Gamcheon Culture Village 부산 감천문화마을, South Korea #MarinaTravels

Surprise! I'm in the last place all my family and friends would expect me to go, Busan, South Korea. You know sometimes you just feel like you need a relaxing and hassle-free get-away from all your daily routines and work life. That's exactly what I did. As I usually travel quite far, I'm talking about 19 or even 20-hour flight far. But this time, I ain't got the time and money, lol. Since South Korea is merely a 2.5-hour flight away from me, I took the chance and went to Busan with my friend.

Gamcheon Culture Village is a bright, eccentric place famous for its countless amount of colorful houses sitting on a foothill of a coastal mountain. Dubbed the Machu Picchu of Busan, Lego Village, and Korea's Santorini, just to name a few. It is fair to say that Gamcheon Culture Village is without a doubt one of the most popular tourist sights, I had to wake up early for this one. Fear not, if you arrive at the village around 9am or generally in the morning, which I did, you could take your time taking pictures with all the creative wall arts and graffitis that seem to take up the entire village without any interruptions by other tourists. I was blessed to visit this place on a rather warm and sunny Autumn day, the sunshine truly elevates the colors and brighten everything up.

For me, the most intriguing part of the trip to Gamcheon Culture Village, besides finding various different interesting wall arts to photograph, was to walk through between the painted houses and find little alleys and narrow lanes that lead to cute boutiques, gift shops and cafes that have sprung up from all the business opportunities brought here by tourists from all over the world. The winding alleys and hidden lanes that seem to lead to a whole new area of discovery really amaze me.

 

It is probably hard to tell from the visual-stimulating view of the village and its and wall-art-covered streets that Gamcheon Culture Village actually used to be a slum town back in the 1950s. The panoramic view of the village from the top of the hill does resemble somewhat similar to the favelas in Brazil. Regardlessly of its history and the language barrier, the local residents I encountered here were all beyond friendly, nice and welcoming.

 

On other note, I can't write a post and not talk about the outfit I wore on this day trip. I recently had the opportunity to collaborate with the online clothing shop Zaful, who was kind enough to send me some of the clothes in my Zaful Autumn Wishlist post. I was really amazed by the quality of the clothes. Because when you shop online, you do have concerns as to whether the quality is gonna be good, I can certainly tell you that Zaful has some great quality, stylish items that are totally worth checking out. One last thing to mention is that they are currently having their Zaful Double 11 sale plus free shipping worldwide, so if you are looking to stock up on some trendy wear for this winter time, just hop right to their website!

I'm wearing

Elbow Patch Blazer - Zara
Turtle Neck Nude Velvet Shirt - Vii&Co
 Purplish Red Side Stripe Velvet Pants - Zaful

I shall spare you the generic South Korea travel guide and Busan city history from now on and just let the photos I took speak for itself. As I'm sure if any of you are looking to plan a trip to Busan, you could find all the best advice and must-see sights with our best friend Google.

Overall all, South Korea has amazed me in so many ways, From its modern cities, convenient transports, rich and unique culture, the beautiful nature scene to the kind people. Travel allows us to grow and experience as a human being, not only does it rejuvenate and broaden our minds, as we set foot on lands we've never been before, we clash with different cultures and encounter different people, all of this can stimulate and change the way to think and look at things for the better. We become more sophisticated, more open-minded, more tolerant, more cultured, and just, all in all, more wholesome.