Korea wrap up

I feel I would be remiss if I didn't at least fill you in a little on our last couple of weeks in Korea.  In all, we ended up staying in Korea for one month & 2 days, and I really really really think everyone should go there.  I saw a T-shirt in a souvenir store that read "Korea: Asia's Best Kept Secret," and I can't say how true that is.  I've never known someone to go just to go, but everyone should go, because its gd awesome and, like, the most civilized country on earth.

Our Korea loop, in the end, went like this Seoul -> Sokcho -> Samcheok -> Andong -> Gyeongju -> Busan -> Seoul.  Gyeongju was, by far, the historical highlight of the trip.  Its often referred to as an "open air museum," which I insisted on saying to Ed in my best wine aficionado voice.  Like, it "open air museum, its really earthy but with a nutty finish."  I think its funnier when you hear it spoken.

Anywho, Gyeongju was the capital of the Shilla dynasty which means there are shitload of rulers buried there.  Fun fact: when kings were entombed back in the day, a pre-selected group of virgins would be lead into the tomb at burial time.  Lucky for them, they were given knives so that once the final brick was in place and they were, in essence, buried alive they could off themselves.  Same rules for the servants and the royal guard.  It must have been crowded in there, but we wouldn't want the king getting lonely in the afterlife.  So, these tombs are huge, perfect, mounds sprinkled throughout the city.  Some are in parks, some in the mountains, some right in the downtown next to a row of ice cream shops.  I called them grass boobs and was originally underwhelmed.  But then wizened owl Ed made this sterling observation: what is amazing about these grass boobs is that in the time they were built, people weren't creating monuments of stone or brick.  They used what they had available, which was dirt.  And using their hands and dirt and engineering, they made something perfectly round and really tall in tribute.  Which is kind of rad. 

Bulguksa Temple is another fascinating and beautiful site to visit in Gyeongju. We've been to a lot of temples.  In China we were palace'd out but in Korea, we were temple'd out.  That said, this one was probably the most impressive that we visited.  Like all beautiful things in Asia, it was burned to the ground by another Asian nation (this time Japan) and they've been working on the restoration ever since.  Its also a Unesco World Heritage site which, if you come to Asia, is a huge freaking deal.  Everybody is all Unesco this, World Heritage that.  Its like they EGOT'd. 

The highlight of Gyeongju for me, though, was a hike up Mt. Namsan.  Along the trails there are huge stone Buddha carvings, tiny ancient temples, pagodas, religious relics and more grass boobs all the way to the summit.  This allowed us to learn and sweat and be spiritual all at once.  Just an awesome, perfect day.  Incidentally, followed by one of my favorite Korean meals of the trip. 

We're now in Shanghai which is totally awesome because my friend Allison is here!  But, we haven't yet quite re-acclimated to the honking and spitting and yelling and general chaos.  Korea was like the nerdy, tidy Uncle you like to visit at his house in the Catskills.  He makes organic Chicken for dinner and reads Proust by the fire and you admire him, but don't really see the resemblance.  China is like your sloppy kid brother.  You love him, but you know that a weekend with him is going to be noisy and, inevitably, involve vomit.  

 

Ding ding ding, here comes the graphing mobile!

Once in a while, I feel I need to represent my thoughts pictorially and flex my dusty work muscles. Thus, a Venn Diagram to illustrate observations of accommodations in Korea.
The prevalence of love motels is what makes Korea an easy and affordable place to travel. They are well located, don't require reservations, clean, cheap, and available in every town. What's hard to wrap my head around is why it is seemingly so embarrassing to stay in one. Privacy curtains over the entrance to the parking garage ensure that, from the street, you can only see patrons from the waist down. Check in is through a tiny window (sometimes of black plexiglass) so the proprietor can't see you. To check out, one leaves the key in a box mounted in the elevator, again minimizing human contact. I'm not complaining; the last 2 nights of our Korea loop, we stayed here for $40/night:

What I'm saying though, is this. The tourist hotel located next door to the love motel charges 3X as much for similar or lesser amenities. The love motels are, apparently, somewhat shameful places to bunk up. Why doesn't an enterprising Korean start the low-end hotel, charging love motel prices but allowing the local patrons to feel respectable-like all at once? It's pretty easy, guys, just build a love motel but block the porn channels, don't offer day rates, and viola – you're a hotelier! Y'all make Hyundai's for god's sake, you can figure this out.

Here comes the story of the hurricane...

There is currently a typhoon headed toward SK.  Not a mighty, scary, model-stuck-in-a-tree-in-Thailand-because-of-the-resulting-tsunami typhoon, but a typhoon all the same.  My vision of us on the rocky west coast of Korea for our last few days before we return to Seoul has thusly been shattered.  We weren't sure exactly where we were headed, but now it definitely isn't West.

We just got up and moving and I'm thinking we'll go to Busan, which is just an hour South of here and not in the direct path of the storm.  The weather will probably be crap, but if we can find a motel with a view of the ocean, I might not even care.  A balcony would pretty much ensure my happiness for the next 48 hours.

So, I'm going to go and figure out how to get us there.  Also, pick up some Rumourpang which is an unnaturelly  addictive Korean chain food.  What they do, you see, is  make these coffee-ish flavored buns that are about the size of your head and the consistency of a crossaint.  I imagine there is at least one crack-like ingredient because I literally wake up thinking about these buns. 

Gotta go.  Buns!