Gyeongju & The Shila Kingdom - 20th-23rd February Part 1

On the road... Yes I managed to leave Seoul. I started to realise on the journey by Metro to the bus station and on the coach out of the city, that Seoul is a large, mainly concrete, conurbation. I think the guide says the 2nd largest in the world.

The weather was cold and miserable as I left Seoul and it just got worse and worse. At Gyeongju bus station, I stepped off the coach into a snow blizzard. As i ran into the terminal. I would have shed a tear for the weather of SE Asia, but it probably would have froze. Luckily I was travelling light - I left my large backpack in the Golden Pond GH - and the Hanjin Hostel I reserved was around the corner. It was a strange experience walking to the Hanjin in the snow. Yes I reserved my accommodation in advance. Not done in a while. In Korea there is not much cheap accommodation. i thought it would be better to reserve in advance.To avoid the crowd. Well the Hanjin was empty and pretty damn cold. i reserved the dorm. I was upgraded to a single room. The owner said it was warmer. In Korea, they have underfloor heating. I was told that it is switched in at 6pm. After I settled in, I decided to head out into to town for coffee and dinner. I walked out of the door into blue sunshine and blue sky. It was still cold but what a difference a hour makes.

The problem in Korea is not that thee is a lack of eating establishments, but that there is a hell of a lot of them and it is so hard to know whats in the dishes. It is not like South & SE Asia.I have been more wary here than at any other time in my travels. Its a place that if you order a Hot Dog, you could actually get a hot dog! When your order a dish, they serve it with Kimchy. Its this fermented spicy cabage. They have it with everything. Equivalent to serving pickles. I keep trying it every time they serve it with my dish. I always hope for the better. But no. I was not alone in this. On my return to the hostel, I met Julie. yes I was not the only guest in the hostel. At least we are 2. Julie is guess what from France. Julie is in Korea as an exchange student for 4 months in Seoul. For the next 3 days, we explored together the food - especially doughnuts - and sights of Gyeongju.

It started well. The first (full) day was sunshine and blue sky. We walked around the city in search of the markets and temples. We certinly had to hunt for these monuments. The sights are clearly shown On the tourist map. We follow th map and most of the time we walk right pass the sights. They did not mention that a lot of the sights are just remains. On the map, they show the original design. At some point we were heading to a few sights, and could not find them. We were heading away from where we wanted to head too. We decided to take a short cut across the field, and we walked past this column. We realised this was one of the sights we were searching for. I did find the Dunkin Donuts. So all was good.

In the evening we tried out our first Bulgagi - sometime reffered as the Korean barbecue. Returning to the (cold) hostel, we met another guest, Aya from Japan. We were at least 4. I think there was somebody else from Japan.

The next day was a grey miserable rainy day - no difference to a winter, or lets be honest even a summer day in the UK - Did not stop going out of the centre to visit a traditional Korean village and the best temple I have seen in Korea With a stop in Dunkin Donuts in between. Just to dry off of course. We did bumped into Aya in the Dunkin. Unfortunately I have no photos this days as it was raining I did not take out my camera. Hopefully at some point I will add Julie's photos. In the evening another Bulgogi, joined this time by Aya. As mentioned earlier, the guest is heated by underfloor heating. In the case of our GH, not very effective underfloor heating. The rooms were never heated adequately. The floor was hot and a few centimetres above the floor and thats it. However it was very useful to dry the coat and clothes out. I Just laid them out on the floor and like cooking, turning them occasionally

To be continued...