The Newquay of Korea?

Ian and I took the bus to Gangneung on the east coast last Tuesday. It was a 3 hour journey from the Express Bus Terminal in Gangnam, and bus 202 links you nicely to the beach once you're there.

Shock 1: I've been know to turn a motel or two down in my time if they're ten thou or so over budget. I'd say 25-30,000 won has been a standard price for a double room, 40 if it was particularly swish. When the guy at the Komodo motel quoted ship-o-man-won I just couldn't comprehend it. I was so confused I actually got him to write it down. Yep, there it was: 150,000 won. We looked elsewhere.

All the big motels had the same story, if they weren't in fact booked out. I know it's peak season but to multiply prices by 5 is a little excessive. Even the little old lady with her no-aircon-no-natural-light box of a room was charging 70,000. We gave up the search in favour of lunch and the beach.

Now I'd say I've experienced a fair few beaches in my time here in Korea so far. There was the recent trip to Muuido where all the Koreans were conservatively swimming in t-shirts. There was Daecheon beach with the mud festival offering an alternative form of modesty. Phallic symbols overlooked the fishermen near Samcheok and the mass of bikinis in Busan was largely sported by westerners roasting on the sand. Being off the tourist trail but in search of some sea and sand I'd imagined a similar story. Hah!

Shock 2: Bikini babes were everywhere! Girls flaunting themselves in high heels, oversized sunglasses and little more than a tiny swimsuit were so predominant that did I not feel out of place because I was showing TOO much flesh, but not enough! Just didn't seem right for Korea.

We found the most secluded spot on this overly crowded beach that we could - which involved sitting next to the beach's bungee jumping stand - took a 15 minute dip in the less than clear waters, just in time for an attendant to come round at 6.30pm sharp whistling everyone out of the water.

Not planning on returning to the beach the next day we took a bus back home to Seoul instead. Traffic jams and a congested subway journey meant that we literally travelled for 8 hours for a 15 minute swim. Worth it? I wonder...

West Sea Isles: Getting Away From It All

Tiring of the rain in Seoul, following a reliable Google forecast for further showers in Incheon, that's where we headed on Tuesday afternoon.

We took line 1 of the Seoul subway the full two hours to the last stop of Incheon to be greeted with a scorcher of a day. Shying of imminent sunburn we enjoyed a late lunch served by genuine Chinese people immersed in a sea of red in Incheon's China Town. I know they were Chinese because they weren't speaking Korean.

Full to the brim with pseudo-Chinese food (I hear that the popular 'Chinese' dish jajangmyun was invented here in Korea's China Town) we took a very slow crawl up to the top of Freedom Hill where we found a statue of US General MacArthur who led South Korea into victory against the North back in the days of the Korean War. Surrounded by flowers and a beaming sun, we spied on a nearby couple doing the couply thing of snapping posed pictures of beautiful girlfriend in front of beautiful flowers behind huge camera lens. People seem big on photography here, and nearly everyone has a big SLR camera. If you have a girlfriend I'm sure it's like an unwritten rule that you must photograph her, with as big a lens as possible. That's just what I've noticed.

Now by the time we'd taken our really slow wander round Incheon city walking off our really huge lunch and watching guys take photos of girls with really huge cameras, it was a bit late to make it to the islands off the coast. Instead we made the alleged twenty minute walk to Wolmido Port in around forty minutes. Being predominantly main road lined with factories I'd probably recommend the recommended five minute taxi ride next time.

Save the Korean drummers in drag bouncing up and down to Korean pop music, we could easily have been walking the sea front of Blackpool. I was impressed at how few the crowds were considering this is the Korean summer holiday (and they generally don't get a whole lot of that). Maybe this just isn't a prime holiday spot, but that works for me.

Having heard a rather large downpour overnight we took a lazy start on Wednesday morning before pouring hot water into our instant coffees at the nearest convenience store. We took the 3000 won ferry (with Koreans intent on feeding their corn chips to the gulls) across to Yeongjongdo (home to Incheon International Airport), waited a half hour before swiping our T-money cards on bus 222 to take us to Jamjindo wharf before getting another 3000 won ferry over to the little island of Muuido.

