From Taipei we flew to Busan, in the south of South Korea. After the busy end to our Taiwan trip we were keen to take it easy, so Wednesday was a complete day off. We did make it out to the market to check out the street food, and discovered this trip was going to be significantly more expensive than what we’re used to! On Thursday our exploration of Korea began properly, and we had a few sites of interests to see around the city, all spread quite far apart. First we headed to the biggest temple in Busan, with beautiful curved roofs and painted eaves. From there we wandered through a park with a hedge maze, and a local market selling all kinds of sea creatures, before reaching the ocean just before sunset. We took a leisurely walk along a cliffside trail, enjoying the sights of the city across the bay as it turned from day to night.

On Friday we made our way to another temple, this time situated right on the seafront. After another brief walk along the coast we headed to the most popular beach in the city, with a large stretch of beautiful sand and freezing cold water. It was great to be back to dry weather, but I didn’t expect it to be so hot! An afternoon at the beach was just what was needed, so we decided to forgo our plans for the rest of the day and just stay put. 

At the weekend we moved on to our next stop, a temple stay in the middle of nowhere. This was an opportunity to live like a monk for a day, learn more about Buddhist culture in Korea and have an authentic local experience. While it was interesting, it also felt a little Disney, as there turned out to be an awful lot of other people wanting the same experience, which made it more touristy and less authentic. We were given uniforms that made us look like farmers in pyjamas, allocated to gender specific dorms, and given a timetable of meditations, chanting and training. One of the main things here we were interested in was learning about sunmudo, a Korean Buddhist martial art practised in the country for over 1000 years. This particular temple stay is well known for teaching the basics of this martial art. We did a lot of difficult stretches, and were told to ‘pull your anus’ while learning the breathing technique. We ended the day with 108 prostrations, the traditional practice of bowing repeatedly to free oneself of the 108 sources of suffering. The bows were fairly similar to burpees, it’s basically 108 squats but for religious reasons, and the next day my thighs were on fire.

After a 5am start for some more meditation and exercises, we left the temple stay and headed to Gyeongju, the ancient Korean capital. We arrived by 1pm but check in was not allowed until 3, so we decided to walk around the downtown area of historic sites. We visited ancient tombs, Asia’s oldest observatory, the ruins of an old fortress and palace, and the National Museum. We happened to see a procession of high school kids dressed up in the traditional costumes of a princess and her guards, in a sort of homecoming queen style celebration from several hundred years ago. We then happened upon an ancient Confucian school where some sort of graduation or engagement party was happening. Nobody spoke any English so we still have no idea what the occasion was, but an old man beckoned us to join everyone sitting around a small hall. Tables were then brought out with all sorts of savoury and sweet local snacks, and a sweet rice drink. After smiling at everyone and trying a few different things, we continued on our way, with a bow and a handshake from the friendly old man. A weird but wonderful experience of Korean culture! 

Having visited all the sites in town, the next day we decided to head out to some of the UNESCO listed temples in the countryside nearby. First up was Bulguksa, one of the most important Buddhist Temples in South Korea. Building everything out of wood means nothing we visit is much older than a century at maximum, having been rebuilt multiple times over the ages. The sites themselves hold a lot of history, however, and this particular temple in its various iterations has been an important landmark since the 8th century. Next we went to Seokguram Grotto, a cave temple with a huge Buddha statue surrounded by carved guardians and deities. Unfortunately to preserve the site you’re only able to view the cave through a glass window, so it’s hard to fully appreciate how impressive the artwork is. From there we hiked back to Bulguksa for an easier bus connection back to town. I say hike, but choosing to do it in this direction made it just a very leisurely downhill walk through the forest.

On Tuesday we headed to Seoul, and spent the afternoon in Gangnam, the downtown area famous for that song with the weird dance with the hands (see picture below). We didn’t have a hotel booked this night, and instead planned to stay overnight at a traditional Korean spa, called a Jjimjilbang. Staying overnight at these is a fairly common Korean experience, but after Covid many of the spas stopped being open 24/7, or even failed to reopen at all. So it was a little tricky to find one that looked reasonably nice, with any English description at all. The one we found ended up being very pleasant, popular with the locals but not too busy, and very cheap. The main spa areas are separated by gender and you go nude. There were 3 different temperatures of hot pool, a pool with jacuzzi jets, a freezing cold plunge pool, and two different temperature saunas. Once you’ve bathed as much as you want, you can put on the pyjamas they provide you with and go into the main common area for both men and women. This is a large open space with mats and pillows for sleeping, a cafe, gym, and more saunas of different temperatures and styles. We had an ice room, crystal room, quartz room, salt room, and a room that was essentially a human pizza oven, with a domed roof, furnace, and sand timer because you can’t stay in for more than 5 minutes because of the heat. After some chilling and some sweating on repeat, we settled in for the night. In the morning we enjoyed some more bathing time and set out to explore more of Seoul feeling very refreshed.​

We spent Wednesday and Thursday being tourists, visiting palaces, discovering street food options and exploring old Hanbok villages of small winding alleyways filled with shops and restaurants. In our usual way we managed to be at the palace gates exactly as the changing of the guard ceremony began. We also stumbled across an underground museum we had no idea existed beneath a public square full of statues, and another museum with a weird exhibition all about cats. We gorged on an all you can eat Korean BBQ consisting solely of different cuts of pork. And we found a lovely riverside walk to spend the end of the day sitting by the water and chatting and snacking.

On Friday morning our friends Mel and Thomas arrived. Mel had booked us a colour theory session, where you learn which colour palettes suit your skin tone, and what to wear in each season. The session was in a different area of the city which turned out to be a fun studenty area with colourful streets, arcades and quirky food and drink options. Creed decided not to join us for our style lesson (he said a few hours learning about colour matching in fashion was wasted on the colourblind guy) so he wandered around the area and found us some snacks, and once we all met up again we found a spot to sit and people watch with a picnic. On the way back home we stopped off at the same riverside walk, which was much busier this evening with chairs set up and twinkling lights, and had another picnic while catching up on life since we last saw each other.​

On Saturday it rained a lot. We got a late start because we didn’t want to go outside, but eventually ventured out for brunch at a cheese cafe with cheesecake, cheese souffle, cheese scones, a cheese and berry pastry and a cheese and basil pastry. We braved the rain to visit a culture street with many art and craft shops, and then headed out to one of the ancient city gates, where fortunately the skies cleared up a little. On the walk back we passed through a huge bustling food market, and tried some bao, tteokbokki, and sashimi to round off our Korean food experience. After one last shrine visit it was time to grab our bags and head to the airport, which involved a little begging at the automated machines because we’d run our cash down, it didn’t take credit cards, and we hadn’t accounted for the train tickets requiring a 500 won deposit on top of the ticket price, so we were lacking about USD$2.

Thanks for following along on my crazy adventures!

 Ros ♥

If you’re interested in how I got here, or where I went next, check out the rest of the story!