Monday, October 02, 2006
Our Trip to Gyeongju
As many of you know, Aunt JoJo is here visiting. We wanted to show her a good time, so we decided to head down to Gyeongju (pronounced "Key-Ong-Jew"...for those of you who were wondering how to pronounce a 'g' when it's right next to a 'j') for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We packed a lot of sight-seeing into those three days...here's the story and some pictures...
Friday broke bright and early...at precisely 9:00 a.m, for those of us in apartment 1206. We knew that there was a bus from Osan to Gyeongju that left at 10:30, and one that left at 11:10...guess which one we caught? Sam and I aren't the best at morning starts, and fortunately for us, JoJo isn't much of a morning person either...so the 11:10 bus suited us just fine. The ride down was semi-uneventful, besides the fact that our bus driver had the annoying habit or jerking the bus back and forth as he sped up and then slowed down and then sped up again (I'm sure this was his thought process: "Gotta give it more gas. Oh, too much gas. Slowing down. Too slow - need more gas. Not that much gas...", and on and on it went).
When we arrived in Gyeongju, we were dismayed to realize that we had been dropped off at the "Inner-city Bus Terminal", when we in fact wanted the "Express Bus Terminal". Sam looked in our Korea book, and from the map we gathered that the two terminals were about 4 blocks apart, so we decided that we would pay for a taxi to take us to the right spot. We approached one driver, showed him the name of the terminal we wanted to get too, and were about to get into his cab when he pointed at the building right behind him, and then turned away. Much to our surprise, the "Express Terminal" was only about a 5 second walk from the "Inner-City" one. Cab ride definitely not needed. What did we learn from this? Never trust the maps in the Korea book!
Next on the agenda: find accomodation. We had only walked about 20 feet when we were approached by a man with a business card, asking us if we needed a place to stay. Then, another man with a patch over one eye, told us he was the owner of a backpacker's guest house (the first guy must have been his round-up guy...round up the tourists and bring them to me). Being a little sketched out at first, we weren't sure whether to follow him or not. That's when
he told us, "Why not come and see and then decide", which made perfect sense, so we followed him. The rooms were average looking, and "Mr. Park" (as we came to know him) gave us the deal of $25/night for all three of us (roughly $8 each isn't bad, eh!). We decided to stay, which was a great decision because Mr. Park used to be a tour guide, and the information he gave us on where to go, what to see, and how to get there was worth it's weight in gold! Within 30 minutes of our arrival, he had helped us plan out our tourist activities for the next three days.
Day One: First on our list was a trip to Gyeongju National Museum. On our way there, we passed a number of ancient royal tombs (the pyramids of Korea, if you will). They looked like perfectly symmetrical hills...but they were, in fact, the resting grounds of ancient dynasties. Here's how they did it: dig a hole, put down gravel, build a wooden room, put the deceased in the room, cover it with tons of rocks until it is shaped like a hill, cover the rocks with dirt and clay, and finally, plant grass on the dirt. On to the museum, where we were able to see tons of old statutes and pagodas, as well as the "Divine Bell" (Story of the bell: rumour has it that the sound of the bell can be heard for 3 kilometers when rung...I heard the bell, it sounded divine, but I can't tell you if the 3 kms is accurate, as we were standing approximately 50 feet away when it rang). Next up, we saw an ice-storage room that had been dug into a hill around 640 A.D. The sight used to have an entire palace with a fortress wall around it, but now all that's left is the one ice-storage room. By that time it was dark, but on our way back towards town (and dinner) we
stopped to view an old Observatory that had been built around 50 A.D. It was all lit up and was beautiful to see. As for dinner, we somehow ended up wandering around an area of town that had extremely limited restaurant options. We managed to find a place and had a pretty good meal before heading back to our guest house and crashing into bed.
JoJo in front of the ancient observatory.
Here's my artistic shot of the pagodas and the sunset.
Sam and I in front of one of the ancient statues of Buddha at the museum.
