Thursday, June 3, 2010

South Korea - Part 6 More Busan!


The next morning the girls took us to Gyeongju which has A LOT of tombs.


This is a man made lake that was created by the Korean president at that time which was in the early 80's.


This is me and Hellena with her girlfriends. The cherry blossoms were gorgeous.




This is a tea house made from mud.

She didn't even know I was taking her picture.


I love how the Koreans show their affection for each other.




A tomb.


Kids getting ready for their photo op.


We saw lots of kids as we explored.


They were so well behaved.


I love the old roofs.






This is how they weed. Not a chemical spray in sight.


It was kind of chilly the day I took this picture but I have seen them dressed the same even when it is 100 degrees out.

This famous Korea drama was filmed here so it draws lots of people.


My favorite picture of myself and Hellena.





This was a photo op. Koreans LOVE to take pictures of themselves.


Hellena said that we had to put a pebble onto the top of this rock pile without it falling. You also had to make sure you didn't know any others off. You had to make a wish and it would come true if the pebble stayed in place.


Yep, this is how I saw a lot of the men's bathrooms. The girls didn't think anything of it. Rocketman always has a problem if he needs to go but he has gotten accustomed to seeing this.




Some tombs are very small and some are HUGE. It all depends on the person's rank and wealth.

Hellena had me put a flower behind my ear and then do this pose. She wanted a picture for Hannah. She said in Korea to put a flower behind your ear means you are crazy and then to do what I did means you have really lost your mind.



I never get tired of looking at this.


This was inside a Buddhist temple.




I love the paper lotus flowers. You find these a lot covering the ceiling in a Buddhist temple.


Outside of a Buddhist temple.


How they keep the temple clean.




Another temple.


Inside the temple.


It was fascinating for me coming from a Christian background and knowing very little about Buddhism to explore these temples.


This was an outdoor temple.




At one of the temples, we found glucose IV's being given to the trees. I had never seen anything like this in the U.S.

It got to be lunchtime so we found this restaurant.


This is a picture from the inside.


This was lunch!


Along with this. Can you believe it?


Afterwards we had a cup of coffee and then we caught the train back to Seoul. We had so much fun with Hellena and her girlfriends. They want us to come back and we certainly will.
One of the tombs we visited had a visitor's center where an old ajumma was drying dandelions all over the floor of the center. I told Hellena how I could send her a bunch from our yard and she told the lady what I had said. Dandelions are pretty rare and she said that she had to walk very far to find them. She said that they are good for stomach aches and can also cure cancer. I now look at my dandelions in a different way and wonder if she could be right.

2 comments:

  1. That should be "South Korea - Part 6 Gyeongju!"

    Gorgeous! I love the lunch pictures.

    We spent a few days in Gyeongju (back in '97 when they were romanizing it as Kyoungju), but we were there in June, so there weren't any cherry blossoms. It was a fun trip!

    Did you not make it out to Bulguksa?

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  2. Helena: We were not familiar with the area at all so we went where they took us. This was a very spur of the moment trip. We were paying for two hotel rooms which at first upset Rocketman but it was worth it in the end.

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