For Whom the Bell Tolls
In Gyeongju, apparently it tolls for me

So, for the first time in about a month I’m visitor-less. It’s kind of odd. Brighton flew home last Tuesday. My out-to-eat experiences have lessoned considerably this week. : ) The weekend before Brighton left we went to Gyeongju. I’ve been to Gyeongju before and posted pics and stuff about it already, so I won’t go into any (or much) history of the area.

We boarded the train from Pyeongtaek to Gyeongju at 6:30 on Friday night. We had first class seats as they were the only two left when we got around to buying them. But they weren’t that much more expensive, so no big deal. I personally couldn’t find any big differences between first class and “normal” class. The seats may have been a bit more plush. Anyway, it was a 3.5 hour train ride. The dining car was in front of us. There was a sign on the door that I found funny. Here is a picture, at left. I also enjoyed how the train workers would bow to the passengers upon entering and exiting a car. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of bowing. I had a kid bow to me so deep the other day he was practically doubled over. It was great.

So we got into Gyeongju around 10 or so. We had no hotel reservations, but we’d heard that there were a bunch of new “love hotels” near the bus station. Korea has a lot of “love hotels.” They’re hotels that people go to for…love…purposes. You can get them for the night, or if you’re in a hurry, an hour. I’d never stayed in one before, but I have heard that generally they are pretty nice…not gross and seedy in a dirty sort of way. Quite often they’re better/cleaner than other hotels. And they’re usually much cheaper. And they provide…materials…for…love. Anyway, we walked towards the bus station (about a 20 minute walk or so). We ended up going into a new one (still had streamers up outside it). It was called The Ritz, so you know it was quality, right? The lady showed us a room (you can request looking at numerous rooms). We thought it was fine. We paid her in cash right in the room, which was a little weird. It was 40,000 won (a bit more than $40). It was very clean, had a big tv, a dvd/vcr combo, and a computer with internet access. And multi-colored lighting, which was fun. My favorite was the lady’s parting words to us: “Have fun.” Haha.

Saturday was rainy all day. Which sucked, but what can you do? We first took a bus to Bulguksa Temple, a little outside of the city. It wasn’t as nice as last time because it was raining. But it’s one of the biggest temples in SoKo, originally built in the 500s. I took some pictures of the Buddhas in some of the temples. You weren’t supposed to, but Koreans were so I figured I could subversively take some. I hope that doesn’t hinder my chances at achieving Nirvana when I die. I personally liked the big statue of a warrior guy playing a ukulele. With a demon crouched between his legs.

From here we went to Seokuram Grotto, which I did not go to last time I was in Gyeongju. This is a hermitage that houses one of the world’s finest shrines of Buddha, dating back to the 700s. Both Seokguram and Bulguksa are on UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage list. On a clear day you can supposedly see the East Sea (Sea of Japan), but it was rainy and foggy as all hell when we went, so no East Sea observing for us. You also couldn’t take pictures of this Buddha…and it was monitored much more closely, so I don’t have a picture. But here’s a few I found on the Internet, so I’ll post them. You can see how misty it was this day from the picture of the outside of the Grotto. How awesome is the word ‘grotto’? Seriously. For those interested, this is apparently a man-made grotto (cave). I don’t know who watched American Idol, but you know that song that eventual winner Taylor sang—In The Ghetto? While here I couldn’t get it out of my head, but I replaced the words so I was singing, “In the Grotto.” Because I’m a dork.

Then we went back to downtown Gyeongju. We ended up going to a movie—the DaVinci Code. Let me tell you, that’s not the best movie to go to in a foreign country. Usually it’s no problem going to English movies in Korea because they only subtitle in Korean. However, an entire subplot of this movie was spoken in French/Italian/Latin…and instead of English subtitles there was only Korean subtitles (go figure). Since I don’t speak any of those languages, it was interesting. I was just glad I had read the book (albeit a while ago) so I wasn’t totally lost. But it was either that or Mission Impossible: 3, so I think we made the best choice. After the movie we ate at Pizza Hut and had sweet potato/cheese crust pizza (Koreans love their sweet potato). Then we went back to The Ritz for another night (fees raised to $60 on Saturday nights, bummer). Oh, I had to take a picture of this clothing store. Koreans also love poop. This store name literally translated into “Dog Poop.” As you can see by the picture, there’s not some figurative meaning I don’t know about being a foreigner.

The next day we first went to Tumuli Park, where they have a bunch of tombs dating from the Silla period. Today was a much nicer day, but early on it was still a bit cloudy. I have a bunch of pictures of this park because I love how the tombs look. They’re so pretty to me.

Then we saw Cheomseongdae Observatory, which is Asia’s earliest known existing observatory and is one of the oldest scientific installations on Earth. Apparently. It was built in the 600s. It’s really not tall…at all…so I find it curious that it was an observatory. From Wikipedia:

“Cheomseongdae was constructed under the reign of Queen Seondeok (632-647) near the capital of the kingdom…The tower is built out of 362 pieces of cut granite which some claim represent the 362 days of the lunar year. Some surveys of the site have indicated that there are 366 blocks. It has 27 circular layers of stones (some associate it with the fact that Queen Seondeok was considered to be the 27th ruler of Silla) surmounted by a square structure. 12 of the layers are below the window level and 12 are above. There are 12 large base stones set in a square, with three stones on each side. These sets of 12 may symbolize the months of the year.”

So here are some pictures of it. Also, here’s a picture of a sign nearby. Koreans love their cartoon people, and this king and queen are saying, “Danger!” [Wi Heom] I don’t know why they’re saying danger. One would think it’s maybe because the tower looks like it may collapse, but then again there was a whole plaque detailing how the observatory was deemed structurally safe. So who knows? Not I.

Then we walked to Anapji Pond. Not exciting. The old kings and queens used to relax there, I guess. We then headed to Gyeongju National Museum. Which wasn’t that great, but I wanted to go there because it is the home of a bell named after me. Ok, so it’s not named after me, but it has the same name…or close to it. Here is the legend of the bell, from Wikipedia, again:

“The Bell of King Seongdeok is the largest extant bell in Korea and one of the largest in the world. The full Korean name means ‘Sacred Bell of King Seongdeok the Great.’
It is commonly known as the Emille Bell in English. Emille, pronounced ‘em-ee-leh,’ is an ancient Silla term for "mommy." According to legend, when the bell was first cast it would not ring. So it was melted down again and the priest of the temple for which the bell was being made was told in a dream that if a baby was cast into the metal the bell would ring. When the bell was recast and struck, it produced the sound of ‘em-ee-leh’, like the cries of the sacrificed baby.

It measures 3.33 meters high, 2.27 meters in diameter, and 11 to 25 centimeters in wall thickness. The notes could be heard 40 miles away on a clear day. The bell weighs about 25 tons. It is now stored in the National Museum of Gyeongju.”

We then went to the Tomb of King Taejong Muyeol because we had time to spare. But it was pretty much deserted, so we got to walk on the tombs and get pictures, which was nice. Then we went to the bus terminal to go home. We couldn’t get train tickets because they were already sold out when we bought tickets. I was relieved we were able to get bus tickets…we bought them Sunday morning and there were only 5 seats left when we bought them (you can only buy them that day). If I hadn’t got tickets I would have freaked out since I had to be back to school that Monday and I would have had no idea how to get home. But it worked out, so no worries (although the bus went to Osan, not Pyeongtaek, so we had to take a subway back to Pyeongtaek from Osan).

Anyway, that was that weekend. I have lots more to write, but I’m out of gas at the moment, so it’ll have to wait.