After Hahoe Village we went back to Andong to catch the bus further south to Gyeongju, considered an important historic site in Asia. It once was the capital of the whole Korean peninsula, when the Silla dynasty ruled. Therefore one can still find many temples, remains of
palaces and Buddhist statues. So as soon as our bus arrived there, we oriented ourselves thanks to the friendly girl at the tourist office. We found a hotel near the bus terminal, owned by a nice lady who had a little girl about my age, so I had a playmate during our stay there. All was well, except it was still raining non-stop...
The next day we decided to try and find something dry (i.e. indoors) to visit: the local museum! We were not the only ones with that great idea and the place was packed with local tourists. It was very good though, with a very well displayed series of objects found in the many large tombs of kings that were found (easy to see since they are located in large, 80 ft. high burial mounts). Most displays had English text with drawings and pictures. A good introduction to the area.
The next day it was still pouring so we had an easy day: sleeping, eating, reading and internet. Mommy spends a lot of time in these "PC bangs", or internet gaming rooms, open 24h/day. You can find them everywhere, usually on a higher floor of small office buildings. Inside there are at least 30-40 computer stations (some with 512 RAM!) used only for high-end warrior games, often played in a network by young guys playing for hours. My parents are the only ones using it for e-mail. It only costs US$ 1/hour.
When the sun finally came out we went for a big day of sight-seeing. Taking a bus we went into the mountains surrounding the city to visit a temple and a grotto. First we took another bus to the top of a mountain to visit the Seokguram Grotto. As usual there was an entrance fee for my parents (between US$ 1 - 3 each) but not for me... After a bit of a hike on a path full of other people we came to a small temple cut into the rock to see a large (30 ft.) Buddha statue, unfortunately behind glass. No use to stay there for long, so on to the next sight: the famous Bulguksa temple complex. To get there we didn't take the bus, but instead hiked down the mountain on a steep trail for one hour: I walked all the way, no problem! This temple was really very beautiful with many buildings connected to each other and being used by Buddhist monks. Despite the large crowds we still got a good feeling of the place. Mommy even bought two silk paintings, depicting rural life, to be sent home: our first souvenirs!
That evening we first had a meal of some sort of typical beef soup cooked for at least 12 hours. Once I heard it was made of cow head I had trouble eating it... But the evening wasn't over yet: we were going to see a typical Korean dance performance in an open air amphitheatre. It was very beautiful and certainly worth the 45 minutes it took to get to it by bus.
Early Sunday, after our typical breakfast at the local 7 Eleven (bread, jam & peanut butter bought at the Paris Baguette bakery, together with choco milk and coffee - no tea), we left Gyoungju to our next destination: Pusan, Korea's second largest city and main port. We got there early enough to go and visit the big fort, Geumjeongsanseong, on top of the mountain. After checking into our new motel we had a quick lunch of tempura style eats at a small street stall. Then we first had to take a cable car (fantastic views of the city!) most of the way up the mountain (2500 ft.) and then another good hike through the forest past many small groups of local picnickers. When we finally got to one of the main gates of this fort, it appeared that only these gates (4 in total) had been restored and there was therefore not much to see other than the pretty forest. We happened on a fellow from Waterloo (Ontario) who was teaching English nearby for a year. Coming back we walked through an amusement park with all sorts of (scary) rides, as well as a small monastery. We ended our day with a nice dinner in a Japanese restaurant.
The weather had really turned out to be back to Summertime, so we decided the next day to go to Haeundae Beach, just northeast of the city. As soon as we got off the bus we got a feel of being close to the beach, with all the shops and seafood restaurants lining the street leading to it. When we got there it was like any Riviera: large hotels along the road, nice sand, many people and parasols, nice waves. I had a great time playing in them for a while, but boy, was it ever crowded. The rescue guys were all the time calling swimmers back and at one point everybody even had to get out of the water (currents, sharks...?). The main attraction actually was the newly built aquarium. The tanks were really large and allowed us a good close view of the fish: piranhas and other meat-eating fish, penguins (they are really funny), huge King crabs, a real diver and best of all were the sharks! They were in the largest tank ever, one that allowed us to walk into it through a glass tunnel. They were really large and very impressive, coming up to the glass so you could see all their teeth...!
The next day Papa was not feeling well (probably the flu or so) so I went with Mommy alone to see the main temple of Pusan: Beomeosa, actually one of the largest and most beautiful in the country, surrounded by a peaceful forest. As most of Korea's historic treasures, it was destroyed by the Japanese in the 16th century (others also during WW II), but rebuilt since in several stages.
Before leaving the city we wanted to see the fish market, so at 5:30 am the next day we took the subway to the harbour area and with the rising sun we toured a very active market. Mostly fish, indeed (small and large), but also shells and deliciously looking sea cucumbers, octopi, as well as vegetables and of course buckets full of all sorts of kimchi! It was interesting to see ladies work on the nets and untangle the lines and hooks. Unfortunately we should have been there much earlier to witness the unloading of the fishing boats...