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Published: October 15th 2023
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Gyeongju is a historic small town on the eastern side of Korea; the old town is surrounded by 38 burial mounds. These are smooth half dome hillocks covered in short grass, each up to 22m high, and dotted apparently randomly across fields and parks. The tombs date from the 4th and 5th centuries and there is just one that you can go inside where there is a stone coffin in the centre, together with replicas of the gold jewellery and functional items that were found buried with the king in his tomb. To add to the historic feel of the town, Gyeongju's narrow streets are lined with Hanok houses, either ancient restored houses or more recently built replicas. Our small guest house is a Hanok house; we sleep on mats and eat traditional food at breakfast while sitting on the floor; the food is excellent.
Gyeongju is unusual in that it is almost all low-rise. Most other towns have high-rise apartment blocks which look, to our eyes, incongruous against the misty mountains and the golden rice waiting to be harvested. There are a lot of steep tree-clad hills and mountains and every scrap of flat land is cultivate
with small fields and even allotments.
We take a bus out to see the Bulguksa temple complex set high in the mountains. It is the season to 'hope and wish' and you do this by writing your hopes and wishes on a label which you then attach to one of the lanterns hung above the temple walkways - ladders are provided. The lanterns bob about in the breeze while the hopeful, some serious but others in floods of laughter, try to firmly attach their carefully written note.
From just below the temple, we get great views across the plains to the mountains to the west and the sea to the east. The Koreans call this the East Sea but the Japanese call it the Sea of Japan. This bizarre dispute is real and, since 2020, sea charts have labelled it as just 'Sea 130'.
We also take a bus out to a large Hanok village hidden in the hills. It is being carefully preserved but there are still people living in many of the houses. It is all very pretty with some autumn colour and ripe orange persimmons on the trees
waiting to be picked.
We are travelling around everywhere on public transport. The trains are easy and on time; they range from local stopping services to bullet trains that thunder through the smaller stations. We have found using the buses pretty easy too, especially as most have a fixed fare of 1300 to 1700 won (1700 = £1). Everything is invariably on time, buses sometimes even leave a couple of minutes early. Taxi are inexpensive, too, but we're hampered by having a 'foreign' phone as the taxi booking apps only work on Korean phones. On the subject of phones, the just launched flip-phones are everywhere here; they are clearly the phones to have but, of course, this is Samsung's home base.
A bullet train takes us south to our final destination in Korea, Busan. We're staying on the outskirts in the beach suburb of Songjeong. Our hotel couldn't be more different, moving from a traditional Hanok to an 11th floor room with an amazing view of the mile-long sandy beach. There are surfers and 'skim boarders', indeed it is Skim Fest weekend. Skim boards are thin bodyboards that one stands on. The trick is
to run off the beach, jump onto the board on an incoming wave and then do a jump or a 180 turn; there is something of skateboarding about it.
There used to be a coastal railway but it has been converted into a single track tramway with a walkway next to it, the Green Railroad. The walkway runs for over 3 miles around inaccessible headlands through a small settlement to reach the larger resort of Haeundae. This is quite a big town with three of South Korea's tallest skyscrapers, 101 storeys of apartments and hotel rooms, quite a shock after walking around quiet wooded rocky headlands.
We take the train and metro into the centre of Busan. It is a sprawling city of 3.4 million and we head for the port and the seafood market. This is a vast market, indoor and outdoor and selling a huge range of fish, including barracuda, sea bream and tuna, and shellfish, including clams and huge spiny spider crabs. All are kept fresh in tanks; some swim happily, others, like the big crabs, continually attempt to escape.
An uphill walk from the market is Gamcheon
Cultural Village. Once a cheap slum area, it became home to Busan's artists and crafts people and is now a big draw for tourists. It is a interesting place for a wander as well as for people-watching.
Korea has been fascinating. Old and new, urban and rural, foreign and yet so like England, busy with people but very friendly. We've lost count of the people who have tried to help us, partly because they are not used to meeting foreign tourists. Mostly we did know what we were doing but occasionally their kind words have helped. Who knew that one Metro line doesn't accept the otherwise universal paper tickets?
Tomorrow we fly to Taiwan.
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