We were lucky that it was only intermittently spitting during the day and was otherwise a pleasant sort of overcast. We hopped on the local bus across the island to Hanagae beach where - after a huge bowl of kalguksu (shellfish and noodle soup) - we flitted between frolicking in the water and lazing on the sand. We were definitely the only foreigners to be seen, but no one seemed to mind I wasn't swimming in my clothes like many of the other women. The evening brought low tide where the water seemed to instantly disappear, leaving behind a huge stretch of shellfish ridden wet sand. It was absolutely beautiful to walk across and to look confusedly at the various crawling sea life between our toes.

We were offered a lift back to the ferry port by an eager university student (and his less eager girlfriend) ready to practise his English. It was very kind of him and saved us a bus journey. Back on Yeongjongdo we justified the 13000 won Airport City Limousine Bus that would take us right to our doorstep by the fact that we'd have otherwise had to fork out for accommodation for the night. Escaping the sounds of Seoul, not seeing another white person for two days and breathing in fresh sea air, it really did feel as though we were well and truly Getting Away From It All.

"Once upon a time,

in a coastal village there lived a beautiful girl who used to gather seaweed. In the distance there was a rock called Aebawi where plenty of seaweed grew. One day, this young girl was taken out to the rock by a man in a boat. The man, who had a pact to marry her, promised to return to the rock to pick her up after she had collected seaweed there and he went back to the village. At dusk, she waited for the man to come and take her home, but he was unable to come and fetch her due to wild waves. That very night a terrible storm arose and a large wave struck the rock, drowning the ill-fated girl. From the time of her death, the fishing catches turned bad for the village and so a rumor started circulating among the villagers that it was due to the dead girl's bitter soul. Finally, the people of the village decided to offer carved wooden phallics as a sacrifice inside Haesindang to console the bitter soul of the unmarried girl.
Mysteriously, after that, the village again enjoyed a good catch. The ceremony where wooden phallics are offered is still held even today on the first full moon of the lunar year."

-Samcheok Fishing Village Fork Museum

Possibly number 1 on Lauren's (yep, you're my excuse^^) "to-do in Korea" list (alongside being naked with strangers at one of Korea's hot-spring spas) was to ogle at the giant phalluses at Haesindang's Penis Park. Having got right in there with the saunas and public baths as soon as we arrived in country, it was time to tick box number two and check out the penises.

At the weekend we took the three hour bus journey to Samcheok on the east coast of Korea (which took a whopping near five hours on the way back), and on quickly booking into our quite honestly awesome motel (think wide screen TV, high speed internet and decent sized bed with no holes in the covers for 35 000 won, or approximately £17.50 between two) we hopped on bus 24 (with the help of a couple of nice high school girls) which dropped us outside the park.

Granted, it was a little silly, but some of the representations were undoubtedly constructions of the imagination! It was just a bit bizarre to see little old ladies tending to their seaweed and oh! up on the horizon are some giant penises. Certainly got a bit of a eyeful when we reacted to a "여기요!" (over here!) to be faced with an old Korean man acting out some graphic fellatio... I just can't shake the memory! *cries*

The following morning, while in the area, we hopped on to bus number 60 which took us to Hwanseon cave. So it turns out I'm a little less fit than I thought as I'm sure the climb up the mountain shouldn't have been that tough, but it was so refreshing to get some fresh air and green scenery into my system. The caves themselves were huge, but not that inspiring to a non-geographer such as myself. Still, the signs around really seemed to be clutching at straws in order to maintain the visitor's interest (cave popcorn? Statue of the Virgin Mary -- really??) but certainly made for more amusing photographic opportunities.

Despite the cold rainy long ride home, it was a nice weekend away from the big city. Have developed tonsillitis again though, so that's not so much fun, and I'm a little dubious of that throat-specialist-of-a-doctor I've been seeing since the last dose of antibiotics he gave me didn't seem to solve the problem...

