Gyeongju: Korea's Ancient Capital

Gyeongju was flat and open and wide. It is the most 'Korean' Korean city I've visited.When I arrived there I was surprised how open and wide it felt, there were no giant apartments towering above the city, most of the house were lower and slightly more old-fashioned.  It had an atmosphere like a museum or an park that encompassed the entire town. There were giant burial mounds everywhere, which came out of the flat ground without warning, gently sloping upwards. There were also parks everywhere with small, neat forests, beautiful gardens and fancy pavilions. The style and feel of the town felt old. It felt like going back in time a little bit, but it still had all the modern day features and the downtown area was similar to normal Korean cities.

I think I need to back up here and explain why Gyeongju is special. It is the ancient capital of Korea, during the Silla dynasty (a few dynasties ago I think). There was a giant palace there and you can still see the beautiful pond. This is also where they discovered the burial mounds of ancient rulers which apparently were discovered by a man working on his house, he found a gold crown in one. The people of Gyeongju seem very proud of their history, of the history of Korea, as most Korean's do and they rightfully should be. The parks were amazing in this town, larger than ones you usually saw for temples and palaces. They were also very peaceful, even with lots of people they were so spread out and calm it was hard not to relax in them.

The first day we arrived in Gyeongju it was Saturday, we decide to start by going around and exploring some of the parks they were wonderful, as I just described. Honestly, it's hard to do them justice in a written description, but they were just how you imagine Korea before all the industrialism and development, well a little, they were to well curated, clean and neat to be real in a sense. Still, they were probably my favourite part of Gyeongju.

After we explore most of the parks and the old palace site we went for lunch (by this time we were starving). We got a local speciality which is called ssam bap which just means rice wraps. It had many many side dishes as well as rice wraps. It had lots of dishes I'd never seen and was delicious.

During lunch another friend of mine met up with us at the restaurant and said we should visit Yangdong Folk Village, a traditional style village just outside of Gyeongju. We thought that sounded awesome so we agreed to go. We had a little trouble with the buses because we couldn't seem to find the stop for the bus that was supposed to take us there. We finally ended up getting a cab, which wasn't too expensive when split between four of us.

The village was another highlight for me. It was so big! And people actually live in it! Amazing. It had traditional style Korean houses, lots of them even had thatched roofs. There were plants and gardens everywhere and people too, not just tourists visiting, but people just living there lives. Since people lived in the houses you couldn't go inside any, although there were a couple cafes and restaurants around. The village was all over the hills, not just flat as Korean cities often are. We ended up walking up a hill near the edge of the village and we had a lovely view of the surrounding area and the village.

Earlier,  before going into the village we'd all stopped at a convenience store for some snacks and crystal ate some ramen. While she was eating the little boy at the table next to ours was watching us curiously, he came over and we all all fawned over him. His family seemed fine with it, until Crystal put on her sunglasses and for some reason that scared him and he started crying. She attempted to show him the glasses were harmless, but he was still scared, so we left the family alone after apologizing.

Later, when we were climbing one of the hills inside the village we found the same family sitting at the top of the hill eating some traditional Korean candy. We said hi to them again and Crystal went over to greet the little boy. The mom kindly offered us all some candy, which was very hard, it was a kind of white taffy like stuff, it sort of melted in your mouth and then became more chewy. It tasted like pure sugar. I made the mistake of taking a larger piece and was stuck with it for awhile.

When we were walking in we also saw a beautiful school, you couldn't go inside it because it was a operating school, but Crystal said she had a friend who worked there, gosh I envied her in that moment. The school had a more traditional architecture style and wasn't the regular three block of cement that Korean schools usually are. Also, her friend go free entrance to the folk village (which cost 4,000 won).

After we finished at the village I was pretty much exhausted from the full day of travel and walking. We headed back to Gyeongju and Crystal headed back to her town of Pohang. When we got back we decided we needed to stop off at the hostel first (where we'd dropped off our bags earlier) and then head out to find some food. The hostel was a big, two story Korean style home. It had a beautiful little garden and court yard area when you went through the gate (typical of Korean houses, especially more traditional ones). There was a lot of beautiful wood work inside and it felt really comfortable and homey to me, it was comfortably cluttered inside the house, but the room we stayed in was simple and clean, it had beds rather than the ondol style sleeping (sleeping on a mat on the floor) which many guest houses and hostels I've stayed in have so that was nice.

The bathrooms were outside though, which was a little annoying and the showers were the kind where the whole bathroom is a shower (ie they don't have a stall) this is pretty normal in Korea, my own place doesn't have a stall. The whole bathroom is just tiled and there's a shower head.

