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Hawaii – Oahu 2025 Day 4

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Started the day early at 5am to venture to Haunama Bay.

As an fyi, we got tickets the day before noticing that there were two tickets available on the site for the 5:40am pick up.

From getting picked up, we stopped by a water sports rental place (ie to get towels or snorkel gear).

When we got to the entrance, needed to wait to hear a 10 minute orientation (about what to not do while snorkeling like touching fishes and turtles). So we effectively started our snorkel session at 8am.

Snorkeling at the bay was pretty decent. Still not as good as Big Island (specifically Cook’s Island). But there were still a variety of fish to see, and also got to see a turtle!

The beach itself was fairly clean, and well maintained. Water temperature went well with the weather.

And to sum it up, as one puts it, Haunama Bay experience is like Disney Land for snorkeling, in that it is fairly organized in terms of getting there and entrance fee (there is even a museum before the entrance area).

Pro tip for next time, bring a flask of whisky!

After snorkeling we went back to the hotel, and I got an Açaí bowl for lunch. Not gonna lie, I’m sold on it!

We then waited till 5:30pm for our Luau plus (thanksgiving) dinner.

At the luau they had things like temporary tattoos, and creating flower bracelets.

The show itself was around 1 hour. They did dances from various Polynesian countries. Two thing I learned:

-New Zealand is one of the corner of the Polynesian triangle.

-Fire flame dance is from Samoa. 

Overall, I did enjoy the show and food, but not sure if it was worth $300 for a ticket (plus thought the luau show could have been at least 1.5 hours, and have more than 1 dance with fire).

And that pretty much ended the night (although watched Roofman as a night cap).

Seoul Station and KTX Ride to Busan

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After the War Memorial, we went to Seoul Station for our train ride to Busan. But, since we had time before departure, we decided to go and sample some of the fast food in the station (KFC, Lotteria and a churro from McDonalds).

   
    
 
The train ride to Busan was definitely 3rd class. Since they had no more tickets for assigned seats (and only standing tickets) for most of the journey, we had to “stand” in the hallway. The last 30 minutes of the trip we were able to get seats (since people got off at earlier stops).

  

Myeongdong, Gyeongbok Palace Round 2, and War Memorial Museum

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We started off the day by checking out of our hotel (Samseung Designer Hotel), then heading to Seoul Station to store our bags in a locker. After, we headed to an area called Myeongdong since there were some restaurants around that area that seemed pretty appealing.

When we got to Myeongdong, we first took some pics in front of City Hall.  

Then, we went to the first restaurant of interest, which was in the Lotte Hotel. We wanted to eat at this buffet, but it would end up costing $100 per person, which is pretty ridiculous (have to say though the Lotte hotel is like a Vegas style hotel). So we decided to go to this dumpling restaurant, which ended up being really good. Along the way we explored the market around Myeongdong, which was filled with lots of American stores, street food, and Asian restaurants. We also found the closest thing to an Apple Store in Korea, which is an Apple pre-authorized dealer called Frisbee.

   
   

   

    
   

After exploring Myeongdong, since it was taking forever to get a taxi, we ended up walking to Gyeongbok Palace. I’ll let the pictures do the taking about the palace.

   
    
    
    
    
 From Gyeonbok Palace we quickly stopped by the War Memorial (since we got there it 30 minutes before it closed). I briefly learned about Japan’stake over of Korea in the early 1900s. Unfortunately the DMZ section of the museum was closed when we got there. The museum also had a bunch of weapons and arsenals used during war time.

   
    
    
    
 
    
 

Dada Life at Octagon

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So we partied it up in Gangnum on the Saturday we were in Seoul with Abi’s sister and cousin. Never seen Dada Life outside of EDC, and I must say it was a very different experience. Octagon itself is better than Ruby Skye (as its lights and screen were pretty good). Also, they have lockers you can put your stuff in instead of a coat check. The only crappy part is that is you accidentally spill your drink in front the bar tender, they don’t care. I feel in SF they would actually help give you another one.

  

Round 1 of Gyeongbok Palace & N Seoul Tower

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We started our day with a late lunch (around 2pm). We went to a Korean restaurant in Gangnum and had this interesting beef and octopus dish. It was pretty good.

   
 
  
After, we tried to make it to Gyeongbok Palace, but it closed early (closed at 5pm instead of 6pm). So we took some pics outside of it, then met up with one of Abi’s friends University. She took us through Insadong where we had some street food.

  

  
 After we briefly met Abi’s aunt and mom, then Sam and I checked out N Seoul Tower. We took the cable car going up to the tower. The view of the city from the base of the tower was partly obstructed by fog, but you could still see many of the sky scrapers. All in all, Seoul has a lot of skyscrapers … more than any city that I know.

   
    
    
   

Itaewon and Dongdaemun

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After Hongdae we went to our hotel to drop of our things (however we also ended up taking a nap for like an hour). Then, using Uber, we got a taxi to take us to downtown Itaewon. Itaewon was pretty busy at 2am. We walked around for a bit, comparing Hongdae to Itaewon. Itaewon had an older crowd (more of our age). A lot of people were drunk. We ended up going to a club called B One.

   
    
    
 
After Itaewon, at around 3:30AM, we went to Dongdaemun, where we experienced an interesting night market, where essentially people who own (clothing) stores go to these buildings where designers sell their clothes (and the people who own stores buy things in bulk). A very interesting experience. Also, aside from exploring that, we got some street food like cronuts 🙂 and some chicken/hotdogs.

   
    
   

Hongdae

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So we spent 50 minutes on the AREX to get to Hongdae. At The station (I think Hogndae Universiy station), we spent a good amount of time looking for lockers and waiting for them to become available. But after, we exited the station and had our first taste of Seoul. It definitely seems like Japan, but less cleaner. Mainly there were a lot of restaurants and kids performing in the street. We ended up eating at a KBBQ place where stones are used as the grill.

   
    
    
    
    
    
 

Arrived at ICN

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Plane ride was bumpy. Only notable thing while flying is that we had unlimited wine and cheese :).

   
 Also, I guess another thing to note is that at one point outside the window you could see the Arctic, where the whole ground was covered in snow and there were glaciers. 

Passing immigration took a long time. But considering the size of the line, it did go by pretty fast (esp. Compared to US Customs).
   
 
Also, got my first snack here from Gong Cha at the airport:

  
  
Lastly, taking the AREX to hongdae, which we’re stopping by before the hotel (since it makes more sense given the distance).