South Korea - Part 2

Click here for Part 1.

Again, thanks to Valerie and Sunny for the use of their photos.

The next day (Sunday) we had planned to do some traveling.  Valerie and I were quite unprepared and had very little idea of where to go or what to do, so Sunny (with the help of her mother, I suspect) planned a short trip and made reservations in some interesting accommodation.

Near the East Seoul Bus terminal.

Our first destination was Andong. We traveled from Seoul to Andong by bus.  This also offered us a chance to see more of South Korea from ground level.  It was cold.

Looking across the Han River to the south.

It cost a little more than ten dollars for the bus ride, which was extremely comfortable.  There were three seats in each row, the all reclined, had a leg rest, and provided plenty of leg room. 

I even managed to sleep, which is quite rare. 

Obviously rare enough to warrant a picture.

Andong Bus terminal.

We saw very little of the town itself, beyond the bus terminal.  Instead we took off for a smaller village built in a very traditional Korean style which is listed as a world heritage site and was located nearby.  We waited some time for a bus in the cold, but then an enterprising taxi driver asked the three of us and another pair who were heading to the same place if we wanted to share a taxi.  So we fit 5 passengers into a compact Korean taxi and took off at about 140km/hr down the highway. 

Safety first.

Twenty minutes later, we barreled around the pay parking booth and were deposited in front of the tourist office at Hahoe, the traditional Korean village mentioned previously.  It was cold.  There was an irrigation pond next to the village which we walked across.

  The wind blew down the valley over an icy river, which is probably what made it so uncomfortable.  The houses were very interesting, and the church especially was quite beautiful I thought. 

However, one of my favorite parts of the area was a small exhibit dedicated to the visit of the Queen of England to the area several years prior.  There were many large photographs from the visit, along with artifacts and helpful explanations of their significance in both English and Korean. 

We had dinner in a restaurant that caters to the normal crowds of tourists that probably infest the area when the weather is much nicer.  Noodles, chicken, and vegetables were mixed together in a sauce of some sort which was slightly sweet if I remember correctly.  It was of course served with rice and kimchi.

The original in floor heat system.

Sunny called the owner of our lodgings for the night and after we had finished he came to pick us up from the restaurant.  He drove us about 20 minutes over dirt roads until we pulled up in front of a traditional style Korean house.  We had two rooms: a kitchen/dining type of room and a sleeping room.  The sleeping room had no windows, but had two small doorways on each side of the room.  The floor was electrically heated, but 30 years ago it probably would have been heated by lighting a fire underneath the house.

Big doorways too.

Exterior door.

In the morning we awoke to find another cold but beautiful day.  We also discovered that we were in a very rural area and that our rooms were perched on a slight hill looking over the river and another series of hills on the other side.

  We took some time to explore the neighboring buildings, which are part of the normal tourist attractions and include an old Confucian school. 

We wandered along the river as well.  In the summer it must be an extremely popular place to relax, but while we were there it was iced over along the banks.  While we were at the river the owner of the rooms came down to see if we wanted to have breakfast, and we ate at a restaurant he and his wife own nearby.

Everyone's favorite president also visited here.

We managed to catch the bus back to Andong that morning.  As it bounced down the dirt road it became apparent that the road we came through at night ran along a cliff for a good portion of the ride.  As we traveled towards the town, we often stopped to pick up older women who live out in the country.  They all seemed to know each other and chatted loudly as we traveled back to Andong. 

When we got to Andong some of them started to get off the bus.  One of them accidently pressed the “Stop Request” button one stop too early, and when the driver stopped and opened the door, nobody got off.  The driver was not pleased.  According to the brief explanation provided by Sunny, he shouted that you shouldn’t press the stop button if you don’t want to get off.  As it was one of their group who had pressed it too early, most of the old women were quick to come to her defense and shouted back at him that it wasn’t a problem.  This began a shouting match between the driver and the older women on the bus.  This is further proof of the huge differences between Japan and Korea.  In Japan, when someone pulls a wrong stop they apologize and say they pulled the wrong stop.  The driver nods and continues.  Korea is certainly more interesting in this way.

When we arrived back in Andong we found that we had about two hours to wait for the next bus to Gyeongju.  We wandered around the bus station for a few minutes looking for a place to sit, and found a place inside a Maxwell House branded café.  It was at this point that Sunny taught Valerie and I to read Hangeul. 

