There was also a performance by a Korean rock band while we were there. We listened for a little bit, then kept on walking.

Center tree with net lights. Again, a camera can't capture how pretty it was.

Me and a white tree. I also saw a pink and a blue one.

Me and this guy.

Jackie had one more surprise for us in a different area of town so we hopped on the subway and then into 2 cabs. We had a bit of an adventure trying to follow the directions she was given, but eventually found the place. While we were walking, she gave us a brief description of it. All she would tell us was that it was a refurbished bunker from the war. When we got there, we thought it was this big shack thing because the sign was on top. But it was padlocked shut. Then we found the door and went inside. Unfortunately, they had closed 5 minutes before we got there. The lady wouldn't let us in even though we told her we just wanted to look and not eat or drink. Then she gave us all business cards so we could come back at a different time. Jackie was disappointed, but most of us said we'd come back to really see inside.

We all walked back to the subway and that's where 2 other girls split with the group because they were staying in Busan for the rest of the weekend, while we were going home. By that time, we had missed all the regular buses back to Jinju. Luckily there is a night bus. It's supposed to come on the hour and half hour from 10-12. We got there a few minutes before 11 so we thought we had perfect timing. That's when it started to rain/sleet. That's also when a probably mentally unstable and definitely drunk guy started to harass us. We dealt with it for a bit, then went inside a coffee shop for the last ten minutes of our wait to avoid him.

When the bus finally came, it was 11:30 - but it was the 11pm bus. It was also completely full. We decided to get on anyway. The 5 of us (me, Meg, Amanda, Todd and Jackie) were the last 5 on the bus. Jackie and Todd were able to sit on the steps and Amanda and Meg sat in the aisle. I knew my legs would fall asleep if I tried to sit, so I stood (along with a dozen or so Koreans) the hour and a bit back to Jinju. That was another first to cross off my list of Korean adventures. We said goodbye to Todd and Jackie at the GNU bus stop, then Meg got into a cab to head one way and Amanda and I split a cab back to our houses.

Meg, Amanda and Todd sitting in the aisle. You can't see Jackie because she is on the steps!

I had a wonderful day seeing new things, eating excellent food, hanging out with old friends and meeting some new ones. I am so glad Jackie organized our "field trip" and I'm just as glad I decided to go. It's days like this one that made me want to come back to Korea.