Baby Stuff

When Your Toddler Falls Sick in Busan

In this post I’ll be talking about our experience when my 3 year-old fell sick and needed medical help urgently on a Sunday, with Monday right afterwards being a public holiday.

If you need to get your infant or toddler to a doctor immediately on a Sunday or public holiday, please scroll down to the bottom of this post for information on the hospitals with a department for little children.

With that being said, onward with the post!

It almost didn’t happen but we’re back in Busan for just three-and-a-half weeks this time before my mother-in-law moves to France.

While we’re excited to be here, after a poor flying experience with Air China (there’ll be a whole separate post for that!), something happened that made us realise just how risky it can be to travel with a toddler to Busan.

After just a few days, our three year-old daughter a.k.a. The Littlest Dictator contracted a urinary tract infection, that caused her a lot of pain whenever she had to pee. The poor girl would cry and scream every time.

An infection like that requires antibiotics so you really need to get to a doctor.

Problem was, it was a Saturday night, with Sunday being New Year’s Eve, meaning the next day would be a holiday as well. So just take her to a hospital. No problem, right? Turns out not all hospitals here have a paediatrician or even a children’s section in their A&E departments.

I went to the largest hospital near our place in Haeundae, the Inje University Haeundae Paik Hospital and was told that the specialist would only be available on Tuesday and later Friday. With the pain The Littlest Dictator was in, this was unacceptable.

Fortunately after pressing a little bit for help, the counter clerk gave me two recommendations: Pusan National University Hospital (PNUH) and Dong A University Hospital. He said these were Grade 3 hospitals, meaning they’d have children’s specialists on call at all times.

I would learn later from speaking with various people that apparently, these were the only Grade 3 hospitals in all of Busan and that most people including Koreans did not know what Grade 3 hospitals even were.

Wouldn’t be a problem if you were near the Busan KTX station.

For us in Haeundae, it means more than an hour of traveling to the other side of the city, which is huge (compared to Singapore at least!)

Early next morning while the family had breakfast I’d decided to head over the Busan Tourist Information Center (I’ll try and get a picture later) to see if maybe they had suggestions. Turns out, not really. They tried calling another large hospital nearby, the Haeundae Bumin Hospital who actually asked us to check with the Inje University Hospital I’d gone to previously. So yep.

So I let my brother–in-law know where I was so he could pick me up. And miraculously on this particular morning, he seemed to have forgotten how to use the goddamn GPS and I instead had to walk back and forth in the freezing cold until he finally let me know that he and my wife were at the Burger King in the middle of a road that wasn’t even near any of the places we’d talked about. WELL DONE, MAN.

But he was driving us, and without him the cab ride would’ve cost a crazy amount so fine.

Of course naturally, he got lost and instead of going to Dong A University Hospital – which he had insisted was nearer even though everyone I met said that PNUH was closer to where we were – we ended up in a weird small mountain town at a building for Dongan Medical Centre or something. A small clinic that wasn’t even open. GODDAMMIT.

We eventually reached PNUH but not before the Littlest Dictator had to pee again and cried out in pain. This is what happens when you leave the navigation to people who are too goddamn proud to be wrong, you know what I mean?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m really glad he was around to help and even stuck around to bring us back home. But the delays were really unnecessary. 4/10.

Anyway, we finally reached PNUH and YES! They really did have a children’s department.

Of course the moment I arrived, they straight up asked me if I’d be OK if the bill reached or exceeded USD $1K (around 1,000,000 in Korean Won). Yea that was the first red flag, I guess.

We were led to the children’s section:

Not long after that, I had to keep slapping away the hands of grabby doctors and nurses who were super eager to run tests, a few of which I realized later were not necessary. Those tests did manage to significantly bump up the bill though…

InkedPic 8_LI 1 — Radiation Therapy? It was just an x-ray. WHY DID WE NEED AN X-RAY IN THE FIRST PLACE??

Overall, our experience with the staff were alright. Most of them spoke English, sometimes broken but enough to communicate.

After a couple of hours over there they finally confirmed what we suspected about the UTI and prescribed antibiotics.

And how much did it cost? A whopping KRW 876M (around USD $876). HOLY SHIT. I mean sure we’ve got travel insurance that we could claim back against back in Singapore, but if we hadn’t had the money up-front, I shudder to think what would’ve happened.

Fortunately the Littlest Dictator is doing much better now, and the pain seems to have gone away though she still needs to finish the course of antibiotics.

As much as I loved visiting Busan, this was something I did not expect and man, you should seriously reconsider visiting if you’ve got a little one in tow.

I’ll try and add more pictures to this post much later.

In the meantime, here’s the information on PNUH and Dong A University Hospital:

While at either of these hospitals, if you need translation help, call or get them to call 1330.

It’s a 24-hr hotline specifically for tourists, maintained by the Korea Tourism Organization and they’ve got excellent English speakers who can help.

