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Published: September 18th 2012
In almost British style, the drizzle set in today - no torrent like my first day in Korea (thankfully), but enough to be irritating.
Undeterred, I headed for the temple at Bulguksa ("bool-guh-ksah"), a quite stunning Buddhist monastery (only parts of which are open to the public as the monastery itself is still practising) to the South East of the city.
Me, and a hundred school kids on a day out.
The sensation of being mobbed by a screaming horde of barbarians aside, I quite like watching school trips as it reminds me that, wherever you are in the world and whatever language you speak, trips with your school are always the same. Someone spills their lunch on someone else, the fat kid lags behind (s/he didn't want to come, anyway), one kid plays pranks on another, some overly keen person rushes ahead (in the wrong direction) - there is shouting and laughing and fighting and, at some stage, inevitably tears (probably from the teacher). So I smiled nicely, felt for the long-suffering staff and let them pass (which much 'halloing' from the kids in my general direction - not, apparently, requiring any response from me).
The
Bulguksa Temple
The temple front is divided between two staircases, called the "Four Bridges" leading from the temporal to the spiritualrealm. For obvious reasons, you are no longer allowed to walk up them, so tourists enter the spiritual realm by the back route.temple complex was actually destroyed (or almost) in the late 16th Century. Apparently it was left in its damaged state until the 1970s (when, it seems, much of Gyeongju's history was "rediscovered").
Sadly, as I arrived it was lunchtime for the tour guides, and I didn't even have a decent pamphlet, so much of the temple complex was a bit of a "oh that's a nice building". And, in fairness, the setting itself is glorious even without understanding which virtue each shrine is dedicated to (which sounds more dismissive than it is meant).
Having looked around the temple complex - which places seems almost to be part of the wood in which it is built - I ventured down to the car park and restaurant complex to be nabbed by an enterprising restaurant owner and force-fed reasonably good - and quite cheap - bimibap (a sizzling rice dish, which came with an overwhelming assortion of side dishes).
My energies restored, I climbed the mountain path (which, all things considered was quite genteel - nicely paved with steps at the steep bits) from Bulguksa temple to the shrine 3km above at Seokguram ("sock-guh-ram").
Seokguram was constructed at the orders of a Silla prime minister, to honour his parents from a former life. (Never mind his current ones, who I felt a bit sorry for). He constructed an almost tomb like mound, within which there is a glorious statue of a sitting Buddha, surrounded by guardians carved into the walls in the chamber surrounding the Buddha.
The monument is so ancient, that it has been sealed behind a glass partition to protect the stone work, but even then it is magnificent (sadly no pictures allowed inside the shrine - not that I would have taken photos in any holy place, anyway - but see the wikipedia page for an indication, although - as with all the pictures I've seen of the shrine, it
sadly doesn't do it justice).
It is clearly a pilgrimage destination and I saw more than one Buddhist priest stop to pray. And, if it doesn't sound too pretentious, you could feel that it was a holy place - the weight of hundreds of years of prayer, perhaps.
So - tired, windswept and a little damp (but happy) I made my way back to the hostel and warm clothes (and maybe a mug of hot chocolate, courtesy of the nearest coffee shop - still ubiquitous, even out of Seoul).
Once I had refreshed (and warmed up) I ventured out for food. I had initially intended to try Korean-style Chinese food, as - although I am liking Korean food - I wanted a bit of a break. A lot of Korean food has a salty, slightly sour aftertaste and I wanted something either slightly sweeter or at least more familiar. Sadly, Gyeongju was not the place to be looking for international cuisine - as you will already have realised given everything I have already said about it being Traditional Korean to its core.
So, in the end, I wound up in a Korean restaurant and meekly agreed
when the hostess proposed a dish to me. So lucky I have no food allergies! In the end, it turned out to be fried mackerel, so all good things to those who do as they're told, I suppose. Again, the dish came with at least five small side dishes, and a I made a heroic attempt to eat as much as I could before ducking out.
Back at the hostel I met up with a few more of the guests - a real international mix - to share ideas and travel tips.
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