Bulguksa Temple

Today I went on a little trip to Bulguksa Temple. This temple is a UNESCO world heritage site. While it's best to go see it in the spring or fall, I figured after 6 months in Gyeongju it was high time to pay it a visit. I went with two friends, Samantha and Tina. As the only anglophones there, we got a private tour from a lovely woman who could not have been sweeter to us. Her daughters were even graduates of our schools!

Occasionally during the tour she would explain that what we were looking at was a replicate because the original had been destroyed or stolen. I got full points in consistently guessing the correct country that did the destroying. Can you guess?

Anyways it was super neat and was a fun afternoon activity.

Also I had a teacher lunch today. It was pig spine soup again and I have to say, that stuff is sooooo good. I was super happy to  be able to show off my Korean eating skills once more!

Guardians of the temple

Scary guys, that's for sure

Main gate

This was super neat. This little pig was only discovered
five years ago. Hidden pigs are placed for good luck,
and only those who find them get the luck.
The temple is over a thousand years old,
and he's been hidden for so long!

Stupid sky decided to be grey today, but it was still
very impressive. Those stairs in the back represent
a bridge from our world to Buddha's world.

Touching the golden pig grants financial luck. Apparently
eating pigs does as well. Yet another point awarded
to bacon.

Here there was a stone
sculpture with a little frame.
As you walk forward, the golden
Buddha in the temple (no
photos allowed)'s face
will eventually be framed.
At that moment, you bow
and make a wish!

The lion is the last of 4 lions.
The others were taken by Japan,
and one resides in London!
Our guide explained that
like with children,
the beautiful and talented
ones left, while the ugly
one stayed in his hometown
to care for his parents.

This is a bodhisatvah that is
known to be all-seeing. Apparently
the camera company Canon
(which these photos are taken with!)
was chosen based on her,
because the cameras should
see clearly!

Under a 300 year old tree there
were tons of these little
stone piles. I'd seen them
at namsam too. Not entirely
sure what they mean, but they're
super neat.

At the beginning of our tour a
woman monk saw us and gave us
these delicious rice cakes.
Seriously where in the world
do you go to a packed
tourist site and get
given free dessert?
Koreans are simply the best.

This door was marked as
"NO ENTRY". One look
at this guy's nipples and
really there was no temptation
for entering. 

Terrifying

Can't wait to see this in the spring!

Also unrelated, but on Sunday there was the first full moon since new year. This is celebrated throughout Korea with bonfires at sunset (and other things too I'm sure!) We checked out the local fire and it was warm and lovely.

And finally, check out my amazing manicure. Adri got a whole bunch of beautiful nail polishes. The style is extremely Korean. They love the look of having randomly different coloured nails. It's whimsical and cute!

Weekend in Ulsan

After a long hiatus, I visited Ulsan for the weekend. I forgot how gracious of a host Adri was, and I had a really fun time. It's also a lot of fun to meet new people who aren't all my neighbours. We even met a few Koreans who thought it was very funny that I lived in Gyeongju because the city is so traditional and boring (according to them).

I had gone to Ulsan to get my hair cut at a place Adri recommended. They all spoke English and it was a lovely salon. They offered to straighten it and I figured why not. Anyways, two women straightened my hair doing about half a pinky's width of hair at a time. It was sooo delicate. But boy was my hair straight. I don't think it's ever been so straight.

Most importantly, we discovered a little cafe that sold really nice teas and western delicacies like sandwiches. It was amazing. We walked in and the staff were instantly excited to see us, and started to make other customers move to give us room. We said we could just return in a little bit to allow the others to finish. When we came back we got super tasty tea and sammies, and even got our tea leaves resteeped. Just when Adri and I thought maybe we had stayed in the cozy spot a little too long, we were given free cake. We aren't sure if everyone gets free cake if they stay long enough, or if this was just one of the many foreigner perks. Either way, London Tea was a sweet cafe and a tasty, albeit costly, meal. It was also right next to the Ulsan Grand Park, where we enjoyed a lovely walk and used the crazy outdoor "exercise" machines (they are very strange balancing machines with no resitance. We played on one where you just swing yourself from side to side on like a sideways standing swing. So fun)

Our delicious spiced tea came with an hourglass
to ensure perfect steeping time.

I had a "Thanksgiving Sandwich" and Adri got the
Curry Chicken Salad. Mine included cranberry sauce,
and the menu states  that they specify in cranberries
because of health. Now you know.

Free food has no calories, which is lucky because
I ate both our pieces.

Ulsan Grand Park

Lots of funky statues in the park

Hiking Namsam

Today I went hiking on Mount Namsam. This is a pretty mountain about 20 minutes outside of Gyeongju with a bunch of ancient buddhas strewn over it. I had never gone before, so I had to take a bus to unknown territory. A friend kindly gave me instructions and I thought "How hard can it be?" Anyways, sitting in the bus I was happily playing aps on my phone and looking at the beautiful countryside. Suddenly, my water bottle fell to the floor so I got up to retrieve it. Only then did I realize that I was alone on the bus. The driver also only noticed me then and started speaking to me. While he only spoke Korean, he was very good at the inter-language mime game, and I quickly understood that I had missed the stop a long while back. He told me to come sit up front and he would let me know when to get off on the way back. Oops. I was very embarrassed, but the driver was being nice about it.

So we get to the end of the route and he stops the bus for his break. He noticed I had my phone out, and came over to check it out. He was very amused to see the Korean phone in English. What happened next will sound rude, but in Korea people have less personal boundaries due to a more communal mentality and less space. Anyways, he took my phone and started playing with it and it was hilarious. He recognized Kakaotalk, a Korean messaging app, so he clicked that. He then sounded out some of my friends names and started clicking their photos. One friend had a picture of her poodle as her display image, and he loved that poodle. He kept returning to it and laughing. It was so funny. He had a sprinkling of English words which he would use while looking at the pictures. It was all I could do not to just crack up at the whole situation. He also checked out my pictures, and my Korean learning app. When you open the latter, a Korean cartoon characters pops up. He had a laugh at that too. It was so funny it made missing the stop totally worth it.

Eventually I got to the mountain and got off the bus. The hike was 1.7km and I must say I really did not expect to have to exert myself so much! The mountain was beautiful, the air crisp and smelling of pine. I passed a few Koreans coming down and was quite embarrassed by my laboured breathing. One man smiled and asked me where I was from. I told him Canada, to which he replied "Quebec!" I was so surprised! I told him that I was indeed from Quebec, and later when I was waiting for the bus home he drove by smiling, waving, and saying "Goodbye Miss Quebec!" It was hilarious.Anyways I made it to the top of the mountain, and it was very beautiful. Two ladies arrived at the top after me and were super jolly and kept speaking to me in Korean. It was cute.The way down was muuuuch faster, and I was amused to note the difference in disposition in people going up the mountain, and those going down.

Next to the seated Buddha
was this little cave/shelter.
Inside was a stone bed.
Looked pretty cool.

View from within the cave.

This guy meant business.
I was pretty jealous of those
sticks soon enough.

I really liked the sun bear mascots on all the signs.

No grapes!!

Spring is coming!

This rock has Buddha carved into it. Sadly the information
provided was mostly about the size of the carvings
and what they were of, and not of who carved them
or when.

On my way down many of the
Buddhas had fresh offerings.
I wonder what they do with
this stuff. Is it just left
over night? Also Buddha
drinks beer? I saw a few people
lighting incense and praying too.
I find Koreans so similar to us
that I forget they have this whole
other religion. It's neat.

Tombs of some kings

I misread this sign and somehow thought this meant I had
950m left to go. I was so confused when I reached the top
moments later haha.