Enjoying Korea
It’s easy to say that we’ve been enjoying our trip through Korea. Between the beaches, the mountains, the food and the exceptionally friendly people, we have more than once commented to each other how glad we are we came here and what a good time we’re having. (We still find the time to complain about the weather, though. Lately, it has been blisteringly hot in Gyeongju, near the Southeastern coastline, after the visit of a typhoon. I can’t remember ever sweating so much—lovely image, I’m sure.)
Last week, we visited Samcheok and a local park for which the region is famous. Officially, legend has it that a young woman died on the rocky coast during a storm because her betrothed was unable to rescue her in his fishing boat. After that episode, the whole village suffered bad luck and were only successful in fishing after erecting phalluses in the hills above the village to appease the tormented spirit of the unwed maiden. As luck would have it, not only was the maiden quieted in nasty behaviour, but tourists pay good money to see these things and they arrive by the busload. Because we are tourists, we visited and found what we expected; no festival but lots of other tourists and some big wood.
Today, in Gyeongju, we escape the midday heat in the air-conditioned lounge/kitchen of our hostel. This place, Sae Rang Chae, was great find (thanks to “The Book” as it is adjacent to a large historical park known for its timuli (1000 yr. old burial mounds of past rulers) and offers a taste of local lifestyle; our room is part of the living quarters that surround a central courtyard and garden, with rice paper doors and ondol beds (mats used to sleep on the floor). This is also probably the friendliest place we’ve stayed though it turns out that a hang-over can be made exceedingly worse when suffered in sweltering heat.
We were also lucky in our visit to this place with the food, one restaurant in particular. For dinner one evening, we walked next door to a courtyard restaurant which our host had recommended. They only had one thing on offer, a small Korean banquet, so we indicated that we wanted enough for two. Minutes later, we were presented with 14 different dishes, not including rice and some kind of grain-flavoured, watery beverage. Even after tasting a bit of each, we still couldn’t identify half of what we were eating (i.e. small animal bones in a stew) but were pleased with it nonetheless and barely made a dent in the quantity of food before we were full. I am choked that we forgot to bring the camera and were too lazy to fetch it.
Yesterday, we tourist-ed My Favourite Temple So Far. Bulguksa , originally built in 528 C.E. is a World Heritage Site (I think this is the 5th or 6th WHS we’ve visited?) and has been beautifully restored. They say ancient Korean architecture is unique relative to Chinese or Japanese structures because it purposely incorporates natural elements of the landscape in the design of buidings; I think that’s why this temple seemed particularly attractive to my eyes.
And really, we couldn’t have picked a more clear or sunny a day to visit. Or a hotter day. We jokingly call each other ‘stupid foreigners’ whenever we have a cultural revelation, but we really played the part yesterday when we dedicded to skip the shuttle bus ride to the temple’s grotto at the top of a ridge and, instead, trudge our way up 3.5km in smoldering heat. Funny—we didn’t see anyone else walking up… Stupid foreigners.
July 17th, 2006 at 5:59 am
We know the term “Stupid Foreigners” only too well. I don’t know how it happens but every day we go into town to shop, it always turns out to be at high noon – hotter than all get out. I was up at 6:30 to get an early start on things but people dropped by to visit and there goes the morning..not that we’re complaining – we love it! Most people we’ve met have done such interesting things and we can usually reap at least one or two ‘gold’ nuggets of info.
Smoldering Heat – I might use that. xoxoxMom