after spring comes, winter misses the world and comes back to visit for a week or two. so after a week of birds chirping and outfits without my coat, winter is back again and i once again find myself digging through my pile of clothes for my scarf and beanie.
but even though winter is back, the 11 of us mad people ( 6 singaporeans, 3 japanese, 1 korean) still decided to go ahead to Kyeongju to erm...sightsee. knowing us, this trip was completely spontaneous; it was discussed for 10 mins during dinnertime, and no other planning was done after we all agreed to go. haha. but of course, as chaotic as spontaneity is, we had fun.
the trip started hilariously, as usual, with me ordering the others to meet at 7a.m at our domitory's 'lobby' (yes, we like to think that we live luxuriously), followed by incidents such as Kawai waking up only at 7, Pheuron forgetting her towel which reminded Yutaka that he forgot his towel, followed by Kawai coming down with a bag with nothing but his guide book and PJs(we were staying overnight!), followed by us sending him back to pack in his towel, etc etc etc. and so, we finally managed only to reach the bus station at Nopodong, where Su hyeon was waiting for us, at 9am.
so after a 50 min bus ride, we finally finally reached Kyeongju. like all touristy places, we were immediately accousted by a 'tour guide' ahjushi who was extremely persistant in offering his services. of course, being exchange students and not just tourists (something that we are quite proud of, thankyou), we refused to be cheated, and thus walked ourselves to our hostel.
the hostel which i booked was Hanjin Hostel, which is run by Master Kwon(an old grandpa) and his wife (a old grandma). it has a very homely vibe; a very simple and well-preserved old building with a courtyard and a balcony. for 15,000 won a night only, we were pretty satisfied.
it was only after this that our adventure truely started. we rented bicycles and were adviced a cycling route all the way from the bus terminal to bulkoksa. "if you leave now (about 12 pm) you and go up to bulkoksa, have a delicious bimbimbap lunch and come back here by 7!"
with hopeful hearts and reality-blinding thoughts about bimbimbap, we hopped on our bicycles and started our journey. no sweat, we thought, since the distance looked pretty okay from the map.
5 mins of road and padestrian path cycling made me realise that my two-time cycling experience, once in westcoast park and once in bishan park respectively, is no use on the crazy roads here. of course, having too much pride, i wobbled my way behind the others.
our first venue was the shilla tombs and it was beautiful. the beautifully shaped tombs yellow during spring, against the pinkish sakura trees and the cloudless blue sky - breathtaking. there is one thing here that i will truly truly miss the moment i go back home is the breathtaking nature here. flowers, trees, yellow, pink, green, brown, blue, white..... it is truly a feast for the eyes here.
our second location was to the Shilla museum, and what was mainly on display were the ceramics, jewelry (huge gold crowns), amoury used during the Shilla dynasty.
on our way to Bulkoksa, which we later found out was 12 km away, we had a couple of incidents, such as Kenny's bicycle tyres spoiling, me falling off my bike, us starving from the lack of breakfast and lunch, etc. from sheer exhaustion, starvation and frustration (on my part, for my lack of cycling skills), we finally decided to stop at a random roadside foodstall to try its jajiangmyeon. it was surprisingly good, and the noodles were very Q!
during lunch, the very very kind Su Hyeon helped arrange for the bicycle shop uncle to bring a double bike and this was how i ended up riding a double bike with Kenny.
on our way up Bulkoksa, it suddenly occured to us that it was getting dark and the temple might be closed already. thus, Su Hyeon made a call and this was how we realised tt, with only 2km more to go, we were too late.
our way back was even more... exciting. Huishan nearly got knocked down by a truck on the highway, Yutaka got lost in the dark, we got a little lost, and all our butts wanted to split after riding the bike the whole day.
finally, at about 830pm, we finally stopped for dinner at a crowded restaurant for the unique kyeongju bimbimbp (i didnt think it was very good actually) and finally sent the long-suffering su hyeon back to the busstation at 1030pm.
that was our kyeongju experience... and it was only day 1.
Love, Ruth
Ruth Lim, NTU Communications student. I will be heading to Pusan National University (korea) for an exchange program from Feb 09 to June 09
