Gyeongju And Tales Of The Three Kingdoms.

Even as a kid, I've always been interested in history. It's something Chris and I share in common. This interest probably fuelled my passion for travelling, cause the more I travel, the more I get to learn. And of all the places I've been to in Korea, Gyeongju is the most interesting. Not only is it rich in culture, it also has a very long and colorful history. I'm gonna brush up a little bit of Korea's history. Skip it if it isn't your nap time yet. : )

Gyeongju is the capital of Silla Dynasty. It's one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea and the longest sustained dynasty that ruled for almost a thousand years. The other two are Baekje of Cheolla province and Goguryeo of the North (present day North Korea). Although Silla reigned the longest, it wasn't actually the strongest - the strongest being Goguryeo who was founded by Jumong and whose territory extends from present day Jilin, China to Vladivostok, Russia. Silla, although the weakest of the three had several great rulers. One of the most notable person that ruled the Kingdom was Queen Seon Deok. She was the first woman who ruled the Kingdom, and was known for her wit and courage as Silla then was plagued with rebellions and war from Goguryeo and Tang Dynasty of China. She didn't produce an heir so when she died, the throne was passed to her cousin Jin Deok who later became the 28th ruler of Silla and the second woman to rule the Kingdom. Silla's Golden Age came during the reign of King Muyeol who succeeded the throne from Jin Deok. He made an alliance with Tang and defeated Goguryeo and Baekje (the alliance with Tang resulted to Korea losing a big part of their land). Tang expanded it's rule in the North and wanted to establish territories in Baekje, and Silla realizing that, staged a battle that lasted for 10 years to expel all Tang's forces out, and later forming "Unified Silla". It is during this time where Korean arts and the Buddhism culture flourished and can still be seen all over Gyeongju today. Later, descendants from Baekje established Hubaekje, and rebels from the North created Hugoguryeo. Together with Silla, they formed "The Later Three Kingdoms". Unified Silla weakened in time till finally, it surrendered to Goryeo - a successor of Goguryeo. Goryeo also defeated Later Baekje, forming one ruling dynasty in Korea. Goryeo's reign lasted for almost 500 years till it was defeated by Joseon - the last dynasty to rule Korea.

Whew! I didn't know it's tough to summarize the convuluted Korean history in one paragraph! Anyway, let's go back to Silla. When Kings and noblemen of Silla dies, their remains are buried in large tombs. In this picture, you could see some of those large ancient tombs. This place is called Daereung-won.

And this picture is taken at Gyerim Forest Park, just beside Daereung-won. You could see a lot of ancient trees here.

Queen Seon Deok took pride in creating this ancient observatory which dates back from 7th century called Cheomseongdae (Star-gazing Tower). It's one of the oldest scientific installations on Earth. Can you imagine that?

Ok, I didn't watch the popular "Queen Seon Deok" drama (I'm not really crazy about Korean dramas), but I'm guessing not all of the stories there are true. But for what it's worth, I did visit a place where the drama was shot. Here are some picures of those.

Other places I visited in Gyeongju that connect to the ancient dynasty are Anapji, Seokguram and Bulguksa. I wrote an entry about it last year. Read it if you've got time to kill.

If Gyeongju's historical sites are a little too much for you, you could visit this Lake Park in Bomunho.

And when you're legs get tired from pedalling those little duck boats, go treat yourself with a bowl of Patpingsu.

I know this post is boring to some, especially on a Monday morning. For my next posts, I promise to veer away from hardcore history stuff. Hope you all have a chill Monday!

Gyeongju's Finest At Night.

So Buddha's Birthday turned out to be a jam packed, adventure-filled day. And after all those exploring, you would thought we were done for the day, but the riotous adventure we had during daytime was merely the icing of the cake. When we arrived in Gyeongju, adrenaline was still very much pumping, and at 9 pm we were still craving for more. We followed the long beeline of cars going to Anapji. They were doing some sort of a festival there commemorating Buddha's birthday.


I'm not gonna say much as I've already written an entry about this place last year. Just let these photos of insanely beautiful scenery take you for a ride.