They killed Wash! (i.e. I ♥ Joss)

Life
Somehow life got busy. I don't know how, or when, but not so long ago the days at school were seriously dragging and I was struggling to get through to the next 'checkpoint', be that the next national holiday or kindy field trip. But somehow, I guess since we stopped feeling guilty about leaving over an hour earlier than the other teachers at school, the days are flying by and with them the weeks, and now, months.

But not only that, it seems my Sundays in front of MegaTV have been somewhat limited lately. It's a shame, since I do love a good Sunday afternoon film, but travelling Korea's most "well-touristed" sights, fuelling my growing salsa dancing obsession several times a week, and working on my slowly improving Korean skills seem to be taking up the majority of my free time. Nonetheless, last Sunday I sneaked in a morning film.

Serenity
Reminiscent of my childhood obsession with vampires, I spent a good portion of my revision days at university watching all 7 seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer plus commentaries and generally falling in love with creator Joss Whedon. On chatting to a fellow Whedon fan about Buffy's final villain Caleb, I learned that the actor was the star of another of Whedon's creations: Firefly.

Now I've heard several times over that the show was a flop due to FOX airing the series out of order, and yet a good handful of my geeking acquaintances were selling the series to me. The concept - set in the future after "Earth-that-was" has long been destroyed, a bunch of misfits follow captain Malcolm Reynolds in his Firefly spaceship, taking on whatever jobs they can to rub a few pennies together - honestly sounded a bit, um, crap. Sci-fi isn't my preferred genre of big-screen action, but in true Joss style, the characters are so endearing, and Mal is so dry-humoured and witty, that to this show, too, I became addicted.

So of course watching the follow-up film Serenity was a must-do on my ever-long to-watch list. I am in fact amazed that it took me this long to get around to it.

If I'd not seen the series I'm not sure I'd have been quite as enthralled: even though the plot was well executed I didn't feel all the characters were developed well, and that it was taken for granted that the viewer knew the background of their relationships. (Like, was there any sexual tension between Caleigh and Simon? And where did Inara spring from?!) Nonetheless, Mal's character shone through from the start, and the film resolved all hanging issues nicely. And of course, someone had to die; I can only apologise for the spoiler.

OK, enough rambling about random films I'm watching.

Another national holiday
Yesterday was Buddha's birthday and thus another day off work to take advantage of. Unfortunately due to frolicking in Busan, we missed the Lotus Lantern parade last weekend. Still, last night Lauren and I got to Jogyesa Temple in central Seoul to witness the lighting of the lanterns that have been slowly increasing in number across the country over the past couple of months.

It was a beautiful ceremony, and I was dead impressed at that monk playing that really big drum, but not being of remotely Buddhist origin the mass praying became a bit much for us.

Meeting the locals
Now admittedly people often like to practise their (occasionally limited) English skills on foreign passers-by. You can feel the covert looks on the subway, and can tick down the seconds until they pluck up the courage to engage you and ask the inevitable "Where you from?".

Not quite so covertly, on the ride home last night a bunch of high school boys were rock-scissor-papering it up under my gaze, daring one another to talk to me. Not fitting the usual motives, it actually turned out they couldn't even understand my basic "How old are you?" question despite the fact they've probably been studying English at school for a good several years now. Rather raised some doubt regarding the intense Korean education system. Still, it was amusing watching the boys beating each other up (literally and mentally) and simultaneously handy getting a free Korean lesson in at the same time. As politely as I knew how, I declined the invitation to meet them again...

Pottery making
To back-post even further, on Saturday Lauren and Anne-Sophie, a friend from my Korean class, hit the traffic-logged roads towards Icheon: a small city in the southwest of Seoul famous for its pottery and annual ceramics festival that is currently being hosted. Icheon is also apparently famous for its rice "that tastes so good it needs no side dishes", but it would seem that I'm no rice connoisseur as it neither looked nor tasted much different to the various rice-based creations that are doled out in every food establishment I've visited.

However, rather than a rice tasting day, we booked a pottery tour, of which the highlight was making our own clay creations.

