Archive for the ‘South Korea’ Category

5
May

Week 6: Gyeongju

   Posted by: Rhona Tags: , , , , ,

After leaving the bustling city of Busan we headed to Yeonhwa Island, off Tong Yeong. It’s a small island of fishermen and people who made money off the crowd of day trippers who seemed to arrive while we were out walking the island end to end. In the evenings it was nice and quiet as we enjoyed our first ondol room, underfloor heating that keeps the Koreans warm during the cold winter. On the boat out to the island we were a little confused as we had 2 tickets for one price and 1 for a more expensive price. A man explained to Brett (age 43) that he and my mum (age 61) had got the pensioner price for over 65s while I was paying the normal fare. I guess they have as much trouble guessing a Westerner’s age as we have with telling how old that smooth faced Asian grandfather is. On the island we spent the day walking from our village to the other end of the island via fantastic views of Yongmeori, a rock formation jutting out into the sea that is said to look like a dragon’s head.

From Yeonhwa island we headed north to Gyeongju, jewel in South Korea’s historical crown. It was the capital of the Shilla dynasty (57BC – 935AD), which is regarded as the dynasty that founded a unified Korea for the first time. We arrived and my mum immediately got very excited about the many tumuli, tombs of ancient kings and royal family members that are scattered around the city. To me they look like grassy hills which may or may not have really cool treasures buried underneath but I guess I’m not a connoisseur of tumuli… We visited the park which encloses some of the more impressive ones and saw a cross section with copies of some of the more impressive treasures unearthed. That was cool but we’re hoping to see the real things at the Gyeongju National Museum before we leave. As for the tumuli they seem to pop up all over town, between buildings and next to petrol stations.

On our first full day in Gyeongju we headed to Bulguksa, a UNESCO world heritage site that was built in 751. Our visit coincided with Buddha’s birthday and we weren’t the only ones crowding our way into the temple that day. All along the path and in the open spaces around the ancient buildings coulourful lanterns were hung, paid for by worshipers who had donated money and whose prayers fluttered on pieces of paper hanging from the bottom of the lanterns. From there we walked to the Seokguram grotto, another UNESCO world heritage site constructed around the same time as Bulguksa temple. I could wax lyrical about the intricacey of the carving, the spiritual experience and the beam of light that shone from the Buddha’s head when I realised the meaning of life. It would all be a complete lie. We were hurried through the enclosed space and i was twice told off for being too slow. There were too many people waiting behind me to allow me to smell the lotus petals.

The next day we went to Seongnamsa, another temple. Compared to Buddha’s birthday crowds it was blissfully quiet and we enjoyed the forest setting, bamboo forest backdrop and the amazingly colourful and intricate painting that seems to adorn the roofs of Korean temples. In the brochure it mentions a three storied stupa that was

“built by Master Toui in order to defend the fatherland. It was destroyed during the Japanese invasion of Korea (1592)”

I guess maybe it didn’t work so well? Mind you the Japanese were eventually defeated so there could have been something to it?

Yesterday we headed outside town to a village called Yangdong. It was founded in the 15th century and has always been a village of scholars and landowners. There are over 160 thatched roof and traditional tile roof houses in the village and most are still lived in today. Traditionally the tiled roof houses were where the landlords lived while the thatch roof houses were for their servants. You can go inside the buildings that aren’t lived in and it was great to be able to explore the fantastic old wooden mansions. We spent almost all day exploring the various valleys the village is based around. There are 4 valleys forming the Chinese character for “not” and during the Japanese occupation the villagers managed to divert a nearby railway away from the base of the valleys. The addition of that railway would have made the character for “blood”.

Today we hiked in Namsan, a mountainous area to the south of Gyeongju. Which is why it’s called Namsan – “nam” is south and “san” is mountain. It was a full day’s hike with historical relics galore. The Shilla dynasty lasted almost 1,000 years and we saw more tumuli as well as many Buddhist carvings and stupas. Near the end of the walk at Chilbulam hermitage we spoke for quite a while to a nun about her life in the mountains and how Korean Buddhism differs from the Buddhism Brett and I have seen in other countries. Traditionally nuns and monks wake up at 3:30am but the 3 nuns there have agreed to rise later, at 4:45 every morning, as they need to be awake enough to serve tea and coffee to all the hikers passing through. They chant for an hour 3 times a day as well as several sessions of seated meditation. Then there’s practicalities like having to hike down to collect water and the fact that they can’t do laundry or wash properly up on the mountain. To do laundry or shower they walk to the closest town, 30 minutes down the hill. While we were talking there was a Hungarian nun chanting, she has apparently been a nun for 7 years and speaks fantastic Korean.