We went out for jjimdak (steamed chicken) which is a great, cheap meal to get when you're hungry. I might have complained about all the walking a bit because the first place we went to find the restaurant it wasn't there! Disaster. Michael asked someone about it and she told us the actual location of the restaurant, which was luckily near by. The food was delicious. Jjimdak has a spicy, soy sauce sauce, pieces of chicken, potato, glass noodles, and other bits of veggies. We also got rice with it because it has a ton of sauce to soak up. You get it on this giant plate and it looks like an endless about of food and it pretty much was, even with the three of us eating we still didn't finish everything.

After dinner we decided we wanted to try the local Makeolli (kind of traditional rice wine) since everywhere in Korea makes there own (it doesn't travel well I've heard). We found some in a CU (convenience store, Korea is handy that way). Then we headed back to the hostel. It was actually a beautiful night but a little chilly now. When we got back we set ourselves up in the living room with our makeolli and some cards, we never actually played cards (although michael played solitaire for a bit). I discovered a whole stack of beautiful photos someone had taken in and around Gyeongju. I spent a good long time looking at those and then we saw some of the other hostel guests and Lori began chatting with them so we all sat around comfortably talking to different people from around the world. As I thought, the hostel had a really good vibe. We met a girl from the czech republic (I think?) who was there for a conference, but she had finished and was now traveling around. She was an anthropologist. We also met three guys form Singapore who were traveling around Korea (and I think asia) it was cool to compare all the places we'd been. We also met a student from Seoul. Part of what makes hostels so awesome is the people there and the hosts (who were also great). There were a couple little boys around too who say me and started saying 'waygook' (foreigner) to their mother watching me with wide eyes. I laughed at this and the mother realizing I understood tried speaking to me in Korean, which was a bit of a lost cause since my Korean isn't that good. We had to finish drinking by 11pm so we went to bed around then too (hostel rules). The next day we were going to Bulgoksa a famous Korean temple.

The bus trip to the temple was a bit long, but it was pretty beautiful. It went by a really large lake (river?) and through a resort area with tons of beautiful buildings. We saw a temple under construction as well. When we arrived at the temple it was super busy. This is one of the more popular temples in Korea. It was a short walk up to the temple and as with most things in Gyeongju we had to pay to get in.

The temple was huge, I think it was the largest one I've been too. It is also special because it houses some ancient pagoda's. Michael asked us if we had 50 won on us (which is about 5 cents and a coin) Lori had a couple and he said we should have them ready. When we got into the main courtyard of the temple he said to get out our coins and hold them up to the pagoda, it was the pagoda on the coin! So funny Michael. Unfortunately one of the pagoda's was under construction and had a huge building built around it to protect it so we couldn't get a look at it easily. As I said the temple was huge, it seemed to not end. There were tons of tiny, little temples all around the main building. The main entrance to the temple was probably the most spectacular part with giant stairs going up to it and a beautifully decorated building, stretching across the entrance (I can't do it justice here, please see my photos on facebook from Gyeongju!). I ended up taking tons of pictures of the temple because it was so beautiful. I loved it there, I only wish it had been less busy there were people everywhere.

After the temple we were getting hungry so we went across the street to a small strip mall type complex to look for food. I guess not that many people go over there because it was near lunch time and the place looked deserted. As soon as we walked up a korean woman came over and tried to get us to come to her restaurant. It was uncomfortable. We told her we weren't interested, but as ajuma's do she followed us and continued to try and get us to her place. As we walked further we say more and more ajuma's hanging around outside their restaurants or stores. The atmosphere was strange because nobody was around so we decided to leave. I felt a bit bad, clearly business wasn't that good, but being stared and followed was pretty uncomfortable for us in that situation.

So we headed back to Gyeongju. By the time we got there I was starving so I told the others we needed to stop for some food. I'm glad we did. We found a cute little hole in the wall kind of place with one other man eating there. He spoke fairly good English and chatted with us while we order. The food wasn't the most amazing I'd eaten, but you can't complain when you were as hungry as we were. Lori ordered some kimbap (seaweed and rice rolls) and Michael and I got some ramen. Kimbap is a kind of snack food or side dish in Korea, usually you have it with something else. So when Michael and I didn't give Lori some of our ramen (she didn't actually want any) one of the ajuma's came over and gave her some of her own noodles.

The man we were chatting with left part way through our meal, but he bought us patbingsu (shaved ice with sauce and toppings) before he left so we were very happy and grateful towards him. The patbingsu was delicious, but it's a pretty hard dessert to mess and so good that you can't really go wrong with it.

