Two days are definitely not enough to see Gyeong-ju. It’s such a lovely little city, and it’s surrounded by fantastic hiking. I wish I had booked another day!
One small bit I forgot from the previous day, we stopped at a stunning place called the Aanpji royal garden. It contains a lovely series of buildings and gardens surrounding an artificial pond constructed in 674. It was a serene and relaxing way to end the day.
Day 3
After another night in the hanok (with all the walking and hiking, we had no trouble sleeping on the floor) we got a very early bus for Bulguksa, a large temple that is the head of the Jogye order of Korean Buddhism. Public transport is excellent in Korea, but it is a very good thing that the driver told us where to get off, or we’d never have known.
The temple was a short hike up the base of Mt. Toham, and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Like other temples we saw in Korea, the parking lot of this one was surrounded by small stalls, restaurants, even tiny hotels, basically an entire tiny town devoted to local tourism. We stopped for a “cold chocolate” (chocolate milk), and headed up to the base of the mountain.
The temple is actually a massive complex of buildings nestled into the forest. Each building houses at least one statue of the Buddha, or alternatively, a statue of someone who got very close to enlightenment. The buildings are all painted stunning colors of green blue and red.
The whole complex was built around 770, but then destroyed by the Japanese in the 1590s or so for housing militants. Then it was rebuilt, then it almost rotted out, and then the dictator in the 1970s restored it. It’s now a world heritage site with a giant metal building sticking out of the middle. The metal building is temporary, it’s an interior scaffold they are using to rebuild a 3-story stupa inside the grounds.
(The metal building is on the left)
The interior of the main complex contains two stupas, which apparently people used to worship at before the temples themselves were built. One of them houses the ashes of the monk who came here and attained enlightenment. (A micrograph of the ashes themselves is at the back left of the temple complex.)
Each temple also contains a set of huge musical instruments. There’s a giant hollow wooden fish, hammered on to call the monks to meals. There’s a large bell, drum and gong as well for prayers.
Many of the small buildings had monks praying inside them, with small clocks next to them to mark the time. Their concentration must be impressive, they were praying despite the hundreds of school children shrieking and racing around just outside.
One of these kids, a boy who was at most 10, came rattling down a set of steps to the right of one of the temple buildings. He had a green vending machine drink with him, and sipped it nonchalantly as his friends went racing past. When they were out of sight, he glanced around carefully. Sure that no one was looking, he stepped quickly up to the temple, drink still dangling from his mouth, clapped his hands, and bowed respectfully to the shrine. Don’t want your friends catching you at it.
Also on the grounds, there is a little golden statue of a pig! Apparently, the year of the golden pig was a few years ago, and someone put up a statue, which everyone now rubs for luck.
(It’s so popular all I could get was its butt)
There’s also a large spring out front. In Japan, these springs are usually used to wash your hands before entering the temple. In Korea, these springs contain water that you are supposed to drink.
During our very short but very painstaking English tour of the temple, we fell in with a girl from Austria who was traveling by herself through Korea, Thailand, Cambodia and a host of other countries. We headed with her up to the Seokguram grotto, and heard on the way a horror story of why you should NOT flush the toilet paper. Definitely not testing that one.
The grotto is “only” 4 kilometers away from Bulguksa, so instead of trying to figure out the bus system, we decided to walk. When we asked the way, a woman pointed behind her and said “that way. One hour.”
With such a relatively short walk, we began to wonder why most people were taking the bus. Hiking is a big sport in Korea, so we figured the trail would be packed. It wasn’t. Because the Seokguram grotto is “only” 4k…straight up the mountain. But the woods are very pretty and there was another spring halfway up.
One very sweaty hour later, we reached the entrance. The shrine is covered in rows of paper lanterns.
Each of the lanterns is up for purchase. If you purchase one, you attach a small tag with your prayer to the base.
Up behind the lanterns, in a small grotto is a huge statue of the Buddha (no pictures allowed). He is 1300 years old, but looks absolutely perfect. It’s only recently they had to wall him off behind glass to stop school kids from messing with him.
(The outside of the Buddha’s building)
We hiked back down the mountain, said goodbye to our Austrian friend (who, as a vegetarian, was having a very tough time finding food) and headed into the tiny tourist town around Bulguksa for bibimbap and ice cream.
After taking the bus back to Gyeong-ju, we headed back to Mt. Namsan for more hiking and more Buddhas. The mountain is covered in them, every few hundred yards you can take a small side trail and find a Buddha carving or two.
(It’s hard to make out, but there are Buddhas carved into that rock. Six of them)
We ended the day taking our tired feet to a bar, where we had a unfiltered, milky and oddly sweet rice beer with fried mung bean pancakes (which we discovered halfway through contained purple tentacles. Tasty purple tentacles!).
On the way back to the hanok, we picked up a box of the famous “Gyeong-ju special bread.” Glutinous wheat cakes filled with red bean paste. Red bean paste used to be my favorite thing. Until I ate too many of these. 🙁 I was sick for three days. The cakes were probably not the cause, and were in fact delicious. But I don’t think I can face red bean paste ever again.
Day 4
We bid a sad goodbye to Gyeong-ju and bullet trained back to Seoul. The trains are beautiful, clean, and have TVs. In this case, the TVs contained nothing but news reports of MERS. As we arrived in Seoul (and got lost in the subway), we began to see the face masks.
We were staying in the Gangnam neighborhood (yes, THAT Gangnam. The subways really do look just like that). We checked in to our hotel (a very quirky place, but you CAN flush the toilet paper!). Then we dropped by a convenience store for some food. Like in Japan, the convenience stores are a cheap and easy alternative when you need something to eat, with onigiri (rice squares with delicious little bits of meat in them), sandwiches or snacks. It’s not classy but if you’re on a budget it’s the place to go, you can easily get lunch for two for around $5.
We took our spoils to a park that turned out to be full of what we had just left behind: burial mounds! It turns out the tumuli are extremely rare outside of Gyeong-ju, and these are especially important.
(A burial mound courtier with his equine attendant)
After the burial mounds, we headed to the Bongeusa temple, a group of temples right across from the massive COEX shopping mall and conference center. It was a lovely, serene escape from the already somewhat overwhelming, 10.1 million person city that is Seoul.
People often leave offerings at the temple, including rice, oil, spring water and beans.
Tomorrow, we begin our big tour of the palaces!
