Gyeongju
Next morning it was off to the cave. An hour out of town in the mountains with a 2km hike to get to the cave entrance. Inside they have walkways and platforms going quite deep into the cave, some pretty cool rock formations in there.
Left Samcheok and 4 hours on the bus to Gyeongju, home of many temples and some burial mounds. The mounds are a ho-hum sight, so I left the town and went to the biggest temple complex in the area. A nice temple, but the crowds there were insane so I took some pictures and caught a bus to the Namsan park South of town. Lots of trails here, I decided to try a loop, going up to one small peak and then back down ending up at a different bus stop. The first part of the hike, up to the peak was steep and rocky but well travelled. However once at the top, the signs became very confusing and I was guessing based on my compass and not much else what trail to take for the loop. I ended up on a very rarely used trail brushing through pine trees down the mountain and it ended on the road halfway between the bus stops. I still have no idea what the right trail would’ve been, but there were good views from the top and the hike up was great!
The hostel I was staying at in Gyeongju was less than great but I did run into someone who I met at the hostel in Seoul (3rd time, I bumped into him in Sokcho too..). Made being at the hostel much more tolerable, just hanging out. 1st night there we tried to order Korean BBQ somewhere, apparently using the wrong term, and got a whole table full of stuff, a huge feast and it was really good. Not BBQ though. The 2nd night we did manage to successfully order BBQ and it was best I’d had so far.
Tags: S.Korea, Travel
Adam
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