Stepping Back in Time: Kyeongju

Last week was a great week at work, mainly because we had the day off on Friday. My friend Bora and I seized this oppurtunity and took a trip to the Silla dynasty (think late Roman Empire time period) capital city of Kyeongju, in Southeast Korea. After a very early morning train trip to Daegu, and then on to Kyeongju we were presented with a place that seemed like a giant, open-air museum.

First on the agenda was an ancient temple, Bulguksa. The temple complex is something of a national icon, one of the pagodas, Dabotap, there appears on the 10won coin. It was quite a beautiful, and very active temple. From there were took a 3.2km hike to the Seokguram Grotto. This hike was probably one of the most pleasant ones I've taken in Korea for the simple reason that there was almost no one else on the trail! Every previous hike I've taken in Korea has been as busy as a rush hour subway, and it really takes away from the experience. I guess in a country as beautiful as Korea everyone wants to get out an see it, and everybody is fifty million people in an area the size of Vancouver Island.

After that pleasant walk through the woods we were at Seokguram Grotto. This place is one of those rare places that you can really feel the historical and religous importance. In a small temple set halfway up a hill there is a beautifully carved Buddha with a jewel in his forehead, at sunrise the light hits the jewel and is supposed to quite something to see (the impression I got was that it was something like the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones is in the ancient map room). It was the most remarkable sculpture I've seen in Korea, and something I will always remember.

When we made it back into town it was time to eat. Gyeongsangbuk-do, the province Kyeongju is in, isn't renowned for its cuisine, so were opted for Japanese... and after a bunch of sushi and some warm sake we realized we'd missed the last train home. Thankfully it was easy to find a hotel for the night, and had an extra morning to explore Kyeongju thrust upon us.

That morning began with a trip to see some royal burial mounds, Tumuli. In all honesty they just look like grassy hills, but with Silla royalty inside them. One of the tombs, Cheonmachong, has been excavated and we were able to walk through it. We walked through the park for a while and then hoped in a cab to Anapji Pond.

Anapji Pond is an old royal garden/park. It was another beautiful place to walk around for a little while. An additional feature of the park our the giant koi that stalk you. If you stand by the pond's edge the fish will swim over to you, expecting to be fed, if you walk to another spot they follow you; it was kind of funny and kind of creepy.

By that time we had to hop on a train back to Seoul. All in all it was a very short but enjoyable trip. Kyeongju is a great city, very historical and much more relaxed than Seoul, I'd love to go back. Also, I must say travelling in Korea is much easier when you have a Korean with you... maybe that's part of the reason Kyeongju felt more relaxed.

This time next week I will have just arrived in Beijing for a week of holidays. I really can't wait to get there. It's a city I've always wanted to visit and now I get to spend a whole week there. Expect a significant blog entry sometime after I get backto Seoul on the 8th.