Advertisement
Our after-thought trip to South Korea has been a big success!! We took a rather comfy sleeper ferry from Japan to SK whereby we were the only westerners.. we found out AFTER that it apparently is cheaper to fly, so all the clever westerners took the quicker, more direct route! Still, it was nice to wake up and look out of the cabin window and being in a new place... this place being the port of Busan (formerly Pusan).
Busan wasn't appealing to us... after spending a few days previously in the equally dull Japanese port of Shimonoseki we just wanted to get out to the greenery... so after 1 day in Busan we headed out to Gyeonju, a beautiful historic, temple town in the countryside towered from all angles by lush mountains (although to be fair these very green mountains are pretty much everywhere in SK). We stayed in a very traditional korean guesthouse where all the rooms looked out onto a lovely stoney courtyard. Every evening the owners arranged an arts and crafts workshop.. our first night Matt gave traditional fan painting a stab....and then the second night he had the korean women in hysterics with the high
quality of his sewing... they couldnt believe that this tall, western boy produced such tight stitches on his charm!! We were given a piece of pretty, coloured material to fold and a piece of string to hang out of the top of the material to use as a hooking device to hang the charm once completed! We just had to sew the material together to form a rectangle charm....simple but fun!
Gyeonju has lots to offer for tourists...temples, palaces etc.... but also these mounds covered in grass which reminded us of telly tubby land.... if you look at the below pics i think you'll agree!! The mounds are actually SK's answer to the egyption pyramids!! They are burial tombs for kings and emporers during the Shilla dynasty.
After witnessing the most viscious storm and strangest thunder ever, we left the next day for Seoul! Seoul is a really cool city.. it has the hip, trendy people and heaps of cool shops like Tokyo has but without the steep prices!! A shoppers paradise! We made a stop off at the Changdeokgung Palace, but most of our time was spent just wandering around the cool alleyways and university markets, and
Gyeonju countryside
telly tubby land in the background (i.e. the burial tombs)!!!sampling the yummy (and cheap) food!! The nightlife here seems pretty good too, lively with a relaxed atmosphere! You get such a good vibe even at night time... you never feel unsafe, and the stats back that up too- there is a really low crime rate here compared to the rest of asia!
We took a day trip to the DMZ.. the border with North Korea! And got to see firsthand the military tension between the North and the South, we even went into one of the tunnels that the North had built to try to invade the South, and allegedly painted the rocks black to disguise it as a coal mine! We went to an observatory and had a look through some binoclulars out at North Korea, where they have built a huge flag that weighs 300kg and also a fake city to give the illusion of luxury apparently. The south have built a whole railway and international train station right on the border waiting for the day the two sides are unified, it is weird standing in a major international station that is deserted besides the tourists.
So all in all.... our 7 days in Korea
Lucky dip meal- korean restaurant without pictures
matt ended up with a standard curry while i got cold noodles soup with huge ice blocks, and was given scissors and chopsticks..hmmmm was a hit.... we leave today by ferry (travel sickness pills at the ready as a storm is expected) to Tianjin (port nearest Beijing).
Ciao for now...xxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.116s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0518s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
claire
non-member comment
hello its me finally
Hiya guys round kev and cats thought i drop a line the blog and picks are great looks like you are haveing the best experiences good storys and picks to share. I was shocked you rang new it was you but i didnt believe it. Soo glad you did tho. Me and warren are official had agreat time at hop farm fest especially 1 day was free. Ran london 10k in 56mins but was on same day as the lads triaflon so couldnt go wiv cat to watch but looking at the photos tonight. matt hope you are well think you need a few more pot nudles boy I can understand doessnt look too appitiseing likeing the hair style. stay safe have great times speak soon love you both xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx