Ahh, Korea. I'm so happy and grateful to have been given the opportunity to return to this beautiful country. I've been a huge fan of this place since my last visit! This time, however, I'm not just here for fun. I'm here for work, to help teach people at the University of Seoul how we plan for improved air quality in the United States, something I'm sad to say they seriously need to address. The picture below is, unfortunately, not due to morning haze.
Smog in Daegu
Presentation in hand, and weeks of planning complete, let's start with a little fun! For the first part of this trip, I'm being accompanied by Christina (my sister), Tom Weyandt (with the city of Atlanta), and Doug Hooker (my boss's, boss's, boss's boss!). We arrived in Seoul and hopped the first train down to Gyeongju for the weekend for some sightseeing before the conference on Monday. We're traveling via KTX high speed train, something I didn't experience on my last visit. There is no security and no one collecting tickets. When you walk into the boarding area, there is a line on the ground that says "we trust you, ticketed passengers only." Could you imagine a system like that in the United States? The train ride was very smooth. It reached a max speed of around 300 km/hr and the trip to Gyeongju took about 2 hours.
Vrooooom! KTX high-speed train
I was here in Gyeongju in fall 2011 and it's a somewhat different experience in the summer. First off, it's hot! Koreans gingerly air condition. Just enough so you don't die, but not enough to keep spoiled Americans happy! It's also pretty humid, but not Atlanta humid. I wonder how much of the humidity is due to the millions of acres of rice paddies? Second, it's a different kind of beautiful. My last visit was in autumn and many leaves were gone or were bright colors. Now it's verdant and lush. It really reminds me of the north Georgia mountains. Third, there is so much rice here! Every spare square inch of flat land is occupied by a rice paddy. In fall, I noticed lots of farmland but didn't realize how much of it was dedicated to rice.
On our first day in Gyeongju we visited Tumuli Park and saw the Shilla Kings' burial mounds and made a trip to the Gyeongju National Museum. Unfortunately, the main archaeology hall was closed due to earthquake-proofing. Afterwards we visited Anapji Pond and then headed to the hotel for a break.
Anapji Pond
Later in the evening we had some Gyeongju Ssambap for dinner! Last time when I visited Korea, it took several days to adjust to the time. This time, with the help of Tylenol PM (thanks Emily for the suggestion!) I slept straight through the night and was bright-eyed and bushy tailed for an 8AM trip to Paris Baguette for breakfast Korean pizzas (yep! as odd as it sounds) and then off to Bulguksa and Seokguram!
Bulguksa grounds
Bulguksa Temple
Stately!
Seokguram Lanterns
Lunch was at a restaurant near Bulguksa. An Ajumma (older Korean lady) restaurant barker flagged us down to eat at her restaurant. We agreed and she ran into the road, stopping traffic to lead the way. We had beef bulgogi with mountain vegetables, some pork bulgogi and bibimbap. There was tons of panchan (side dishes). You can get excellent Korean food in Atlanta, but the panchan is just not the same!
My traveling companions have been excellent sports. Willing to hike in the sun, take bus A to location B followed by steep steps to see temple C. Hopefully, I didn't drive them too hard! Gyeongju is a big a place with lots to see and do, I couldn't let them miss out.
Gyeongju, a city in Southeast Korea, was the capitol of the Shilla Kingdom from about the first to tenth centuries. The city and surrounding area are full of historical sites, including royal tombs and temples, several of which are UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Like many Korean cities, Gyeongju has an adorable mascot... or in this case, two mascots!
The area around the bus terminal is full of flashy motels. We're staying at the Show Motel, a Korean "love motel." We like it because it's clean, large, well-located, quirky, and has a huge TV and computer. We plead willful ignorance on the reasons why locals might like this motel. See the video below:
Is that Obama in our hotel's wallpaper?
There are a number of royal tombs within walking distance of our hotel. Shilla tombs are basically just big piles of rocks and earth that housed the remains of kings and queens along with their favorite belongings, gold jewelry and other important items. We took an evening stroll through a few of the tomb parks, including Tumuli Park where thousands of people were out flying kites, strolling, socializing and learning about the tombs. We were in the park for sunset, which was amazing over the mountains to the west of Gyeongju. While a pretty city, Gyeongju has the worst air pollution of the trip so far. Even though the skies have been clear, all of our pictures show white hazy conditions and there is a slight smell of burning wood or industrial byproduct in the air.
Tumuli Park
Sunset over Shilla Tombs
The Gyeongju National Museum has a lot of the treasures from the tombs, including a more than 1000 year old golden crown. We also visited the adjacent Anapji Pond at night, which was beyond crowded with Korean tourists snapping pictures left and right. The pond was on the site of a large Shilla palace. Lit-up at night the reconstructed buildings and their reflections in the pond were beautiful.
Anapji Pond
For dinner on our first night in Gyeongju, we tried the local specialty: ssambap. It's not really a type of food, but rather a way of eating it. Dozens of small dishes are brought to your table, with several different types of leaves to wrap them in. A variety of Korean leaf sandwiches, basically!
David is shocked by the quantity of things to wrap in leaves
First thing Sunday morning we caught the bus to go visit Bulguksa and the Seokguram Grotto just south of Gyeongju. These two places are UNESCO heritage sites. We had a bit of delay on our journey to the sites, because traffic in Gyeongju is awful! Maybe it's just because it's the weekend
and temperatures are warmer than usual, but the streets are clogged.
Traffic jams are common, and our buses got hung up for a
while. All of the parking lots at each site were overflowing, and all of
the buses were standing room only. Domestic Tourism is alive and well
in South Korea!
Bulguksa is an active temple that was originally constructed in 774 AD as the hub of Shilla Buddhism. It was heavily restored in the 1970s. Many of it's architectural characteristics are similar to those we've seen in temples and palaces in Seoul, but it's in a beautiful mountainous area. Not too far away is Seokguram Grotto,which houses a Buddha sculpture in a cave within a temple. Both sites were neat, but absolutely packed with Korean tourists, so we didn't have much time to linger.
Bulguksa was crowded!
Beautiful Bulguksa
Next we stopped at Gyeongju World amusement park for an hour so Paul could ride a few more roller coasters. Phaethon was really fun, while Space 2000 (Atomic Coaster) was awful!
The first loop on Phaethon
Toilets in Korea have been abundant and interestingly signed
Finally, we went to Sukyeong Restaurant for dinner. The house specialty was a regional bibimbap with lots of banchan, and dongdongju to drink.
We sure are eating well in Korea.
Something we noticed everywhere is Gyeongju bread. There are dozens of shops plying the treat. It seems to come in two varieties: two small pancakes with a smear red bean paste in the middle, or a small round piece of bread full of red bean paste. David prefers the pancake form, while Paul prefers the round form. Both yummy!
