Today was a day of tiredness and A LOT of walking. We had to meet down at the lobby at 8:00 am to start our day of touring around the historic city of Gyeongju. A tour guide was hired to take us around Gyeongju and teach us about the sites we would be visiting. The first place we visited was the ancient tombs of the Silla kingdom. There were hundreds of circular domes of grass that were tombs for the wealthy spread across the whole area we were visiting. We went to a park where one of these tombs had been tapped into and made into a display for the public to view. It was a very cool place to visit, reminiscent of the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Each tomb was built the same way, with a small wooden containing a casket and a chest surrounded by rocks and then a layer of clay to prevent people from breaking in and from water penetrating the tomb. Finally, a layer of dirt was placed that would grow grass around the whole thing. They were truly fascinating. After observing the tombs we were brought to see an ancient observatory used by the Silla kingdom. It is one of the oldest observatories in the world and one of the most important symbols of Korea. After this, we were taken to a beautiful ancient Silla plaza that had cool structures and a pond filled with koi fish and turtles. The hot sun was beating down on us as we walked around the complex and took it its elegant views. We then boarded the bus and were taken to a museum displaying many artifacts from the ancient Silla kingdom. I walked around with Calvin and one of our translators Han Min reading about all of the pots, swords, and jewelry worn and used during that time period. We ate lunch at another traditional Korean restaurant where we were served many different Korean dishes and I even was able to try some raw octopus. Post lunch we visited an ancient bridge built for the Silla emperor and walked across it over a river. Our group then hopped on the bus and drove all the way up a winding mountain road to the top to a Buddhist temple. I still don’t know how our bus driver was able to go up without crashing at least twice. Today was the celebration of Buddha’s birthday so were allowed to enter into a room containing a shrine of Buddha where many Buddhist people were praying. I christened a Buddha statue by pouring three spoonfuls of water over it at the temple. Our last visit of the day was to another Buddhist temple at the bottom of the same mountain. The temple was even bigger and we went into a few buildings and looked at some Buddha Shrines and the scenic paper lanterns displayed across the whole temple. These two temples were the highlight of the day. Our night consisted of walking to a Dominos pizza back near the hotel and hitting the hay early to prepare for our trip to Ulsan and the two company visits tomorrow.