Lauren turned out to be some kind of ceramics master, but without a doubt, despite a self-titled aptitude for arts and crafts, out of our group including the two fellow Brits who'd joined up with us, my attempt was literally the flop as it just failed to sustain any kind of pot-like shape. The nice lady watching over me was even in looks of despair, shaking her head with noises of "어떻게!" under her breath.

Unable to face the failure any longer, I succumbed to my clay and embraced the shape it was insisting on assuming. Still, with a burst in the fiery furnace and a lick of celadon, I'm sure my makeshift dipping dish will serve me well...

Taking the bullet to Pusan

Today is Children's Day. I can't say I'm well acquainted with the concept since the UK don't host any such day off, but Wikipedia has taught me that it's not an unknown holiday across the globe. I shan't complain.

Since this year the 5^th of May fell on a Monday, Lauren and I took advantage of the glorious spring weather and long weekend by grabbing a couple of KTX tickets down to Pusan.

KTX stands for Korea Train Express. Reaching speeds of 300kmph (or approx 180mph) we got down to Korea's second biggest city at the opposite end of the country in a measly 2 hours 40 minutes. I guess due to the bank holiday the train was pretty much booked out by the time we got to Seoul Station on Saturday morning, but we managed to get a couple of "standing tickets" that allowed us to sit on those not uncomfortable seats between carriages. It wasn't a bad deal.

Pusan, or Busan depending on who's romanising, is, essentially, a big industrial harbour. Despite having the second largest population in Korea, in the 48 hours we were there we noticed a distinct absence of cosmopolitanism in this fishing port city. Not that it was a bad thing by any means. It was great to see the sea and ride from one end of the subway to the other in less than an hour.

As we stepped off the train we noticed it was "much like Seoul, but hotter". Thus, we headed to the beach. Certainly having lived in this country where white skin is not only maintained but actively sought, sunning myself is not currently high on my agenda. I was surprised, then, to see masses of flesh roasting itself on the sand; less surprised when I observed it was all attached to Korea's western counterparts. On a stroll down Haeundae beach on a sunny Saturday afternoon we were sure we had encountered more Westerners than on your average day in the foreign district of Itaewon.

Now, behold the following excerpt from the Lonely Planet, or The Book as we now mockingly refer to is as:

"Remember the Simpson's episode when Homer ate blowfish and was told he had 24 hours to live? This restaurant serves that fish. A worthwhile restaurant for anyone who wants to experience a seafood delicacy and earn bragging rights: 'I ate poisonous fish and survived'."

Despite scorn for those necessary books that travellers clutch to them like babies, we wanted to earn those bragging rights. So we did. And just for the record, I ate poisonous fish and survived.

Saturday evening we headed to Gwangan beach for a night-time stroll by the beautiful Gwangan bridge, and on spying the big wheel in the distance, we went to Meworld for a romantic view over the city. I asked Lauren if she had something to tell me, but alas, no confession of love this time^^ Randomly Lauren recognised a university acquaintance along the beach -- a long way to come for a chance meeting I suspect.

On Sunday we took the subway/bus up to Beomeosa temple. Settled back into lush scenery, it was a beautiful getaway, and with Buddha's birthday on the horizon, the temple was adorned with colourful paper lanterns making for pretty decorations.

Not yet templed-out, after a quick pajeon (spring onion pancake) lunch we took the cable car from Geumgang Park to the top of Geumjeong mountain. From here we decided to embark on the hike past Nammun village (where there were old men playing foot-volleyball - that's football with a net), down a long rocky slope, and up a demoralising road to find Seokbulsa: a temple with many Buddhist images carved into rocks. It was an effort to reach, and debatable as to its worth, but it was certainly an achievement to have found.

Instead of braving the climb back, we hitched a lift with a couple of guys who "happened" to be going to the same spa as us. Hurshimchung is allegedly the largest jjimjilbang in Asia, but the saunas and baths didn't seem so much bigger than our local spa. Still it was great to soak the aching limbs and bum around in the pyjama-like attire that they provide you with.

