Another day another city...

September 29, 2010

I arrived in Gyeongju just before sunset and paid for a 2300w (~$2.25) cab ride to my lodging. This time I’m staying in a traditional Korean home (hanok). It has a bit of a camp atmosphere. I’ll take pictures tomorrow when it’s light and post them. Gyeongju is just a bit north of Busan so when I fly out Saturday I can take a bus from here to the airport. This small city is known for its Buddhist shrines, temples, etc. as well as hiking. I slept most of the bus ride, but when I opened my eyes I always saw lush green trees spreading across the mountain landscape. The road was flat because the gov’t just blasted lots of tunnels through the mountains. Only the cities seem to be in the plains, the rest is all mountains.

Before leaving Seoul I wanted to get a peek at the secret garden of Changdeokgung (a palace I saw last week) that I missed because of the rain last week. It turned out you can only go through it on a tour and the English tour wasn’t for awhile I wanted to hit the road. So I was a poser and joined the Korean tour. Thankfully there was an Australian couple in the same predicament so I didn’t have to be a mute for the length of the tour. Which the length of the tour was a bit excessive – 2 hours! I had no idea when we started out. Maybe if I knew what the guide was saying 2 hours wouldn’t have seemed so unreasonably long. The secret garden makes up 60% of the palace grounds, but calling it a garden is a misnomer. It should be called the secret forest. It is not really landscaped and the flora is all trees – even an 800 year old one! The buildings were nice to see, but not too different from what I’ve already seen. The weather has also changed dramatically and there is a fall chill in the air (I wasn’t dressed quite right for it). I didn’t bring a jacket with me, but I think I’ll be out of Korea and to hot Singapore before I can’t get by without one.

Oh, I just had to include a picture of the soap in a Seoul metro bathroom. The public bathrooms are nice and clean here, but I got a kick out of this soap. The other public ones usually had liquid soap.

I just saw in the news that North and South Korea are going to meet at Panmunjon on Thursday. I'm lucky that wasn't the day I wanted to visit, but also cool to think I know where they will be meeting. I wonder if the SK soldiers will still wear their sunglasses so that the NK cannot see their expressions or reactions...

I’m off to scavenge some food and then go to sleep early.

As I was working on the post the owner of the hostel hanok came and showed me a well they use that's inside the house now. It's used for showering, but not cooking or drinking. He also said the house is 120 years old! Tonight as I lay in bed I'll have to imagine what other people have paced that floor and all the history that those people saw. He also asked if I was married and when I said no he got me a dried pod from a bush and inside are 3 tiny brown seeds. Each seed has a beige heart on it. He said it's called the proposal seed and that I should plant it when I get home. I'll add these tokens to my luggage - at least they are lightweight and small!

Are you shocked at how short my blog is?!