Korean Portion of Trip Coming to an End

Saturday, Aug. 26, 2006--Gyeongju

Last night after leaving the cyber cafe, I went back to the restaurant where I had eaten lunch the day before. It was full of people, so I must be right about it being a good place. I took a table that was being left by a group. And two more groups came in right after me to take other tables that were being emptied. The owner was happy to see me again. I ordered the kimchee chicken again, since it was so good the first time around. Two men sitting at a table near me spoke to me in English. She had told them about my having been there the day before. This time around, she served several different side dishes. One was a freshly fried egg instead of the cold egg omelet she had served the day before. The better one was a salad consisting of small boiled bird eggs, crabmeat, some kind of vegetable, and mayonnaise. I was glad she served the pickled garlic again, since I had especially enjoyed that the day before. This time, she added some sliced pork to the dish; it may have been because she was running short on chicken. But it was as good as before. And I noticed for the first time that it was nice and spicy. It had been the day before, too, but it just hadn't registered. I saw several slices of pepper and that made me realize that my tongue and lips were tingling from eating it.

Today has been my last day of sightseeing. It was a rather long one. I took a bus into the countryside to visit two World Heritage Sites that are near each other. The bus went to Bulguksa Temple, a Buddhist temple from about 750 A.D. It's a beautiful complex with many buildings on various levels because of being built on a hillside. I got some good photos, but the interiors of all the buildings were off limits for photo taking. Too bad.

It was crowded there and everywhere else today. Koreans go places on weekends. It's such a common thing that motels always charge 5000 more per night on Friday and Saturday nights than they do the other nights of the week. And sure enough, last night my motel was full, whereas there weren't many guests on Thursday night. Anyway, among the teeming crowd at the temple were school groups. It was fun to watch them. On creative teacher had brought blocks that were cut so they could be stacked to create an arch. There are archways in the construction of the stone steps to the temple, so she had students trying to figure out how to put the blocks together to form the arch without it all collapsing first. That's a good teacher!! Another teacher I watched was a young man. He lectured and questioned his students with so much enthusiasm and concern for their learning. Then, as he was finished and walked away, several of the students ran up to walk along with him with their arms around his waist and legs--a true sign that the students like him.

From the temple, I went to Seokgulam Grotto which was built at the same time. Unfortunately, the grotto is further uphill from the temple. I walked a trail that went up and up and up. And not with any occasional downward dips like most trails have. This trail NEVER went down. At one point the ascent decreased, but then it picked up again. It was steep. And it was 3.2 km (2 miles) long. I can guarantee after that experience that my heart is in very good shape; no stress test on a treadmill could ever compare with the stress of that climb. And it had to be done in high temperatures with very high humidity. It was through a forest, however, that was teeming with interesting sounds--more sounds than usual for such a trail.

The grotto was nice. There is no longer a stream. I heard a guide explaining in English (to a bunch of Korean-looking people, so it must have been 3rd or 4th generation Korean-Americans who don't speak Korean but were visiting the land of their ancestors) that the Japanese cemented over the spring and that the Koreans later cemented over it a second time. But the main reason for going there is to see the two small temple buildings on the hillside, one of which contains a very special stone Buddha. In addition to the two temple buildings, there was the typical small building housing a huge bell.

Korean does an interesting thing. They number their national treasures. It would be like the U.S. deciding that the Declaration of Independence were National Treasure #1; the Constitution, National Treasure #2; the Liberty Bell, National Treasure #3; etc. Anyway, this Buddha figure is way up on the list--number 15 or so.

Walking back was so much easier than walking up to the grotto. And I had to go back, since the bus stop for town was at Bulguksa. I felt so sorry for people I passed who were on their way up.

Back in town, I stopped at the same dumpling place again today. But this time, I bought the small dumplings like the ones I had in Gongju when I first arrived in Korea. They are meat filled and served with soy sauce and slices of a pickled vegetable. I took them back to my room to eat as my afternoon snack.

The women at the tourist office directed me to a local spa, so I went to the sauna again this afternoon. This one was smaller than the one in Busan and seemed a little darker. But as I adjusted to being there, I realized it was a rather nice facility, too. There were fewer pools--one warm, one hot, and one cold. But there were both dry and wet saunas. The crowd was smaller; no more than 5-6 people were there at any one time. I stayed for 2 hours and just feel so relaxed now. That's where I just came from to write in the blog today.

Tomorrow will be a big travel day. I have to catch a bus from here to Inchon Airport at 9:10 a.m. I will get to Inchon about 3:30 or 4:00 p.m. Then my flight for Vietnam (Hanoi) will depart at 7:30 p.m. I'll get to Hanoi at 10:20, and there should be a taxi driver waiting with my name on a sign to take me into town. I already have a reservation at the Star Hotel. My next entry in the blog will probably be from there on Monday (Sunday night in Texas).