By all means, how can you possibly not fall in love with this place?!

Andong's Folklore Park.

Crossing the 387 meter stretch of the Moonlight Bridge led us to a folklore park. It's partly obscured by lush maple trees so we were surprised to find out that such place exists. This folklore park is actually an old village where people lived since the Joseon Dynasty. The old village is located at the far side of the river, and they called their place "Eumdalgol" or Moon Shade Village.

These houses are real and people lived here a long time ago. Weird cause I like this place better than Hahoe - that place is too commercialized anyway. Here, nothing hinders you from exploring the entirety of the house. You could go inside the rooms and sit there provided you're cool with dust and cobwebs. You could still see traces that people did live here like broken pots and pieces of wood they used to heat the floor during winter. The only place I didn't dare to explore was the toilet and we all know why I stayed away from that.

At the front, you could see a sign that says something about the history of the house and the family who lived there. This goes with all the other houses there.

It's really nice when you get to really feel how the ancient Korean people lived, and not just lust for it from afar like in the case of Hahoe. All I got there was a sore neck from looking at their roofs and peeping through their closed gates. And to think they have the audacity to charge entrance fees and parking tickets for that! Here it's totally free, like how it should be.

Our trip to Andong had quite a few disappointments, but there were some cool surprises too. Nevertheless, it gave me a culture fix I couldn't get elsewhere. And to cap our journey, we had a very delicious dinner called "Andong Jjim Dalk". You know what, I can totally live with the few disappointments I had cause this food right here is already worth the visit!

P.S. If you wanna taste the best Andong Jjim Dalk, go visit the old traditional market downtown. Don't let the crabby market place deceive you, cause the restaurants there serve the best dish in town! A plate so huge it could feed 4 hungry people costs 22,000 won. Not bad right?! But for two, it's a hell of a feat trying to finish even half it.

I thought this stuff doesn't happen in real life!

So last night, over dinner, Chris's phone kept ringing. When calls keep pouring like that, it makes me think something bad might have happened at work. I also thought a war broke out, cause I'm pretty paranoid about it these days. But apparently, the hubbub was about his senior c0-worker who got himself into a scandal of some sort. A scandal in a company as big as Samsung, that surely rouses curiosity. The scandal already made it's way to the internet, thanks to the itchy fingers of netizens who blatantly posted every bit of the scandal's juicy details.

For all intents and purposes let's call this guy "G". "G" has a girlfriend for 5 years, but this Saturday, he's gonna get married to a different girl at some posh hotel in Kangnam . The thing is, girlfriend "A" was totally clueless about it till a few days ago. All the while she thought their relationship is going well, they even have plans on getting married next year. So imagine her horror when she found out a few days ago that her boyfriend is gonna get married this Saturday! Seething with anger, she confronted "G" about it, but all she got were lies after lies. Driven by her emotions, she posted details about his cheating spree online for all the world to see, probably to ruin the guy's reputation. The scandal couldn't have been this worse if not for G's background. His father is the VP of the biggest car industry here, and his mother is also a very distinguished person in the society, not to mention he himself belongs to the biggest company in Korea. Now this guy's reputation is ruined and so is his family's. People are talking behind their backs and wondering whether the extravagant wedding will push through this Saturday. I'll know for sure when Chris comes back home tomorrow after attending the wedding.

Personally, I understand her sentiments. But exposing her boyfriend like that and ruining not just his life, but also the people close to him isn't the best thing to do. Sure she's broken and damaged, but how much can you love a person (if she truly loved him for 5 years) enough to ruin his reputation just like that? Internet is a very powerful tool when you want revenge, but how about the innocent people involved? The bigger question is, how can the guy move on after this. Sure they can pay billions to shut everyone up (they could afford it anyway), but the damage has been done. And from here on, he'll be known as a cheater for the rest of his life! And no amount of money or number of sports cars (he has several of those) could erase the fact that he's already been branded that.

