gyeongju with the fam

To get to gyeongju from sokcho, we had to take two buses as there are no direct buses…there are four bus stations in daegu, and to spend as little time on the bus as possible, I knew which one we wanted from sokcho…I thought we’d have to take a taxi across town to the other bus station in sokcho for our departure, but we didn’t, yay…the bus ride to daegu was longer than I thought, but oh well…while on that bus I was watching the tv at the front of the bus (when not dozing) and I realized at one point they were talking about osama bin laden…this was the day obama announced to the world that US military operatives had raided the compound in which bin laden was living, and killed him…needless to say, given the time and money the US has poured into this region of the world, and the fact that the US had been searching for bin laden for a decade, this was big news…from daegu we took another bus to gyeongju, that bus was only an hour…woo hoo…

As usual, the lonely planet map wasn’t so good…that map showed the two bus stations in gyeongju being a little farther apart, so we weren’t entirely sure which way to walk out of the bus station…hana and mom took the initiative and looked around while I “guarded” our bags…we quickly found the information station, collected a couple maps, asked a couple questions, and found a hotel…

After a quick planning session, we started walking…gyeongju is the second most tourist visited city in korea…it was the capital of the silly dynasty, which ruled the entire peninsula (including what is now north korea, I think) at one point…because it was the capital, there is still a lot of history to be seen in the area…tombs, temples, etc…the city itself doesn’t have much else to offer…our hotel was about three feet away from one of the smaller tumuli parks…tumuli are the tombs of the silla dynasty…think Egyptian pyramids, Korean style…they’re not quite as big as the pyramids, but they are rather large piles of dirt on top of a grave…royalty and other important folks were buried with things it was thought they might need in the afterlife…while walking through this first little area the information lady gave us a little brochure that told us what we were seeing…after crossing the road, we found another park, with more tombs…including one that is open to the public…that is, you can go into the mound of dirt…it has been excavated, and made to look just as it was when the guy was originally buried…there is no body there, but you can see the remnants of what was there…the “coffin” is in a glass case, and you can see all the rocks piled on top to create the huge mound, on top of which is all the dirt…around the edges of the chamber are little windows showing various things that were found in the tomb, including a big crown made of 18K gold…it must’ve been so heavy…a belt and earrings too I think…more gold, they must also have been heavy…I’m quite glad I’m not a royalJ…

More wandering took us through the rest of the park, which is pretty, but not exciting…across the road on the other side, there was yet another park…this is the area in which the oldest observatory in asia is located…hana and I wondered why someone didn’t just climb a tree, or sit on top of a hill…cause this observatory wasn’t big…at all…for some reason, there was an admission charge to walk into the observatory area, even though you could see it just as well from outside that area…since you don’t actually get to go in/up the observatory, we skipped that admission fee…more strolling and amusing picture taking led us into what little remains of a fort…the name starts with a B I think…if you’re not paying attention, you don’t realize you’ve entered the remains…all that remains is some of the walls, which are now covered by dirt and trees…toward one end is the only remaining room…it used to be the ice house…just from looking at it, you can’t tell that’s what it was, but the sign says so…Korea  can be very unpleasant during the summer, so having a place that would keep ice cold would be very useful…and probably a place people liked to hang out, if they could…

From there mom was tired…so we walked back in the general direction from which we had come, in search of food…we found a branch of my bank, and food…success!! I was finally able to transfer the money to pay for our DMZ tour…dinner that night was juk…which is what Koreans call rice porridge…or any porridge, for that matter…I had my favourite, spicy beef and leek…

The next morning we had coffee (I didn’t) then got on the bus to go to bulguksa, an important temple in the area…it’s a designated UNESCO heritage site…the bus ride winds around a bit, so hana suffered, but there wasn’t any other way of getting to the temple…(well, we could’ve taken a taxi, but that might’ve made her feel even worse)…the bus dropped us at the bottom of the parking lot to the temple…from the parking lot we walked uphill a ways to the temple entrance gates…one of the most expensive fees in Korea later, we walked through the gates…past a little man made pond, through another set of gates…in this gate were four bodhisattvas…each of them has a name, which of course I can’t remember…I think they’re basically protectors? If any of the two of you reading this can tell me and explain it in a way I remember, I’ll love you foreva)…a little farther and we finally got to the main temple area…there are two majour staircases, both of which are blocked off to the public in order to preserve them as much as possible…the bigger staircase has 33 stairs, which I believe are supposed to lead you to heaven…something like that…the other staircase has fewer steps, I think it’s something about peace...

