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Published: April 5th 2012
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On payday weekend we decided to leave Daegu and take a trip to nearby Gyeongju. It’s renowned as a beautiful place and an example of a traditional Korean city it is steeped in history as it used to be the capital of the Silla Dynasty of Kings.
So on that very rainy Friday evening Ash and I met are buddies Nat and Drew (two Nat’s so I am Natalie in Korea as she got there first!) and went to get the bus to start our adventure. It could all have gone pear shaped though. When we’d bought our tickets and were waiting for the bus to arrive for some reason I had another look at the destination sign and thought out loud ‘Oh that’s weird that they also spell Gyeongju as Cheongju' We all looked at each other and then decided to double check with the ticket office and at the last moment saved ourselves a trip to the wrong city. We then had to fun across the road to a different bus station but made it just in time phew!
The coaches in Korea are awesome. Our 50 minute journey cost 4800 Korean won which is about
£2.50, the seats were massive, super comfortable and reclined to almost horizontal plus we had loads of leg space. Bit geeky this but I had to mention after the number of cramped horrible mega buses I have been on in England!
We got in to Gyeongju in the evening, found a hostel and then all went out for some grub. We had lots of plans for the next day so got an early night
Temples and Grottos We got up bright and early and had breakfast at the hostel. The owner was really hospitable and cooked a nice cheap meal for us. The rain had passed and it was a beautifully sunny if windy day. We decided to visit Bulguksa temple which is just outside Gyeongju in the hills and is a Unesco World Heritage site. I suggested we cycled but we got the coach. I’m glad we did now as it was actually much further than it looked on the map and I’m pretty sure everyone would have hated me if we had cycled!
Bulguksa was really impressive. I could imagine it is quite serene at times but it was pretty packed with Korean tourists.
Still the architecture and exterior decorations on the different buildings was beautiful and the setting was lovely too. We wandered around there for a while and then headed to soekram grotto which is further up in the hills and is really important to Korean Buddhists. A Temple has been built in to the hill and inside there is an enormous stone Buddha. I also rang the bell of mercy for about 50p. Its right at the top of a mountain and it was really windy so I nearly went flying -I felt more stupid than spiritual at that moment. It was really sunny but super windy so we warmed our cockles by having udon noodle soup (nom nom nom) and headed back down to Gyeongju.
Tandem races So I’ve wanted to ride a tandem bike like forever and as Gyeongju is cycle friendly and there were four of us visiting it seemed only right to rent some tandems to see more of it. We must have looked a right sight to the Koreans, two extremely western couples cycling down the street squealing but it was lots of fun. We rode out of the town a bit and could
see lots of fields and green hills. We even had a tandem race at one point! I think we won didn’t we Drew and Nat? I felt nervous sat behind reckless Ash though who was singing and swerving all over the place. Poor Drew even ripped his jeans. Never say tandeming is tame! We cycled to Anapji pond. This used to be where the ancient Silla dynasty kings lived. All that is left are some pretty pagodas and a big pond. It was really serene and nice to wander around.
Saem Bab, Beer and Noraebang Bums and legs bruised and bikes returned we went out for a Korean meal in Gyeongju. Saem Bab is a speciality dish of the town. It was IMMENSE and amazing. Between four of us we shared a pot of meat plus 15 different side dishes. We had been told that there wasn’t much to do at night but we decided to check it out anyway. We found a bar which is popular with expats and met some nice native teachers who lived locally. To round off the night we went to a noraebang (which translates to Singing Room) and sang our drunken hearts
out for an hour before stumbling back to our hostel after a fun filled day.
The next day involved hangovers, pizza, comfortable coach journeys home and not much else!
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