After a quick scoot around Busan this morning to procure an adaptor for charging the camera, we took the metro out to the bus staion and headed north to Gyeongju (thanks for the tip Jennifer!). It was a rather posh bus, equiped with reclining laz-e-boy type seats that were so big they could only fit three per row, and set us back only about $4 each for the hour long journey. It's pleasant to see how much futher our money goes here than in Japan.Gyeongju was home to the Silla Dynasty 2000 years ago, and today is pretty much an open-air museum with tombs, temples and pagodas in all directions.
After a slightly farcical hour spent shuttling across town looking for a hotel, we headed out to explore - starting with the Tumuli Park. The park contains 23 tombs of Silla monarchs and from the outside they look like giant grassy hillocks - much more subtle than Egyptian pyramids, but they serve the same purpose. Their rounded profiles and soft furry green covers make for a slightly surreal landscape which is somehow very pleasing to look at. One of the medium sized tombs (50m diameter) is open to visitors and it shows a cross section of the construction - basically a small wooden hut containing the body and associated trinkets buried in a vast heap of rocks and then covered over with a 5m layer of earth. It is virtually impossible to loot which is why the many tombs are still yielding new treasures today.
We spent the afternoon walking around the area, looking various of points of interest including the Far East's oldest astronomical observatory - a chimney like cylinder of rocks arranged in a complicated manner with all sorts of astronomical references. Later we stopped briefly for a surreal meal (see above) before going to watch a concert at the Anapji Pond pleasure garden.
Various acts performed during the show, but the highlight was certainly the troupe of drummers whose energy and skill was mightily impressive. We wandered back to the hotel where we had been suprised to discover this monring that our bargain room has it's own PC with internet - which means I can check the action in the Premiership matches that have just kicked off while I write this! Oh, and the Championship matches too. (Norwich 0 - 0 Leeds, half time)
In the moring we wave goodbye to the friendly green hillocks and catch the train up to Seoul.