That evening, as Lauren was flicking through channels on the TV in our cosy motel room, she came across this: Nudlnude. This is a Korean cartoon-style pornography film - short clips of someone's wacky imagination, not leaving much to ours. If you decide to click on the link fear not; I have been unable to find any video clips.

This morning we embraced the blue skies and took a trip up Pusan tower to behold the size of the city and the beautiful view of the port. And before speeding our ways back to Seoul on the super-duper train, a trip to Pusan wouldn't have been complete without a wander round the fish market. With most of the produce still being alive, the smells weren't as pungent as I'd feared they would be, and the array of sea life available to the consumer was large.

All in all, a lovely weekend away; relaxed and enjoyable - and the weather is so beautiful at the moment that I'm not even dreading work tomorrow^^

Suwon fortress

Yesterday was a perfect day for a stroll around the ancient Suwon fortress. (On a quick weather note, every day at the moment would be perfect. The sun shines, t-shirts are out, and sometimes you can catch a cool breeze to ease the ever warming heat. Summer will be a killer...and it's sad that I've heard spring just doesn't last that long.)

Suwon is another city just south of Seoul, but is still covered by the subway line so made for an easy day trip. Even though it still has a backdrop of high rise apartment blocks, it felt less manic than downtown Seoul with a far more friendly atmosphere to the place. Our taxi driver over to the fortress was certainly very excited to find some Brits to talk footie with, opposed to the Americans/Canadians he said there was lots of (and there are. I think I've met a mere two fellow UK citizens since being in Korea). Not that he was getting much more than smiles and nods of agreement, the driver seemed happy enough to be chatting away to us in Korean.

Anyway, the fortress wall is pretty much fully intact (though naturally it has been restored since its construction in 1794) and makes a complete loop of the inner city. It took us a couple of hours to do the walk at a relaxed pace.

There were several men wandering round in traditional guard-like garb, as well as couples and families alike making the most of the beautiful Saturday afternoon.

Ladies smell the springtime flowers while shading themselves from the harsh sun with a parasol. Wouldn't want to upset that sought-after pure white skin.

Old men (and less old men) can be seen all over Seoul - evidently in Suwon too, and I guess the rest of the country - working out in these public parks with the free exercise equipment.

Coming face to face with this guy through a window gave us both a shock as we were walking round on opposite sides of the wall. Him more so when I got out my camera.

Weekend in Jeonju

WorknPlay, the recruiting company who originally arranged our trip to Korea, hosted a trip to the traditional hanok village in Jeonju this weekend. Normally I scorn bus loads of tourists who get off, snap some pics, and get back on the bus feeling like they've "experienced" the country, but for ₩30,000 to include travel, accomodation, food AND activities, it seemed a small price to pay (boom boom) for a bit of outside-Seoul adventure.

I guess there is a reason why the LP only gives Jeonju a single page of listed activities, but being on the aforementioned tour, we probably got to do a whole lot more than if we'd attempted it as independent travellers.

What we did:

- We made our own bibimbap. Jeonju is particularly famous for its unique style of bibimbap. I'm not exactly sure how it differs from other places, since as far as I can tell one day some guy decided to chuck all his vegetables in a hot bowl of rice, mix it with some hot sauce and make it a national dish. Anyway, it tasted good. Maybe not the best I've ever had as it was supposed to be, but certainly not the worst. That might have been the one we had in Itaewon that was recommended by the Lonely Planet.

- We watched a local girl playing some traditional harp-like instruments, and some men story-telling in the art of traditional Korean singing. The word "traditional" is going to be used even more in this post. Beware.

- We made boxes in the style of hanji - a traditional Korean paper art form. It was good to be on the receiving end of the arts and crafts lesson. The contest at the end for who had made the best box actually turned out to be self-nominees followed by a rock, scissor, paper competition. This is not an uncommon method for sorting difficult situations out for children and adults alike.

- There was a small festival going on with many Korean ladies dressed in hanbok (traditional dress) making tea and ricecakes. We were invited to look around and join in. We learnt the correct method of drinking tea (hold cup on palm of left hand and sip with right hand three times) while sitting cross legged under gazebos.

