The first stop on the bus tour was the Bulguksa temple. It was still snowing lightly as the bus pulled up into the parking lot. Through the large front gate, over a bridge over looking a chilly looking lake and up a winding path we were presented with an astonishingly beautiful sight.
It was the first snow of the year at Gyeongju and it had turned this large series of temples and pagodas nestled amongst the trees into something you'd normally expect to see in a postcard. We were the first of the tour groups to arrive that morning, so it was still relatively quiet as we walked up to the main building.
None of the monks seem particularly impressed at the horde of tourists that turned up each morning to distrurb thier zen. There were many smaller buildings further up the back of the Bulguska grounds, so we avoided the crowds and went for somewhere a bit more peaceful.
The temple and surrounding trees into an astonishingly beautiful sight to behold. We timed things pretty well to turn up on this special day. Accordingly we took many photos, there are more up on my flickr account that what i've added to this post, check them out here.
Next stop was the Silla art and science museum. It was alright, a couple of bus loads of school kids turned up at the same time so this spot was pretty full. We took a wander around the surrounding artisan village but most of it seemed to be closed.
Onto General Yusin Kim's grave. the silla dynasty took to creating these gigantic mounds as tombs for their fallen royals and heros. this guy joined the military at age 15 and went on to be one the nations finest military strategists and martial artists. helped to unite 3 countries. this earned him a big mound in the hills upon his departure from this world. The weather had finally started to warm up (to maybe a couple of degrees above zero), as the blue skies emerged for the first time.
Buhnwangsa temple was the next stop on the tour. There was only one large building, surrounded by some menacing looking lion statues outside and a smaller room containing this sleeping looking buddha.
Cheonmachong was the next on the tour, a whole series of tombs. I think there were 21 of these very large mounds in all and the large surrounds were dotted with groups of trees. As we left we posed for some photos with the statues that welcomed visitors inside the gates.
Anapji is an artificial lake that was created during the Silla dynasty. These picturesque surroundings are commonly used as a venue for young Korean guys to to take their girls to express their love as they walk around the lake. The way the views reflected up off the lake made for some stunning views.
The last stop on the tour was Cheomseongdae, an ancient astronomy tower. By this stage we were both pretty exhausted, having gotten up quite early.It was a pretty long day, about 8 hours of on and off the bus, walking here and there and many photos. Bulguksa and Anapji were both amazing sites to behold, I hope that our photography has displayed some of it.
Most of the people on the tour were Koreans, mainly families with young children. There were also 4 Japanese people, an American and his Korean partner, Jiran and I. The tour guide spoke some minimal English and Japanese and while the on bus videos were available in English and Chinese they didn't provide a great deal of information. So as the tour guide spoke at length at each of the stops, I wasn't able to absorb much at all. So Jiran and I wandered about each of the sites and she translated some interesting bits when she was feeling so inclined.
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