Here’s a link to more information: http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/TRV/TV_ENG_3_1.jsp

Pusan National University Hospital

Website: http://english.pnuh.or.kr/english/main/main.do?rbsIdx=1?rbsIdx=1

Location: Address : 179 Gudeok-ro, Seo-gu, Busan-si, 49241 Korea

Contact number: +82-51-240-7472~3

Dong A University Hospital

Website: https://www.damc.or.kr/eng/main/main.php

Location: 26 Daesingongwon-ro, Seo-gu, Busan-si, 602-812 Korea

Contact number: +82-51-240-2400~1

Update 12th Jan 18: Included information on two other children’s hospitals in Haeundae:

Haeundae Pureun Bada Children’s Hospital (this recently opened on the 5th of Jan 18)
Centum Children’s Hospital

Haeundae Pureun Bada Children’s Hospital

A couple of days after our costly experience with PNUH, I found a flyer stuck to the front door (this is still a pretty common advertising tactic in Busan) for Haeundae Pureun Bada Children’s Hospital, which apparently opened on the 5th of Jan 18.

Other that what’s in the flyer, I haven’t been able to find any other additional information on this hospital, including a website. Not sure if I’ll have the time to swing by, or even if they have an A&E section but it’s good to know that it’s around.

Unfortunately I can’t even find an English transliteration of the address. But if you call 1330, the helpline staff should be able to get in touch with them for you.

Centum Children’s Hospital

This is another hospital that I found via Google while looking for the Haeundae Pureun Bada hospital above. I’d probably come across this one before, but figured I’d include it in this post as well.

The website is a little bizarre and looks somewhat broken though: http://www.ctadong.co.kr/

Not sure if they have any English speakers there, but again just remember to call 1330 and they should be able to help you out.

Contact details:

Tel: 051-743-1588

Address: 407 Haeun-daero, U-dong, Haeundae, Busan

Again, one important thing to note is that neither of these two might have an A&E or even open during Sunday and public holidays. So for emergencies, you might still have to head to one of the two Grade 3 hospitals mentioned above: PNUH and Dong A University Hospital.

Stay safe everyone!

January 1, 2018 0

Visit to the Esplanade and a Few Other Places

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, months? And now on the last day of Ramadhan, I finally have a bit of time to write about some the stuff we’ve been up to.

By the way, I’m writing this while watching the Littlest Dictator feed herself.

A few weeks ago, we visited PIP’s Playbox, located on the fourth floor of The Esplanade.

It’s sort of like a little library and play space for little kids.

Yeah, it wasn’t too bad!

I did get a little annoyed by parents who allow their kids to snatch away toys from the Littlest Dictator while she’s playing with them.

I have a new policy now: if the kid snatches away a toy, I snatch it back immediately. Gently but firmly. Waiting for some parents to do the right thing is like waiting for snow to fall in the Sahara Desert. Or the nee season of Attack on Titan. Just… just trust me on this.

BUT! It was hard to stay annoyed when you’ve got one hell of a view:

Then we went for a walk outside along the river.

Hmm, let’s see where else we’ve been to. Oh yeah. LOL Playland at JCube, an indoor playground near Jurong East MRT. Can’t recall if we went before or after The Esplanade though.

Oh yeah! I went to KL for my very first business trip. First time I ever flew there, and first ever day trip. Usually it’s a major thing for me. Takes about six hours by rail, and four by car or bus.

Yeah, not too bad. an experience! The budget airline terminal looked pretty damn good.

Then we took a goddamn 45-min cab ride to a place that looked like it had been carved out of a forested area not too long ago. A pretty cool place with a hipster-ish vibe, with apartments on the upper floors of the shopping centre, and brand new houses on the other side of a narrow road.

It reminded me of a nice waterfall in the middle of a forbidding jungle.

Despite how nice it looked and… ordinary it felt, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were so far away from the city centre, let alone the airport. Wouldn’t mind going back for a short vacation though.

Let’s see… where else? Where else? Oh right. We paid Big Box a visit. It’s a humongous shopping mall/warehouse next to Jem Shopping Centre, also near Jurong East MRT.

We’d gone there previously and it was pretty underwhelming. While it may be huge, the products sold there appeared to me to be of a cheaper, poorer quality compared to what you’d find in other shopping malls.

But I’d heard of a huge indoor playground there and thought we’d check it out.

It was pretty big, that’s for sure. Might bring the Littlest Dictator here when we get th chance.

Then we checked out their humongous supermarket.

Seriously, this place was huge. It felt exhausting just trying to look at all they had to offer. The design seems a little off though. The aisles were a little too wide, and there were white spaces nearly everywhere you turned, from the ceiling to the walls to the floor. Too many white spaces. The place felt vast but strangely sparse.

It wasn’t that bad though. Might return to check out some of the stuff they have on offer there.

By the way, this is now two days after I started writing. And now I’m attempting to finish this while watching Slap on Titan, an Attack o Titan parody. Armin is one hell of a creepy dude.

June 25, 2017 0

Warm Weather, a Cafe, a Playground

Coming from tropical Singapore, I never thought I’d say this, but it was a balmy 17 degrees Celsius (I know… I know… must be losing my mind).

