After a few rainy weekends, we finally had one that was lovely and rain free. Two friends and I decided to check out a new hiking trail in Gyeongju and headed for "The March Road of King Sinmun." None of our friends had heard of this trail, and compared to most mountains around the trail was almost empty! We found it one this super handy blog, Gyeongju Love. While not an actual mountain, the trail was still beautiful. It goes pretty flat for a while, then downhill to a gorgeous waterfall. We searched for a bus stop at the other end, but sadly had to make our way back uphill to our starting point to get home. While it was a long day, it was very beautiful and the waterfalls were lovely. Hiking on a fairly isolated trail was a particular treat compared to the overcrowded main routes.
When we got off the bus, we were fairly certain we were in the wrong spot. It was pretty desolate except for these stores selling mysterious things.
We wandered up a road (to the left of the tunnel, for any future hikers) and saw these stone piles, and some Buddha's. We figured this must be the way.
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| Statue of what I guess to be a boddhisatva holding some babies. |
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| At the base of the statue were creepy baby scultures. |
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| Creeeeepy |
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| Next we wandered across an incredibly surprising house. It looked so Western we wondered if we'd somehow teleported elsewhere. |
We soon came across a beautiful resort called JY Pension. The owners were lovely and let us use their washroom and get some water. We also saw some very happy frogs.
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| Oooh nature. |
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| Sadly, I didn't see any of these guys. It's so interested to see how similar yet different the animals all are. |
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| Koreans are renown for wearing very high tech gear for even the most leisurely of hikes. These friendly hikers provided a good example. |
Traditional Korean hiking fare: kimbap, pictured below. While it may bear a resemblance to sushi, kimbap is a fast food that doesn't involve raw fish. This is tuna kimbap, my favourite. It includes tuna salad, egg, spam (yuck), and veggies like sesame leaf, pickle daikon, carrots, and some brown thing that's yummy. Two years ago, I would never have thought in a million years to eat such a concoction. Now I adore. I even think it surpasses a sandwich for hiking fair because it can be squished without being ruined, and you can easily speak between bites!
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| Chamchi kimbap! |
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| We almost missed the waterfall! We had to climb over a fence and down some rocks to get this lovely view. |
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| Clear spring water |
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| As on all Korean hikes, we spotted some of these piled stones. Apparently you pile them and make a wish. |
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| Sadly we saw a ton of squished froggies along the path. This lady was still hoppin' though. |
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| Here is the sign at the end of the trail. It led us to believe there would be a bus at this end as well.. But there wasn't. So we headed back! |
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| There are some words carved into this stone. |
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| The final leg of our journey: the last bite of road from the trail down to the bus stop. |
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