I had another crash night last night.  I think I was just really tired from our whirlwind trip to Gyeongju (경주).  Isn’t it funny how sometimes you seem to work harder on vacation than you do at home?  Pack your bags, load your bags into the car, get your kids settled, drive, stop for gas and lunch, drive some more, search the map for that elusive turn-off, drive even further, arrive at the hotel, lug your bags up to your room, and then finally venture out to see some of the sights.  Then when your trip is over, you do it all over again in reverse, like a boring movie played backwards.  I’m definitely not complaining.  At least I was working while on vacation.  It was well worth the effort!  We went to Gyeongju just for only two days; however, it was the first overnight trip my family has taken together in almost four years.  We made the most of the short time we had.  We decided to leave on Sunday to avoid the heavy Korean Memorial Day traffic.  We ran into pockets of resistance en route, but we made it to Gyeongju and back in just under six hours each way. 

We arrived in Gyeongju on late Sunday afternoon.  We first chose to visit Bulguksa (불국사), a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most beautiful Buddhist temples in Korea.  Sitting high atop Namsan Mountain a few miles southeast of the city, Bulguksa overlooks Namsan valley stretching south of Gyeonju.  We were impressed by the artistic blending of the ornate, colorful temple structure with the scenic beauty of the mountain.  It is truly one of the outstanding religious sites in the world.  The large crowds muted the temple’s beauty, but they did not deter us from enjoying our trip to the temple.  At the temple’s center are Tabot’ap and Sokkat’ap, twin gray pagodas in the sanctuary outside the main hall.  They stood in stark contrast to the rich reds, yellows and blues that permeated the temple.  I loved the paper lanterns festooned around the temple, vestiges of Buddha’s birthday in early May.  Unfortunately, we didn’t make it up to Sokkuram, the famous grotto above on the mountainside above the temple featuring a seated statue of Buddha.  It was too late in the day to make the journey with a young child in tow.  We did stop for awhile so our son could watch the drinking pool and watch visitors create mani stone towers (mani is the Buddhist term for rock piles built as a form of meditation).  Despite all the tourists, Bulguksa exuded a peaceful aura.  It was a much different feeling one gets while living amidst the hustle and bustle of Seoul. 

We left Bulguksa in early evening and headed to our hotel, the Wellich Chosun Hotel & Casino next to Lake Bomun.  Lake Bomun is a man-made reservoir just east of Gyeongju and home to many of the area’s best resorts.  The Wellich Chosun Hotel is a beautiful place with affordable room service and a delicious breakfast buffet.  Because of our son, we dined in our room on Sunday night and retired early.  The room was a bit small but adequate.  Because we arrived on an off-peak day, our room rate was a bit lower than it would have been if we had arrived on Friday or Saturday.  It was the perfect get away place.

I decided to post a couple blog entries today to make up for the days I’ll be away on tour.  As you can probably tell from my recent blog entries, my family and I have traveled further a field to see more of this beautiful country.  Korea is a nice, livable place.  The weather has also been relatively nice.  We haven’t been through the dreaded dead of winter or the monsoon season yet, but so far we are very happy with our assignment choice.

We went to downtown Seoul today to visit Gyeongbokgung (경복궁), the primary royal palace in Seoul.  Gyeongbokgung was the seat of power during the Joseon (조선) Dynasty (1392-1910).  The palace is very picturesque.  We took dozens of photos at the palace, some of which made their way into a photo album on this blog.  Some visitors who have also visited the Forbidden City in Beijing commented that Gyeongbokgung is not as impressive as the Forbidden City, home to China’s emperors during the Ming and Qing dynasties.  Where the Forbidden City is grand and immense, Gyeongbokgung is understated and intimate.  I much prefer the latter myself.  While both seem to share about the same amount of acreage, Gyeongbokgung blends in much better with its surroundings than does the Forbidden City.  Also, the mountains to the north of Gyeongbokgung provide a gorgeous relief.  I had previously visited the palace with my colleague from Guangzhou, China (see April’s archive), but the day we visited was a public holiday and the palace was closed.  Today, it was open and teeming with people from around the world.  We really enjoyed our visit, and we explored the entire palace grounds save the National Folklore Museum.  (Our son is definitely an explorer—he kept us busy wandering throughout the palace grounds.)  Along the way, we ran into the wife of my friend from the University of Washington MBA program who dined in our home earlier this month (see May’s archive).  She is a palace tour guide, and her uniform is a hanbok (한복), traditional Korean dress.  We were very surprised to see her there, because we had no idea that she worked at the palace.  We talked briefly and promised to get together again soon. 

I was also pleasantly surprised to find Gyeongbokgung relatively uncommercialized.  A few years ago, Starbucks opened a coffee shop in the Forbidden City, and many Chinese were disgruntled that an American icon would be allowed to operate inside China’s imperial palace.  The brouhaha eventually settled down, and Starbucks is still there serving coffee.  A Pizza Hut faces the pyramids at Giza, Egypt.  You can buy a McDonald’s Big Mac or bucket of KFC chicken next to the Great Wall in Badaling, China.  Despite being situated in the center of Seoul, Gyeongbokgung has no such trappings.  The palace has one discreet Korean snack shop/gift shop located toward the palace gardens.  Fortunately, my wife and I managed to find an adequate Korean souvenir to buy at the small shop.  We have an unusual collection—we buy miniature monuments from around the world.  We try to find a miniature that depicts the symbol of each place we visit.  For example, we bought a miniature Eiffel Tower in Paris and a miniature Statue of Liberty in New York City.  Individually, the monuments range from kitschy to elegant.  Together, they form a miniature view of the world when you arrange them together.  It’s much easier to find monuments in major cities.  However, Tokyo and Seoul are two places where it’s especially difficult to find good miniatures.  Three and a half months after arriving in Korea, we finally found a hand-sized miniature that symbolizes Korea, and just added it to our collection.  It’s a miniature of the main building at Gyeongbokgung.  It looks great.  I posted a photo of the collection.  Enjoy!