Karma is a bitch, and G surely knows that by now. Let's just wish that everything will be ok for all the people involved. But seriously, how bad could it be for G, when he basically has everything? At the click of his fingers, he could be whisked away to a place that no one knows him, and he could still live the life he's accustomed to. Too bad for girlfriend A. For what it's worth, I'm surely gonna keep tabs of this real-life telenovela.

Crossing The Moonlight Bridge.

Touring the village in Hahoe is super exhausting! All that walking under the heat of the sun drained all the energy in me. When you're used to Spring's cool weather, you can't expect your body to adjust to the heat in one day. Suddenly, visions of Samgyetang, Patpingsu, and a tall glass of ice-cold Coke flooded my head.. I don't normally drink fizzy drinks but that day, it seemed irresistible to my aching throat. But it was still early to eat, and we got a lot of exploring to do so I kind of put those visions to rest.


Weolyeonggyo was our next destination that day. I was tired as hell, but the place is so serene that I was able to rest just by looking at the surroundings.. Weolyeonggyo is also called "The Moonlight Bridge". It's the nation's longest walking bridge spanning 387 meters long and 3.6 meters wide, and both platforms and railings are made entirely of pine. At night, the moon's reflection can be clearly seen on the river, hence the name Moonlight Bridge.

Here are some of our pictures taken while crossing the bridge. Too bad it's daylight instead of moonlight....

A Culture Buff In Andong's Hahoe Village.

I'm such a sucker for historical and cultural heritage sites, so when I read about Andong's Hahoe Village from a blog, I made a mental note to visit it someday. That fateful day came during Buddha's Birthday, May 21st. It was the start of the 3-day holiday here, so there's a mass exodus of Koreans moving out of the city. Roads were jammed and it looked more like a never-ending parking lot. Patience was never my virtue, so you could just imagine how incredibly annoyed I was, sitting in the car for long hours, while listening to metal music. The weather was hot that day, the hottest this year, and very humid too. I really didn't feel like walking, but when I first saw the thatched roof houses, I was motivated a little bit. But that was temporary as the thatched roof houses were actually restaurants, and the journey to get to the village was far from over.




We had to climb a hill to get there. From where I stood, you could see Nakdong River partly hidden by pine trees.

We passed by a forest too, and along the way you could see wooden statues like this.

They have rest areas like this too.

Finally, we arrived in the village. This is the first tile-roofed house I saw.

Houses here have their own addresses cause believe it or not, people actually live here. It's nice to know that while city people are going nuts over 3D TVs and fancy cellphones, some still chose to conserve their heritage and traditional living cultures.

This village is the birthplace of Ryu Seong Ryung - a very significant person in Korean history. He was the Prime Minister during the Japanese Invasion (1592-1598), and was the one who promoted Lee Sun Shin from a small county magistrate to Naval Commander. We all know how well that turned out. Lee Sun Shin is probably the best Naval Commander of all time, and if not for Ryu Seong Ryung, there wouldn't be a hero as venerated and idealized as Lee Sun Shin among Koreans today. This is is house..

Here are some of the ancient houses we saw, most of it are important folk sites.

At one of the houses there, we met a calligraphist who is willing to write any person's name in Hanja for free. He also writes old proverbs which you could frame and hang in your walls.

The name Hahoe means "river turning around". Nakdong river flows around the village, hence the name of the village. See the top of the cliff? That was our next destination.

We took a boat to cross the river and climbed to get to the edge of the cliff. At the top you'll see the whole village, bordered by Hwa-san (Mount Hwa) in full view.

It took a few hours to see the whole village. And even though it was so hot I even got a sunburn, it was well worth it. I learned a lot about Korean History and tradition that day, it helps that I have a great guide who is willing to carry my girly handbag all through out the journey... : )

*More of my adventures later...

Season's Last Hurrah.

Seven days from now, the season of cool weather, bright green trees and flowers in bloom will be finally over. Days of blistering heat and humidity will replace all things I love about Spring. I'm not really cool with Summer cause it's harsh, and it's right around the corner making it's presence felt from time to time. Like last Friday, Buddha's Birthday, it was sweltering then and I had my first dose of the bitter Summer pill. Thankfully, it was just a one-day agony, and it's back to cool and comfortable again the rest of the weekend (thanks to the rain).

