Gyeongju

The weekend after the bike trip, Jared and I decided to head out of town again, this time without the bikes. We headed south to Gyeongju, which was the old capital city of Korea. It has a lot of history and many many cool things to see.

We took off on Friday after work and a bike ride, God knows I need my workout. It was about a 3 1/2 hour car ride, thankfully Jared was driving because I passed out about 2 1/2 hours in. We got to the city around 1 o'clock or so, and like the other trips we had been on, just pulled up to a random hotel and got a room. We were both so tired that we just passed out as soon as we got to our room.

Saturday morning we go right to it. Our first stop was Cheonmachong Tomb, these are large ancient tombs of kings and noblemen of the Silla Dynasty. These aren't just normal tombs, they look like huge hills but they are actually tombs (almost like a mini grassy version of the pyramids). They are all over Gyeongju but the Cheonmachong Tomb you can go inside and see some of the remains. We walked around the tombs for a while before heading to the Cheomseongdae Observatory. This is the oldest existing observatory in all of Asia. It was constructed during the reign of Queen Seon-deok (632-647), it was used for observing the stars in order to forecast the weather. It was pretty cool to see something that had been standing for so long and to think of how advanced it was for its time.

After the observatory we decided to get some lunch. Now, at this point I had been in Korea for just over 8 months but I know nothing when it comes to finding new food to eat, much less how to order it. This is just one area that Jared does wonderfully at. He has taken a few Korean lessons and he know how to read it and how to order good food. He knows I love the side dishes in this country so he looked into a meal that is mainly side dishes (if you have never seen Korean side dishes, google it! They are amazing)! I'm not even sure what the name of the meal was that we ate, but it was just a bunch of side dishes, lettuce leafs, and sauces. It was delicious!!

After lunch, we headed to Anapji pond. As said in the historical book of Samguk-sagi, during the 14th year of King Munmu’s reign (AD 661~681) in the Silla period (57 BC ~ AD 935), a large pond was dug and small mountains were built all within the palace walls. Additionally, beautiful flowers were planted and rare animals were brought in to create an exquisite garden environment. It is at Wolseung (fortress erected in AD 101 during the Silla period) that we can find Anapji Pond. In 1974, an excavation revealed large spherical shapes (measuring 200 meters in diameter and 180 meters in height) indicating that 3 islands were located in the pond. Anapji Pond can presently be viewed in its near original splendor, thanks to restoration efforts. It was absolutely beautiful! I felt like I was walking around in a dream. (Side note, these experts are from a Korea Sparkling web site, which is a Korean travel web site. I can’t write that well).

After Anapji pond, we walked back to the car to head up to the mountains to Bulguksa Temple. This temple has many different aspects of it but before we could even get into the temple, we were blown away by the amazing fall colors it had to offer. The tress surrounding and inside the temple were magnificent!! I had never seeing anything so beautiful in my life. I literally felt like I was on the set of a movie. We spent a good 20 mins just taking pictures of the trees on the outside of the temple. Then, once we were inside, we were even more blown away. After looking like the ultimate tourists and taking a gazillion photos, we made our way to the historic sites of the temple. Among them were the famous pagodas, Dabotap (Many Treasure Pagoda) and Seokgatap (Sakyamuni Pagoda) are major pagodas of Korea. They were both gorgeous and made me want a pagoda in my house, when I eventually have a house. Jared of course thought I was crazy along with my new obsession with pagodas.

After taking another couple hundred pictures of the pagodas, we made our way around the rest of the temple. We saw various Buddhas and although we weren't allowed to take pictures, I snuck a few. Once we had our fill of trees, Buddha, and pagoda pics we headed even further up the mountain to see Seokguram, or the representative stone temple of Korea. The mountain we were on was called Mt. Tohamsan, and the stone temple was simple amazing. It is an artificial stone temple make of granite. The construction started with Kim Dae-Seong (700~774) in 751 during the reign of King Gyeong-Deok (742~765) of the Silla Dynasty (57 B.C.~A.D. 935) and it was finished twenty-four years later in 774, during the reign of King Hye-Gong (765~780). Seokguram is known to have been built with Bulguksa Temple. According to the history book Samgukyusa of the Goryeo Dynasty (the country that unified the Korean peninsula at the end of the Silla Dynasty, 918~1392), Kim Dae-Seong had built Bulguksa for the parents who were alive, and Seokguram for the parents of his former life.

This temple was built into the side of the mountain. It was so cool to go inside and see this amazing granite statue that was so concealed by the mountain, a person would have no idea something so majestic was inside. Once again, you weren't supposed to take pictures but I managed to snap a few with a little help from Jared.

After the statue we were about burnt out on tourist sites, and not to mention quite hungry. We headed back down the mountain and back to the hotel. Now, if you have been following me on my journey through Korea, you may have noticed a trend whenever I go out of town. I tend to find somewhere to eat Duk Dori Tong. This meal has easily become my favorite Korean dish and it is even better with good company and a few bottles of soju! After wandering around for about 15 mins, we found a Duk Dori Tong restaurant and enjoyed our meal, with a few bottles of soju!

After dinner we decided to head back to some of the places we had seen during the day, and am I glad we did. Anapji pond was spectacular at night! There was Asian music playing and the way they lite the buildings was incredible!! After wandering around for a bit, we caught a cab and headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

On Sunday, we decided we had pretty much seen all there was to see in Gyeongju and thought we should get a move on as to beat the Sunday traffic. It was a spectacular trip and some place I will be heading back to next year. Next year?!?! Next year, you may ask, yep I will be staying for year number two!!! More on that to come...