After lunch we headed to the museum, which was huge. There were about 4 large buildings full of artifacts from Gyeongju and the silla dynasty. It had some beautiful things in it. I especially liked the crowns and jewellery (you should google the silla dynasty crowns they are very unusual looking). There was also an art museum with many statues of buddha, it was interesting to see all the different ways he was depicted. The whole thing was very simple and, I thought, well curated, you didn't feel overwhelmed even though there was a lot of stuff to see.

Eventually it was time to return home, we walked from the museum to the bus station. I remember on one of the walks by the giant burial mounds there was a family hanging out on a blanket on the grass. I think they were eating too, but I honestly don't think I was close enough to tell. I couldn't help imagining that my next trip to Gyeongju would be something like that. Sitting under the shade of an ancient burial mound with some good friends and a role of kimbap.

We also caved to our hungry and grabbed some of the special Gyeongju bread, which looks like small buns but they're filled with red bean paste (which I love, but is a bit of an acquired taste for some people). They were the perfect snack to take on the long bus ride home (which ended up being a lot longer than the bus ride there because it took a different route and hit up a bunch of other cities along the way).

Arriving 'home' in Changwon still feels strange to me. I still feel like I'm on an adventure even though I know I'm just going to catch the bus home and sit and watch tv and make food. It still feels a bit foreign and overwhelming when I get off that bus and see the strange landscape, but still at the end of the day, I feel most comfortable in my little room writing or watching tv or reading or cooking. It's all quite comfortable now.

Namhae Weekender Trip and Buddha's Birthday: Part 2

Alright, I promised the Temple visit and the rice terraces were coming up next so here we are. I felt surprisingly well rested when I woke up Sunday morning and definitely ready for walking around and looking at some beautiful scenery. First we visited Geumsan Boriam Temple which is high in the mountains of Namhae island. To me it seemed like the classic mountain temple people associate with China or really any Asian country, although of course the architecture and scenery are quite different depending where you are. 

The walk to get up to the temple was a long one, since there were so many people visiting it for Buddha's birthday weekend there were tons of cars. Our driver finally gave up driving us all the way to the top and dropped us off a little further from the shuttle maybe 1 km or so, it wasn't a long walk up or anything. Once you got the the main parking area you have to take a shuttle to the trail and walk the rest of the way. This didn't take long, not even an hour. We walked the rest of the way up to the temple. By this time it was getting hot so it was a little tiring and it was all up hill.. 

The temple was nestled into the mountain side with amazing views going all the way out to the ocean. You could see rolling hills, then after that, islands as far as the eye could see. It was a perfect, clear day for a good view of the island as well. You could also see one of the islands many small towns spread out in the bay below. The temple was really busy with people coming to pray. There was a constantly line into the temples of people praying as well as outside in front of the main large buddha statue. 

The atmosphere was nice though. Korean's tend to behave more touristy than western's do in their own country. Korea is so much small too, so it's easier to travel around to different cities. We also tried sticking a coin to the rocks. Apparently you were supposed to lick a coin then hold it to the rock while saying a pray, if the coin stuck to the rock then your prayer would be answered, but if it fell off then you were out of luck. My friend had no luck the first time we attempted it, but later I found a larger rock with a bumper surface. The trick is to stick the coin along a little ridge on the rock's side so it balances there and doesn't fall off. It worked well so lucky me my pray was answered, although I have to wonder if the work is still there... 

The temple was pretty similar to most temples I've seen now, you can see all the photos of it in my Namhae album. After the temple we went back down the mountain and caught the shuttle back. We had to wait for a bit for everyone to get down, but then finally we were off to the rice terraces. They were beautiful. It was a whole area, right by the ocean, with old terrace's going right down to the sea. It took us awhile to get down to the bottom. We ended up stopping for lunch, twice. 

There were restaurants dotted along the path down. The first place we tried looked promising, it was busy and had the cold noodles we'd been craving (or at least I had been). We grabbed a table and set about translating the menu (it wasn't in English). There were a few things we could read, but most of it were words we didn't know. My friend went over and grabbed us some water, then went to the counter to order. She came back a couple minutes later looking confused. The owner had ignored her. She tried to order in Korean and he had just moved onto the next person. Confused, she let them go ahead of her and then finally came back to the table when she heard he speaking about her in Korean (although she couldn't understand everything he said). 

Shortly after this happened, as we discussed what to do, another girl from our tour bus came over wondering if the owner had served us. We said that he hadn't and she said her friends and her had experienced similar discrimination. After a second attempt to order food we finally left, leaving our used water glasses and water jug on the table. Unfortunately this is a thing that happens in Korea to foreigners from time to time. This is the first time I experienced direct discrimination of this kind from an establishment in Korea. It is not the norm, usually people are friendly and helpful, usually they want you to eat in their restaurant and help you order and often they will give you service (pronounced more like serbisue) which means they give you free stuff such as a free drink or side dish or extra portion (this is a really common practice in Korea. It's just to show they appreciate your business and hope you return). It also seemed really strange to mean that they wouldn't serve foreigners in what was clearly a popular tourist destination. That has to be a huge loss for their business especially consider a foreign patron or even a Korean one could see that behaviour and go online and complain about it (like me!). 