Now that Spring is on it's last stretch, I felt it's fitting to have one last hurrah and the three-day holiday couldn't come in a more perfect timing. So off we went to Gyeongsang, a huge province in the South of Korea. We only got one sunny day from our three-day tour to Gyeongsang, the rest were drizzly. I thought the rain would affect our trip immensely, but surprisingly, it didn't. Of course, there's the annoying need for umbrella wherever we go, but that's just about it. It's nice to see gray skies and fog for a change. And because it's cold, there's this constant need to stay close to each other and hold each other's hand (much like scenes from sappy movies). When romance permeates the air like that, you tend to forget about the dampness all over, or the mud in your shoe, even the annoying umbrella you're carrying, and somehow everything feels nice and right.

On the night we spent in Gyeongju, at some crappy inn, and while eating Jeokbal and drinking Makgeolli, Chris proposed... sort of. It didn't really come as a shock cause we've been vocal about marriage and stuff from way back. This is an excerpt from our conversation:

* * *
Chris: Do you really have to go next month?
Moi: My ticket is non-rebookable, so yes...
Chris: How about extending your stay? I'm willing to buy you another one if you like.
Moi: Hm... (didn't answer his question).
Chris: Why? Don't you wanna stay here in Korea with me?
Moi: Not so much.. (it was meant to be a sarcastic joke)
Chris: What do you think about 'not' going home and staying here permanently?
Moi: I don't understand..
Chris: You know.. get married..
Moi: Are you proposing to me right now?
Chris: Yes..
Moi: Over pig's feet and cheap liquor?! Seriously though, I need time to think about it.
Chris: What is there to think about?
Moi: You know I've got big plans with the business and all. And I have to settle things before my mom decides to join my sister in Australia... But why are you doing this right now? I imagined you proposing with flowers and champagne. And please, I don't wanna tell my kids I got engaged while eating pig's feet!
Chris: Women are impractical, but if you want I can do that... when you're ready to say yes.

* * *

Technically we are not engaged yet, so save your congratulations for now. It might sound crazy for some, but my close friends know why I reacted like this. I'm actually at the point where I'm still weighing things, cause honestly I still don't see myself living here and married to him. Maybe in the future I will, but right now, I feel like I don't wanna be tied to a permanent bond just yet. But in all honesty, those things he said were like music to my ears. It felt really, really nice!

So now you got the gist of how the trip had been, it was filled with a jumble of mixed emotions. For me, this trip was my best ever, not because of the sights I saw (God knows I've seen so many spectacular sights here), but because I saw Chris in a totally different light. I never really appreciated the way he instinctively holds my hand while driving, or the way he offers his jacket when I'm cold or carry my girly purse whenever I'm lazy till now. Even the way he lets me sleep at the backseat of the car while he drives for long hours, always taking me to
restaurants and feeding me good things, and eventhough he's tired from work, he'd always find time to take me out on a date. It's nice to know you're loved in more ways than one. I don't know what the future holds... But maybe, just maybe.. there might actually be a happy ending for the both of us.


*Stick around for my next post, you'll be seeing amazing sights from our trip.

Rice Cake For The Sick.

Remember the chestnut-filled pastry Chris brought from Japan? Well, it was so delicious that it triggered a serious craving for more chestnuts. So the other night I went to the supermarket to buy some. I didn't have any idea how to cook it, but I read online that it can be boiled so I boiled it. Peeling it was a disaster, but I was able to eat it anyway. Little did I know that something as innocent as a bag of chestnuts could have a violent reaction to my stomach. I was sick after, had diarrhea, and my stomach constantly growling in protest for what I ate. The next day, I was still sick and couldn't eat anything the whole day. Chris was worried sick that he called thrice that afternoon to check on my condition. When he came back home, he brought some rice cake for me. I had it with a cup of Oolong tea and somehow, it calmed my tummy. Maybe I was just hungry, but the tteok was really, really delicious! It was pillowy soft and chewy, unlike the ones I've tasted before. Heard he got from Dachae Tteok Zip - a specialty rice cake store. Do check the link if you're in for some cuteness overload. : )

Incheon's Finest: Chinatown At Night.