Hangeul is an alphabet designed to fit with the Korean language as it already existed.  It is quite quick to learn and after only about an hour of actual teaching and practicing, I am still able to sound out most words a week later. 

As three o’clock approached we made a quick stop at the convenience store for some snacks before we boarded the bus for Andong.  The trip took almost three hours and it was starting to get dark as we arrived in Gyeongju.  We still had about 45 minutes to an hour of daylight left so we started out for the tourist information center to get our bearings.  On the way out of the station (a place where we were stared at an inordinate amount compared to the rest of Korea) I heard someone calling out in Russian, but ignored it and continued.

When we got outside a Korean looking man was following us.  He came up to the three of us and began speaking Russian.  As far as I understood he claimed to be from Ukraine, and he certainly seemed to speak quite fluently to my untrained ear.  However, he kept looking to Sunny as he was speaking.  I told him in the only Russian I remember that I don’t speak Russian.  He then kept asking where I was from and if I was Russian, so I told him I wasn’t.  He returned to the bus station and we continued to the tourist information center.

After picking up our free English language maps of the Gyeongju area, we headed for a large park quite close to the station.  It housed a large number of ancient burial mounds (kofun, in Japanese.)  They contained the graves of royalty of a kingdom which was based in the south of Korea almost 1000 years prior.  One of the mounds had been hollowed out and we were able to go inside to see the different layers, as well as some of the artifacts found inside the mound.

Trying to hide from the wind.  Why didn't I think to bring under-armor?!

We continued our walk and passed through a large park with an ancient observatory and beautifully lit trees.  It was really cold.  We visited the site of the palace of the same kings who were buried in the kofuns.  Some parts have been reconstructed and are lit up at night.  Most of the tourist brochures for Gyeongju show it lit up at night, however when we went the pond was ice. I didn't take any pictures here because it involved moving my hands.

We got on a bus to head for the hotel, but due to some mix up the bus did not go exactly where we needed to, so Sunny called the number to try and clarify the location. She got some directions, but then another woman on the bus offered to help, took her phone, and managed to arrange for us to get picked up from the next bus stop.  We got off the bus and huddled in the shelter for about 5-10 minutes before a sliver Mercedes pulled up to the bus stop.  A middle aged woman motioned for us to get in. Sunny went to talk to her and it was our pickup from the hotel.  Valerie and I squeezed into the back along with the woman’s shopping and Sunny took the front passenger seat.

We quickly arrived at our accommodations.  It was not a hotel or hostel as I was expecting, but instead a small apartment on the third floor of a building housing a restaurant.  We arranged to have dinner in the restaurant and set our bags upstairs.

When we came back downstairs we sat on another heated floor around a low table.  We were served the Gyeongju specialty (which it seemed like every restaurant on that street served).  The tofu was cooked in a slightly spicy soup with a little bit of seafood and brought to the table in a stone bowl.  About 9 different types of kimchi and other preserved foods were laid out as well, along with the normal bowl of rice.

After dinner we went upstairs to our rooms to drink tea and watch TV.  There was cable so we watched the news and a somewhat horrendous learn to speak Korean program on Arirang tv, a channel for English speakers.  After that it was a special about the K-pop group Girls Generation, and on another channel a movie about a group of people on a cruise ship being attacked by thieves and a giant monster.

In the morning we packed our bags and started off for Bulguksa temple.  It was starting to warm up so the weather was not as unbearable as before.  The temple was quite large and is probably the most famous attraction in the area according to Sunny. 

After viewing the temple we continued up a trail towards the Seokguram Grotto.  This grotto contains a very large statue of the Buddha.  

It is built into the side of the mountain, and although you must view it from behind a large window, it is probably one of the most impressive pieces of art I have seen since in any temple area.  From the window, the viewer looks down a small hall with pillars hewn out of the rock.  A quick google search brings up some professional images of the cave.   Like most important Korean sites, parts of it were dismantled and moved to Japan during the colonial times pre-1945. 

View from the front entrance to the cave.

It is also common to leave messages of good will and such on the roof tiles which will be used when the roof of various buildings around the temple will be redone.  The variety demonstrates the popularity of the site.

We walked back to the parking lot, and waited for a while before we caught a bus back towards the city.  We eventually made it to the bus station, and bought tickets for the bus back to the East Seoul terminal.  As it was the day before the New Year’s Holiday, the bus was full and traffic heavy.

A Links to my Facebook photo albums: Album 1     Album 2

Next time: Seoul