- We slept on the floor of a traditional Korean-style house (hanok) with the ondol (underfloor heating) on full blast. Even though most of Korea is still heated in this way, I reckon many people have proper beds these days. Still, sleeping on the floor wasn't a problem, but the rock solid (bean-filled, I'm sure) pillows were more of an issue for me.

- During the festival there was a mammoth 100-person bibimbap being made. This involved many of the local community getting their chefs hats on with industrial sized wooden spoons before doling it out to the masses. Or at least, one hundred of them.






Anyway, so that was our weekend in a rather large nutshell. Certainly nice to get away for a bit, meet some other foreigners (and hear about how most of them have unfortunate working conditions too, making us feel mildly better about our situation), and get a hands-on "traditional experience". Not sure I'd recommend it as a travelling hotspot, though.

Gyeongju: the ancient capital of Korea

Tiring of the busy streets of Seoul, the lack of direction and the days filled with watching films (as relaxing and entertaining as that might be), Lauren and I decided to take a mini-break out of the capital. Flicking through the guidebooks we decided on Gyeongju - as described by the title of this entry, the ancient capital of Korea.

On the four and a half hour journey down south in the comfortable plush seats equipped with foldaway table and foot rest in a somewhat dated style, I took the opportunity to read up on this cultural haven we were about to encounter. Gyeongju was the city that allowed the Silla kingdom to flourish and bring together a united Korea back in the 7th century. It had a succession of 56 kings over three centuries before internal corruption and external forces brought about its decline. The sights that we were to explore are tributes and relics of this time of affluence and power.

As we stepped out of the train station we were immediately presented with images of Gwani and Geumi – the characters of Gyeongju. Of course, we were still in Korea; city of culture or not, there is apparently no escaping the excuse for the cute. We spent the first night in downtown, meandering through the handful of streets adorned with neon signs, bars, cafes and restaurants before retreating a couple of streets over to the dimly lit back alley where our hotel was situated.

Gyeongju is split into four areas: downtown, the Bomun lake resort, Bulguksa (holding the main temple of Gyeongju) and Namsan (the mountainous region).

We spent the first day enjoying the crisp air walking through parks filled with tombs (see right) – large mounds not dissimilar in function to the Egyptian pyramids; magpies – the city bird of Gyeongju; and oblivious exercising elderly Koreans. We gazed at the findings in the National Museum, including articles found at the bottom of Anapji Pond – a beautiful garden created to represent utopia: constructed so that at no point is one able to view the pond in its entirety; and the Emille Bell – which a tour guide might tell you can be heard to a 3km radius if only hit lightly with a fist. We looked upon with mild disinterest at the Cheomseongdae Observatory – allegedly the oldest astrological observatory in East Asia, built with 366 bricks to represent each day of the year. Obviously their years were different back then.

Equipped only with a tourist not-to-scale map, we embarked upon walking to the Bomun lake resort. We were not, however, prepared for the 6km walk along the highway with nothing in front of us but more road – not making for a particularly inspiring walk. We eventually caught a bus for the final kilometre which rode us by the largest watermill in Korea, though with a 13m diameter it wasn’t that impressive. What excited us more was handling Walther PPKs (yes, real ones) at the local shooting range and practising our target shooting. Even better, we got to keep our paper targets as proof of our proficiency, or, in my case incompetence; I think I will have to forgo that career as a secret agent for now.

Clearly an area developed for tourism, with no tourists around but a handful of mothers with children on rented plastic tricycles, we decided to move on (by bus) to the Bulguksa region. Once we’d settled into our hostel – in which we decided we were the only guests – we wandered around the small grid of restaurants and entertainment establishments looking for somewhere to eat.