We plan on spending another few days in Gyeongju. It’s hard to believe some people only give it a couple of days if the 1 and 2 day suggested itineraries are to be believed. From here we hope to spend a night in Haeinsa temple (rising at 3:30am) and some time checking out Daegu’s traditional medicine market. Then some time in Andong, a new addition to our itinerary that looks like a very traditional and rural area.

28
Apr

Week 5: Bibimbap in Busan

   Posted by: Rhona Tags: , , , ,

We left Tokyo on a 33 hour ferry to Kita Kyushu in Western Japan. Combined with the ferry from Shimonoseki to Busan it was the cheapest way to get to Korea without taking a flight, and to be honest we both really enjoyed the trip. It was great to kick back, read and have an excuse to do not very much at all. And of course there were onboard attractions such as the sushi vending machine (came out frozen and needed to be heated in the microwave), the public bath (like sitting in a wave machine), the pachinko machines, all sorts of new and exciting vending machine fare and the novelty of leaving the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolis by ferry. It was much less gut wrenching for me to pull away slowly than zoom off at high speed in a plane. As the psychedelic Odaiba ferris wheel and the red lights flashing on buildings for the safety of planes going to Haneda airport faded into the distance we retreated into our warm cabin.

At Shimonoseki port we watched Koreans arrive and tried to get a feel for what type of people inhabited the new and exciting country we were headed to next. Bottled water, pot noodles and alcohol were major components of their baggage and they seemed louder than Japanese. In some indescribable way they were earthier, oh and the massive visors and short curly hair that I’ve always associated with middle aged Korean women seemed to still be the fashion.

On arrival at Busan port there was no hassle whatsoever, visitor information was helpful and we found our way to the subway and hotel easily enough. My mum joined us later that night and will be travelling with us for 3-4 weeks. In general it has been incredibly easy to get around and people have been as helpful as they can given we speak not a word of their language. So far we’ve mastered “thank you” and “hello” though I keep having mental blanks at crucial moments and looking like a fish grabbing for food in my attempt to speak.

Speaking of fish, we visited the Jagalchi fish market here in Busan, the largest one in Korea. It was a massive sprawl of small stalls and indoor market with seafood of all varieties. A friend of mine once called Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo “fish hell” and I’d say Jagalchi would up there on the horror scale if I happened to be seafood. We saw an octopus making a break for it as the shopkeeper’s back was turned and, being Australian, I rooted for the little guy. Only when he was about to cross the street and get run over did I tap the lady on the shoulder and point out that her merchandise was, quite literally, running out the door.

On our first day in Busan we headed to a baseball game and watched the local Lotte Giants play we’re not sure who. I like going to baseball games despite only having a passing interest in the sport itself. It’s a cool way to see normal people hanging out and having fun and some of my favourite memories of Hiroshima in Japan are from watching the Hiroshima Carp play. As an aside: could they have chosen a less menacing team name? I know it’s historical and all that but carp? Personally I’d like to name a team the earthworms. Just imagine the fear that would invoke in rivals… Food at the game was quite different to what you might expect at an American baseball game: there was sushi, truckloads of whole rotisserie chickens, soju (local firewater), whole dried squid and tofu skewers. The best marketing ploy we saw was a man in a chicken head and carrying a rubber chicken selling fried chicken. Vendors seemed to be older than I’d expect – plenty of middle aged men and women in jobs I usually associate with students. The Jagalchi fish market also seemed to be staffed by almost exclusively middle aged women, are the students actually busy studying?

Today we headed to the north of Busan for a great day hike from Beomeosa temple to Mandeok subway station. Both Beomeosa and Seokbulsa temples had lanterns hung out in preparation for the Buddha’s birthday celebrations in early May and they made the already beautiful temples even more colourful. Beomeosa was hidden amongst the trees and seemed to have a lot of followers; again most of them middle aged women, who walked around bowing respectfully to statues and chanting with the monks. Seokbulsa was a much smaller temple, hidden in a cleft between two cliffs adorned with huge carvings of Buddhist figures.

Tomorrow we’re headed out to Yeonhwa island, a speck of land south of Tongyeong and then up to Gyeongju for some serious UNESCO world heritage viewing.