After the disappointing experience at the first restaurant we went across the path to a different restaurant who I'm happy to say were more than happy to serve us and a bunch of other foreigners who were already eating there. The place was much better and well I can't say if the food was better than the first place (since I never ate any of there food) I like to think that it was better. I ended up ordering bibimbap which just means 'mixed rice' it is a dish pretty much synonymous with South Korea. Usually bibimbap has a variety of vegetables, rice and a sauce, sometimes some meat as well. The one I got at this restaurant was nothing like that. It had four kinds of seaweed in the bowl and the rice was on the side. In the centre of the seaweed was some soft, creamy, orangy-yellow stuff. I had never seen anything like it. Great, mystery seafood. I do admit, it looked pretty intimidating and perhaps at another time in my life, when I was less hungry and hadn't been exposed to many strange new things over the matter of months I may have not ate it, or picked at it delicately. 

This was not that time. I was starving by this point, having barely eaten anything since that morning (okay, maybe starving is too strong, but you get the idea) so I dumped the rice in and gave it a good mix around and dove right in. It was pretty tasty, generally I like seaweed, given the taste isn't too strong and fishy (but honestly, I've mostly gotten past that) and the texture isn't too strange (mostly gotten past that too) this was neither and the mushy, creamy sea creature in the middle seemed to make a nice, mild, sauce for the bibimbap. It was pretty tasty after all. I felt fairly proud I'd conquered such unusually dish and enjoyed it too. 

A couple weeks later I was sitting at a bar with a group of Korean's and foreigners, we were talking about strange foods or something and I told them about my bibimbap on Namhae. I described the mystery seafood in the middle and immediately they knew what it was. At first it was fish eggs and I said, no it was that, I've had those lots of times, they're not like this. Then one of the them said it was a sea egg which just confused me... what exactly was a sea egg? By this point, I started to get an inkling of where they were going. I thought about it for a half a second, remembering the soft orangey-yellow colour and the creamy texture... I'd seen that before somewhere on Tv... yes... on a japanese cooking show. Sea urchin! I exclaimed, they looked confused but we managed to translate it and it was indeed sea urchin. It was one of those things I could see older and less adventurous family members cringing in shock at and I do admit the first time I heard Sea Urchin was a popular delicacy I was surprised and kinda grossed out. 

The sea urchin I had was definitely not gross, nor was it surprising to find in a coast town in a country where they aren't afraid to use every bit of everything edible, something in North America we don't tend to do. 

After this adventure we headed back to our beach and the camp site to relax on the beach. There is another cool feature of Korea society that came in handy for us. We kinda forgot about getting dinner and it was getting kinda late. I Korea you can do this magical thing were you can order take out the beach. It was very nifty. We had  Korean girl with our group so she called them just and ordered us a bunch of Chinese food and then we waited and they brought us delicious foods, right to our spot on the beach. A guy showed up on a scooter, with his giant carry case on the back and brought us dinner. Magic, now that is something I could get used to. 

The next day, and our last day on Namhae, we spent the day at the beach exclusively. It was beautiful and warm and sunny. There was one thing that was less beautiful though, the beach covered in garbage from the previous nights festivities. Not from us, I hope. I know I had been very care to gather up all my garbage before I headed back to my hostel. No, there were tons of people on the beach and people had had fires the night before so of course we'd spent some time hanging out and drinking around the bonfires, it's like a beach tradition or something (at least in north america it is). So we spent our first hours on the beach cleaning up garbage. 

After cleaning I was hungry and went and got food with another girl in our group. After we ate it was time to go kayaking, paddling boarding, snorkling or whatever else our hearts desired. I ended up going kayaking with Julianne until we saw the banana boat go by, which was basically a long banana shaped blowup tube being pulled behind a seado. Well we decided we had to try that. We got back in just as another group was about to go out, but what was this? They happened to need two more people before they could go? Perfect! It was really awesome and fast and there was lots of leaning involved so we didn't capsize. 

After that, snorkelling, then packing up the rest of the camping gear and finally we headed back to the bus and rode back to Changwon and Busan. It was a really great, early summer weekend trip. I would definitely do it again in a heart beat. I do hope to go back to Namhae for another weekend trip. It is definitely one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen and I loved the atmosphere of the group. 

Don't worry, more adventures to come, next I'll probably write a little about MERS so you guys don't have to worry and I can tell you all what a strange experience it is. So until next time!