Friday broke bright and early...at precisely 9:00 a.m, for those of us in apartment 1206. We knew that there was a bus from Osan to Gyeongju that left at 10:30, and one that left at 11:10...guess which one we caught? Sam and I aren't the best at morning starts, and fortunately for us, JoJo isn't much of a morning person either...so the 11:10 bus suited us just fine. The ride down was semi-uneventful, besides the fact that our bus driver had the annoying habit or jerking the bus back and forth as he sped up and then slowed down and then sped up again (I'm sure this was his thought process: "Gotta give it more gas. Oh, too much gas. Slowing down. Too slow - need more gas. Not that much gas...", and on and on it went).
When we arrived in Gyeongju, we were dismayed to realize that we had been dropped off at the "Inner-city Bus Terminal", when we in fact wanted the "Express Bus Terminal". Sam looked in our Korea book, and from the map we gathered that the two terminals were about 4 blocks apart, so we decided that we would pay for a taxi to take us to the right spot. We approached one driver, showed him the name of the terminal we wanted to get too, and were about to get into his cab when he pointed at the building right behind him, and then turned away. Much to our surprise, the "Express Terminal" was only about a 5 second walk from the "Inner-City" one. Cab ride definitely not needed. What did we learn from this? Never trust the maps in the Korea book!
Next on the agenda: find accomodation. We had only walked about 20 feet when we were approached by a man with a business card, asking us if we needed a place to stay. Then, another man with a patch over one eye, told us he was the owner of a backpacker's guest house (the first guy must have been his round-up guy...round up the tourists and bring them to me). Being a little sketched out at first, we weren't sure whether to follow him or not. That's when
he told us, "Why not come and see and then decide", which made perfect sense, so we followed him. The rooms were average looking, and "Mr. Park" (as we came to know him) gave us the deal of $25/night for all three of us (roughly $8 each isn't bad, eh!). We decided to stay, which was a great decision because Mr. Park used to be a tour guide, and the information he gave us on where to go, what to see, and how to get there was worth it's weight in gold! Within 30 minutes of our arrival, he had helped us plan out our tourist activities for the next three days.
Day One: First on our list was a trip to Gyeongju National Museum. On our way there, we passed a number of ancient royal tombs (the pyramids of Korea, if you will). They looked like perfectly symmetrical hills...but they were, in fact, the resting grounds of ancient dynasties. Here's how they did it: dig a hole, put down gravel, build a wooden room, put the deceased in the room, cover it with tons of rocks until it is shaped like a hill, cover the rocks with dirt and clay, and finally, plant grass on the dirt. On to the museum, where we were able to see tons of old statutes and pagodas, as well as the "Divine Bell" (Story of the bell: rumour has it that the sound of the bell can be heard for 3 kilometers when rung...I heard the bell, it sounded divine, but I can't tell you if the 3 kms is accurate, as we were standing approximately 50 feet away when it rang). Next up, we saw an ice-storage room that had been dug into a hill around 640 A.D. The sight used to have an entire palace with a fortress wall around it, but now all that's left is the one ice-storage room. By that time it was dark, but on our way back towards town (and dinner) we
stopped to view an old Observatory that had been built around 50 A.D. It was all lit up and was beautiful to see. As for dinner, we somehow ended up wandering around an area of town that had extremely limited restaurant options. We managed to find a place and had a pretty good meal before heading back to our guest house and crashing into bed.
JoJo in front of the ancient observatory.
Here I am in front of the old ice-storage building...the room underground was huge!
Sam and JoJo in front of one of the pagodas at the museum.
Here's my artistic shot of the pagodas and the sunset.
Sam and I in front of one of the ancient statues of Buddha at the museum.# posted by Becky @ 2:36 PM 
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Wow guys, I love reading your blogs and all the fun adventures that you've been going on. We miss playing games with you, but Korea's way more interesting, so I don't blame you!! Carmen Phillips :)
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