We arrived in this area at the same time as a bunch of schoolkids…I’d say late primary school, possibly middle school? There were a lot of them, and they were loud…we explored the entire temple area, particularly enjoying areas before they were invaded by all the schoolkids…

A site close to the temple is called seokuram grotto…there is a bus going between the temple and the grotto, but it only runs every hour or so, so I got hana and mom going back down to the carpark in time to catch the bus…which goes on the twistiest road ever…switchback switchback switchback, all the way up…not a pleasant journey if you are at all prone to motion sickness…the driver did a good job, but it still wasn’t a fun drive…in order to quell the nausea and take a little break, we found a bunch of benches not long after getting off the bus…as we were getting ready to walk to the grotto, we were offered beer and strawberries by a bunch of folks enjoying a social gathering…the strawberries were great, and if I’d spoken any Korean, we might’ve joined their little group for a while…they were super friendly, and ended up giving us a couple cups of strawberries…I love nice people and happy surprises…

After paying another entrance fee we walked toward the grotto…the only time of year I’ve ever been to gyeongju is at this time of year, so it seems perfectly normal to me that the path would be lined by the lanterns for buddha’s birthday…when we got to the grotto area, there were majour preparations underway for the birthday party…lots of lanterns being put up everywhere…the grotto itself is what has been rebuilt of a temple…the original temple was more of a cave, if I recall correctly…now, the big Buddha that was carved out of stone has been covered by glass (no photos L) and a wooden temple built around it…there are signs telling you not to touch the glass, so there are no fingerprints or smudges blocking your view of the Buddha…it’s nifty…we went from there into one of the other temple buildings, the gift shop…I don’t know how it came up, but we decided to buy bracelets to remind us of each other and this trip…hana and I got matching bracelets, mom got another…hana and I got postcards as well…I think we were all pretty happy with our purchases…while walking back to the carpark/bus area, we passed all the schoolkids going toward the grotto…as it’s a smaller area, I’m glad we weren’t sharing the area with them…on the way back to waiting for the bus, all three of us rang the bell…it’s a big bell, and you get to swing a huge wooden thing to make the sound…you have to swing the wood pretty hard, mom missed the first time she tried…hee hee…

Another twisty bus ride brought us back from the temple…even though it’s rather touristy, we ate in one of the restaurants across the road from the carpark…some of the ladies are rather aggressive when you get off the bus in trying to get you to come to their place of business…we don’t particularly like that sort of behavior…

After lunch another bus took us back into town…we got off the bus at anapji pond, a man made pond built during the dynasty by one of the royals…it was built with a number of buildings right there, the whole area is supposed to be relaxing…they’ve rebuilt three of the pavilions, and have descriptions of the others, none of which are very interesting…with the landscaping, it is a nice place to walk around…until the schoolkids arrived, that is…then it just got loud-ish…again, I’m glad we were there before the schoolkids…

After returning to our hotel, we split up…hana and I went for a walk, and mom went for a walk…I don’t know that any of us had any direction in particular in mind, but we needed the time apart, and it was nice just to walk…hana and I ended our walk with ice cream from baskin robbins…which ended up being free because of the points I had on my happy point card…yay…

The next day we had coffee again (me, not so much) before hopping on yet another bus…this time to the tomb of king munmu…this bus didn’t come around nearly as often, so we had to wait a little while…I hadn’t seen this tomb the last time I came to gyeongju…Koreans say it’s the only underwater tomb in asia…since hana has seen a graveyard under water in the Philippines, she knows this isn’t true…legend says that munmu wanted to be buried at sea…the tomb is allegedly underwater in the middle of a natural pool in the middle of rocks about 200m offshore…another theory says this is only where his ashes were scattered…you aren’t allowed to swim out there to find out yourself, and apparently the government hasn’t made the effort to find out what is there…though the rocks are only 200m offshore, the currents are strong, as is the wind…

we got off the bus, saw the rocks, and thought, that’s it? That can’t be it…so we walked a little ways…as we walked, a Korean man came up to us and tried to hand his phone to hana…after wondering what this was all about, she took the phone and put it to her ear…apparently we’d arrived just in time for an emergency…when the sirens blew (which was scheduled in about 10 minutes) we were to follow this guy to safety…oaaaaa-kay…still not entirely sure of what was happening, we kept walking…then the sirens blew, and we saw people hustling up the hill…so we followed…after getting to an area where most people stopped, (which really wasn’t that high up, nor that far from shore) we were told by one of the other volunteers that we were having tsunami practice…good to know…apparently the Johnson ladies now know how to survive a tsunami…the chances of a full on tsunami ever hitting Korea are pretty small, (the majour fault along which japan is situated is on the other side of japan) but at least they are prepared…

After going back down the hill, we walked a little farther along the beach before coming to the conclusion that yes, we’d seen the tomb…hmmm…not very interesting…but I had fun trying to take decent photos of the waves crashing onto the rocks on the shore…according to the guidebook, this is a pretty popular beach during the summer…right now, not so much…the wind is strong and constant, and it’s not quite warm enough to hang out…after grabbing snacks and such, we waited for the bus going to the other way, and rode back into town…

The plan was to find somewhere close to eat lunch…it felt like we were walking for ages and ages, but it probably wasn’t really all that far…then the walk back to the bus station, where we caught a bus to the tomb of king muhyeol…you don’t get to go in this tomb, but the shape and size are similar to what we’d seen in the tumuli parks…across the street from this tomb is the tomb of his younger brother…after reading that sign, I realized we’d spent the day seeing tombs of one family…king munmu was papa, and king myhyeol was son #1, and the smaller tomb across the street was son #2…

After riding the bus back to town, we split up again…hana and I didn’t go anywhere…on the way back to the hotel we stopped at the information desk, and got the times for the train the next morning…hana and mom were keen to ride the KTX, Korea’s bullet train…at it’s fastest, it goes just under 300kms/hr…I don’t know else what we did, but it wasn’t much…