After dinner and getting my glasses from the optical shop that night, we drove to some familiar sights in Incheon. I didn't want to go home just yet, especially when my stomach feels like a ticking time bomb and about to explode anytime. I was so uncomfortably full and guilty as hell that I planned my very own penitence to burn that massive amount of calories. So we climbed towards Jayu - Freedom Park and spent 2 hours there walking and jogging till the lights were all turned off. Then we went to Chinatown which is a few minutes away from the area in hopes to burn a few more. The steep roads there are perfect for my self-induced torture you know.

It was almost midnight, and all the shops were closed. But then we found this place - like a shrine of some sort. There's a cute little pond and it's surrounded by lanterns. It was raining a little bit so went to the gazebo for shelter. When the rain halted to a quieter drizzle, we looked around for a place to get coffee. We found a vendo machine - you know that coin-operated thing that serves coffee in teeny tiny cups? Well, Chris doesn't like it. He said something about the water being old and the cups being dirty.. So I told him "Puhleez, you're no Goo Jun Pyo so drink up!" (translation: don't be such a wuss). He's probably offended but he took a few sip to appease me. After that we called it a night. Anyway, here's how the shrine in Chinatown looks like.







*For those who are clueless about Goo Jun Pyo, well he's a character from a drama that was shown a few years ago called "Boys Over Flowers". Being the ridiculously rich person that he is, he refuses to drink coffee in vendo machines - much like Chris, except for the ridiculously rich part. : )

Incheon's Finest.

***Another food post right here. I hope you're all hungry!

Two weeks ago, Chris and I went to Incheon to celebrate Children's Day. We don't have kids, but we thought it would be nice to celebrate it in our own little way. This Spring, he's been very busy at work and stress-free days are basically non-existent. He really needs to take a breather from work-related issues that suck the life and youth out of him. And when holidays are rare as a matron's menstruation (excuse me for the comparison ^^), we just can't stay idle at home and let it pass just like that.

That night he brought me to Heuksan-do Sashimi Restaurant which is right beside his old neighborhood in Incheon. When he was younger, he frequently visited this place with his family to celebrate special occasions. He said it's the best sashimi restaurant in town. I get it, this restaurant is filled with fun memories from the old days, and it may or may not be Incheon's finest, but that remark is enough to stir the 'foodie' in me.

Before entering the restaurant, he warned me that we're gonna eat till our tummies explode, and that I should kick my caloric conscience out of the window for that particular night.

This is the first set of appetizers they served.

And this is the second one.




I don't know what this sinful dish is called. Just think it's steamed tuna belly in spicy sauce. It's really, really good. The flavor is so rich and tasty. If you're on a diet, this is maybe hard to swallow. I prefer it grilled to make it a little less fatty.




This is San Nakji - or live, squirming octopus. Kinda gross for most people, but they love it here. It's kinda funny when you eat it, especially when the suction cups hit your tongue.




Some grilled seafood and buttered corn.




This is Al-bap or fish eggs in rice. It's really tasty, that is if you're not worried about cholesterol! It's one of my favorite rice dish in Korea.

And for the main dish - Hui or Sashimi. It was love at first bite! This is sahimi heaven right here...

And lastly, Maeuntang - spicy fish soup made from heads, bones and innards of fish. A sashimi experience could never be complete without it.

And for the verdict... This is by far, the best sashimi I've ever tasted - really fresh and tasty. I was so full that I probably gained a kilo or two that night! This meal comes with a hefty price tag - about 65,000 won for two people. But it's worth it if you want to taste a lot of different things.

I never had an allergic reaction to food in my entire life. But that night I had one, probably because I exceeded an average person's seafood threshold for one night (is there such a thing?). Anyway, when we went to the optical shop after, I had rashes stippled all over my torso. Some were so huge you could even see it in the pictures!