To start, it was a 3-day holiday weekend, so getting train tickets to Kyeongju was difficult. We ended up getting a train that landed us in town at 4 AM. Now, we didn't think that would be too bad, but it turns out that like no one is willing to lend you a room that late at night.
We wandered around to different hotels for awhile, and gave up when we found ourselves back at the train station at 6. Eventually we found a PC Bang to space out and attempt a couple hours of sleep.
Once the day had started, we wandered over to the Royal Tombs Park. Back in the Shilla dynasty, Kyeongju was the capital. There are huge mounds of grass-covered tombs in groups all over parts of the city. The most prominent and important ones are walled and ticketed, but the lesser ones like the ones for the servants and whatnot are open parks you can just go in to hang out. They're pretty awesome to see. A couple stories high of a hill, I was really tempted to climb up it. But, they were tombs, kind of bad form. My climbing tendencies were put aside.
After the park, we checked out a Buddhist store where Aaron used to shop and he knew the proprietor. It was a bit rainy and blah, and we had very little energy at this point. We ended up hanging out at a coffee shop for several hours just relaxing. Then around 5 we went searching for a motel to stay at. We were in luck, and we easily found a nice clean place that was very affordable. I especially enjoyed the 70s pink and brown flowered wallpaper.
Not having to carry around all our bags anymore was great and we hit the downtown area to browse at stores and just walk for awhile. We found some awesome treasures. Konglish is much strong down south, and they love poo! Look! Poo stickters! Needless to say we were kind of early to bed that night.
The feeling in Kyeongju was more like a small town than Seoul. It was more relaxed and there was more area that wasn't paved over. Seoul's like a concrete slab where all dirt is paved over. In Kyeongju there was an opportunity to see grass, and even walk on it a little bit. It was heaven.
The Sunday constituted our main touristy day. The weather was much nicer and we headed out to the folk village to do some ceramic shopping. Most "folk villages" in Korea are kind of tourist attractions with a mix of informational displays and actual working homes where people adopt the old Korean lifestyle. The Kyeongju folk village as far as I see it is more like a nice bargain area for a few select items. Kyeongju is known for its Shilla-style pottery, as well as its amethyst jewelry. I was looking for something nice for my mom, and Aaron found a table he wanted but decided not to buy. After we had a tasty meal at a Korean buffet at the mouth of the folk village road, we continued on to Bulguksa temple.
Bulguksa is actually a world-heritage site. As quoted from Wikipedia, Bulguksa "is home to seven National treasures of South Korea, including Dabotap and Seokgatap stone pagodas, Cheongun-gyo (Blue Cloud Bridge), and two gilt-bronze statues of Buddha. The temple is classified as Historic and Scenic Site No. 1 by the South Korean government. In 1995, Bulguksa was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List together with the Seokguram Grotto, which lies four kilometers to the east.
The temple is considered as a masterpiece of the golden age of Buddhist art in the Silla kingdom. It is currently the head temple of the 11th district of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism."
I liked the idea of seeing an important temple, and Aaron wanted to see it again. Though, he said that Bulguksa wasn't the most "good feeling" of the temples in Korea. Being kind of a touristy place, the temple didn't have as strong a soul as others. Beomosa, in Busan, for example, had lots more warm fuzzy feeling floating around.
I had a lot of fun walking around and taking pictures. Then, the most surprising thing ever happened. Aaron and I were sitting at the edge of the inner courtyard just people-watching, when I see someone I swear to God I recognize hanging out in the middle. I am totally sure this guy is someone I know back from when I did a French Immersion thing in Quebec right after high school. I get up and walk over to the group.
"Nuran?" I ask.
We kind of stutter a bit and chat. The whole small-freakin-world kind of stuff. It turns out he is visiting Kyeongju for the weekend like us. He is visiting his friend who is working in Seoul as an English teacher. We make a plan to meet up later in Seoul. Then he says he has to get going and walks off a little dazed. He later apologized for being so abrupt, he just was taken aback at being in Korea and randomly hearing his name in a familiar accent. But of course.
After that fun happenstance, Aaron and I head down from the main temple to the buses in hopes to get a bus back to Kyeongju. We were thinking of going to the Seokguram Grotto, but we figured it would be too late. Aaron hadn't actually seen Seokguram. He was sick a lot when he lived in Kyeongju, and actually the only time he made it up there Seoguram was already closed for the day. Seokguram is not very big, but it houses a very old Buddha statue made of one piece of huge marble. I think the temple was actually constructed around the Buddha because it is much larger than the door :P
We headed back toward the train station area, to find a place to eat and catch the train at 8. As one last little show before we left, Aaron and I got to enjoy the extremely drunk ajosshi (old man) pacing in the courtyard of the station muttering and babbling and occasionally emphasizing deeply by throwing his head forward. It sounded kind of like, "Aye aye aye!" When he did.
Make sure to click on captions!
More pics from our trip: my picture blog from June 7 to June 19, 2008.
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