Couldn’t resist taking the Littlest Dictator outside. I’ll also include a bit about a cosy café we visited a couple of days ago.

So here’s a comprehensive review of Ladife with all the details you need before deciding on a visit: Yea, it’s pretty good.

So the first thing I did today was get my bandaged replaced:

So the doc says it looks good and tomorrow should wrap up the entire treatment. Still feels I’ve been ripped off but eh, it gave me a reason to head somewhere in the day time after putting the Littlest Dictator to sleep… at goddamn 2am. Holy crap can she go!

Over here, pedestrians tend to give way to cars. NOT ME

Once we reached home, I had a ton of crap to do. But ahh dammit. It’s not often we experience what I call ‘Ideal Baby Weather’.

Because I was alone and a genius, I didn’t take pictures of the playground we visited. So um, here’s another playground we went to the other day:

So she has this thing where if she’s interested in someone or something, she just stares. What can I say? Babies are not known for their social graces.

Seeing how she looks more like her Korean mom, whereas I look like an escaped convict from a maximum security facility in Pakistan, it made it look like I was trying to cheer up a reluctant kid I’d just kidnapped.

I swear, if she’d just shouted ‘No! Want mama!!’ it would not have ended well for me.

Overall though, it was a pretty good day. Here’s a picture I took of some flowers:

December 20, 2016 0

Not a Bad Day

Weather’s not that cold, and I was hoping to get a bit of sleep before the wife and her mom headed out to the Lotte Premium Outlets (I’ll be sure to post more about this awesome place later).

Unfortunately the Littlest Dictator had other ideas and after much screaming (hers not mine) (maybe partly mine) I tagged along.

This is much harder to navigate when you’re a 200lbs adult.

Yea not a bad day. So far. Soon I’ll be left alone with the baby. I must prepare for battle.

December 17, 2016 2

Posting with a Phone and a Scalded Hand while tending to Hyperactive Baby

My mother-in-law has a really good filter that also dispenses cold and HOLYCRAPTHATISHOT!! water.

Unfortunately after my workout last night, my hand experienced first-hand (get it? Get it??) just how hot it was. And even now my hand still feels like it’s on fire. In winter.

I came to Busan from Singapore in part to the experience the cold of winter. Talk about ironic.

So here I am, posting with a phone, while being interrupted every five minutes by my two year-old.

But fear not! I’ve got a ton of stuff yet to post about! Including my Quest for Snow in Busan (more about that later).

In the meantime, here’s a nice view of the sunset from two or three days ago.

December 7, 2016 0

Tayo Kids Café Haeundae

The Littlest Dictator has been running us ragged ever since we got here so we thought it’s time for us to take her to what they call here in Korea ‘Kids Cafe’, which in this case turned out to be a huge awesome play area for toddlers and young kids.

Getting There:

33 Se Sil-ro, Busan, South Korea.

Take exit 3 from the Jangsan Metro station and keep walking forward. You’ll eventually see a colourful sign with cartoon buses. That’s the one!

Basic Information:

Contact number 703-5556. Most of it is similar to what can be found on this blog post I found but for a different outlet ( and a much better review too!): Tayo Kid Cafe – For the Younger Crowd

Open daily from 10:00am – 8:00pm, it’s 12k won for two hours but apparently if you sign up for a membership, it’s only 8k won though I haven’t verified this yet.

We went there close to 5pm, and they were closing that day at 6pm for maintenance so we only spent an hour there.

Wasn’t planning on doing a review so this one’s going to be a bit sparse and I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Will definitely be returning and hopefully I’ll be able to prepare a more thorough review.

Here goes:

It’s got a large – what do you call it? – an obstacle course for the kids, with big bouncy trampolines (which she absolutely loved!), and a ball bit and all kinds of things she could climb over and under and through.

There was also a little track running under and through the obstacle course where you could manually ride in and drive miniature buses on every 15 mins. I liked this waaay too much!

There was a little room with play kitchens and lego blocks and dolls (which frankly were a little creepy 😂 ).

If watching cartoons is more up your alley, there’s a room for that too.

As for the toys, there are all sorts that cater to infants and toddlers and young kids.

We had an awesome time and will definitely be returning.

Minor Gripes:

Apparently we were overcharged. Since they were closing at 6 on that day and we’d arrived at 5, I was open to paying the minimum 2-hr cost.

Pretty normal back in Singapore for you to pay the minimum amount, so long as you knew you’d be spending less time.

My mother-in-law said that this is not the case in Korea, and that we should’ve been charged only half the cost.

Also, I wasn’t told about the membership options which kind of annoys me.

Lastly, some of the toys were broken, which kind of takes away from the experience.

Overall Verdict:

It was pretty fun, and we had an awesome time. I’ll sort out the overcharging and membership issues next time we’re there, and yes, we’ll definitely be returning. The Littlest Dictator was NOT happy about leaving!

December 1, 2016 1

One Weird Dude's Busan Blog

Busan in Three Months

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