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Published: June 18th 2009
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Gyeongju
Two weeks ago we finally got to a place that I have been wanting to go to for a while now. It is one of the only touristy places in Korea outside of the major cities. Our good friend Sid was having his good friend Anoushka coming to visit him from Germany. Anoushka was wonderfully organized and managed to find an incredible guest house for us to stay in. It was this 100 year old traditional Korean style house. Complete with the super tiny rooms and heated floors. There were gardens and a common area in the middle with a fire pit and picnic tables. There was a common dinning room a shared kitchen and computer with free internet. The kitchen came equipped with eggs, toast and jam so you could make your own breakfast. I felt like I was at a Korean country house. It is to this date on my list of top three coolest places I have ever stayed.
We arrived on Friday night, and I immediately fell in love with Anoushka, who Sid called Rap and I said my initials spelled Sap and that was it. We decided we were clearly a team and
that a Rap and Sap album was needed. This made Jonathan and Sid very happy as they would have to be the photographers (is the sarcasm translating?)
On Saturday morning once we finally managed to leave the country house (two people decided to play chess right before we left, not naming names) we went to the famous temple Bulgoksa in the Gyeongju national park. It was a very beautiful temple. After that we headed to Bomoun Lake for lunch. Bomoun Lake is clearly drying up. We had a bit of trouble finding a place to eat. Rap’s book said this was the best area for food and suggested eating at one of the many luxury hotels but they were so damned spread apart it took twenty minutes just to walk to one, increasing our appetites and this only got us to the back of the hotel. We quickly gave up on this dream. We wandered into a confused French restaurant and after taking a couple photos of the hilarious translated English, we decided not to eat there and we ended up at a mediocre Korean joint.
After lunch we managed to make one more stop to the tomb
of a king of the Shilla period. The tombs look like giant hills. The graves are in wooden boxes in the center. One tomb was hollowed out for viewing pleasure. We headed to town and decided to watch a movie in the DVD bong to kill some time before dinner. DVD bongs are great. They are little rooms with leather lounge couches where you can pick any released movie you want to see and view it privately. It is very, very popular for young Korean couples for I think obvious reasons.
We ate dinner in town and headed back to our guest house for a couple drinks. We were enjoying the fire when the owner struck up a conversation with us. He talked of his travels and told us about the place and then showed us the hidden well!! It was in a room off the common area marked do not enter. It was seriously the last thing I would ever have expected to be in that room. This is the first indoor well I have ever seen. It was very cool. Then he played a traditional Korean flute for us. The experience was quite surreal and very special
Bomoun Lake
Where did all the water go? to me.
I didn’t think our night could get better but somehow it did. There happened to be a large group of French speaking people staying in the guest house as well and they invited us to play a game of UNO with them. They were a contemporary dance crew from France that had just finished up a show in Seoul and had decided to do a bit of traveling before they headed back. Sid, Joanthan and I hung off their every word. It was so refreshing hearing a language so familiar to us. Sid studied French in high school so he was schooling Jonathan and me. We were all trying to throw in some words, we had liquor to help us of course…or hinder us. It was a fantastic time. We managed to get about 5 hours of sleep before we had to get up and get out to catch our train back home. All in all it was a wonderfully fantastic weekend, mostly because of Rap, the French people and the guest house.
Last weekend we did a nice long six hour hike with our Korean family and enjoyed some delicious food. I have included some
Sex on the beach?
Oh they don't have it. I guess I'll have to settle for a glass of ses on the base. photos of this as well. I seriously cannot believe how quickly the time is passing these days. This experience has been really incredible.
Until next time!! Love to all xoxooxo
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