Considering the choice available to us, we felt a distinct eeriness as we barely crossed another human being on our scout. The term ghost town sprung to mind, almost as though the neon signs were flashing due to bulb failure and a stray cat might crossed our paths looking for scraps. Naturally since we’d chosen to visit in the time furthest away from peak season, we were not expecting huge numbers of tourists accompanying us through the sights. In fact this rather worked to our advantage, not having to battle through crowds, queues and groups of noisy tour buses. However the fact that we’d read that the area gets swamped in peak season implied we might cross someone, but alas, no such luck. Despite the lack of tourists, the restaurants still appeared to be ‘open’ with the owners sitting around watching TV on the off chance someone might walk in, although whether they expected to receive business or not is debatable. (Left: the empty streets of Bulguksa as the day comes to an end)

We suspected that the restaurant that we eventually chose might not have seen customers for a few weeks and hoped that the inflated tourist menu might come down a notch in view of this, but to our dismay the stated prices stood. Disconcertingly an elderly lady sat at an adjacent table and watched us eat. Her glazed look, stooped back and walking stick made me wonder whether she was indeed focusing on us, but when she came round afterwards and pointed at the leftover rice it suggested that perhaps this was her intention – to stare.

In Bulguksa temple the next morning we did come across a number of other tourists which rather begged the question of where they’d all been the night before. Regarding the temple, it was interesting to wander around and see various Buddhist monks performing their daily meditations, unfazed by the number of onlookers. From here we did the 3km hike up the side of a mountain to reach the Seokgaram Grotto: a large Buddha statue in a small temple shaped hut. It was an impressive sight but knowing little about it, it seemed like we were intruding on some kind of religious pilgrimage as other Koreans bowed down to the Buddha while we looked on, forbidden to take photographs. Still, I’m sure it’s a different story in the summer.

We arranged a taxi tour to other places around this area inaccessible by public transport. We were taken to Golgulsa Temple where the main attraction was a large Buddha statue carved out of the side of a rock – reached by a series of upward slopes and a set of poorly carved steps. Again, it felt as though only the particularly religious and diehard tourists would make the effort of the climb, yet the engraving was pretty amazing. We moved onto King Munmu’s underwater tomb, though this was just an excuse to see the beach as the ‘sight’ was just a pile of rocks out to sea. Still, we breathed in the sea air and bought some dried squid from one of the various sellers along the shore. (Right: fresh squid hanging to dry)

On the way back into downtown the bus driver of the bus we’d waited patiently for decided he was an ex-rally driver, jumped a red light and smacked into the back of a truck. Luckily no one was hurt – despite the old man at the front picking out shards of glass from his clothing – but the bus took a pretty large beating. No one seemed particularly disturbed by the incident and we all just piled on the next bus to come along.

Our final visit of the day, and indeed the trip, was a short ride out to the Namsan area where we visited Poseokjeong: an old banquet place now remaining parkland, with a small water channel where people would sit and play drinking games back in the days of the Shilla dynasty. It was pretty, but without knowing the full historical relevance of the place we felt we’d seen enough.

The train journey home was filled with idle chit chat to a couple of elementary school girls, eager to practise their English. We exchanged telephone numbers – all Koreans seem insistent on this ritual upon a five minute chat in the supermarket – and they have dutifully text to inform of their devoted English study. These maniacal Koreans and their devotion to learning, eh?

Today we headed for the Korean War Museum. It had a large section on the various wars of ancient Korea, but the main feature was naturally the Korean War. Here my knowledge on this subject went from minimal to passable, though my interest in guns and tanks is limited and thus my attention waned as the end of the walking tour approached. Still, I am impressed with Korean museums as much effort is put into making the displays fun and attractive, making the information easily accessible. I must endeavour to swot up more on the subject before making the trip up to the North, though...

Photos of Gyeongju

Lauren and Chi-Hé's skiing adventure

Despite apathy towards the 6am start, the cold and the prospect of falling over - a lot - attempting to ski down the slopes of the Jisan Ski Resort without any instruction proved to be far more entertaining than originally considered.

After bombing it down the first time, toppling over several times and taking out three men having a chat in the middle of the slope, things could only get better. By the end of the day we considered ourselves proficient at not falling over, which was excellent. The weather was sky high at 8 degrees all day, and to top it all off the ski rental shop gave us free socks. Doesn't get a whole lot better than that.