Kyeongju I

For the first three I just want to throw out that I think the style of architecture reminded me of the big temple in Thrichur.





This fish is a drum.

Ok, now I will put some narrative.

I met the graduate students at their office at 8:05 this morning. Which is to say that I was five minutes late for the scheduled 8am meeting. I had hoped to hit the ATM on the way over, but it wanted some passbook confirmation number over and above my PIN so I didn't manage to get money. This was unfortunate since I would have liked to insist on paying for things but could not because I didn't have enough money. Anyway, I think I already introduced the abbreviations, J, SB and SH for the three graduate students. But if did it probably bears repeating, and if I did not, well there it is. J was driving. I think he is the only one of the three with a car. So, we headed out and got into J's car and drove to Kyeongju. I remark that the "correct" transliteration is Gyeongju, but the initial consonant is pronounced like "k." Also "eo" is pronounced like the vowel in "law," and sometimes transliterated as "u."

While in the car I tried to form some impression of the Korean countryside and decide, for example, which of the other countrysides I have been driven through it resembles most closely. Like Israel, you see bus stops on the highway. I guess because both countries are geographically small but densely populated. The flora is more like North America or Europe than India or the Middle East. With the moist climate and mountainous terrain the part of North America it reminded me most of was Nova Scotia. Somehow the fields in the valleys were more like the midwest US though. Something about the buildings was like India. Maybe the propensity for putting up four and five storey buildings out in the middle of nowhere. (Whereas, in the US, only horizontal space restrictions will make us build vertically.) Also the newness of the buildings and the appearance that there's no sort of plan to anything but a lot of construction going on.

As we were pulling into Kyeongju one could tell one was in a city with a bit more history than Pohang because there were all these old-style roofs around. I'm not sure what the word is for this kind of roof, but as in the photo above. They put them on everything. For example, at the gas station there would be a sort of roof over the pumps so that one does not get wet pumping one's gas when it is raining. That thing will have this kind of roof on it. I wish I had gotten a picture. But this morning I was a bit worried I would run out of battery power for my camera and then by afternoon I had forgotten.

We arrived to Kyeongju still quite early and were the third car into the parking lot.
I went to the bathroom, and crouched on the picture hung over the urinal was the loveliest little mottled frog.
We had a ten minute walk up a hill. I saw this ornately painted gate and was going to take a picture, but then SH explained to me that it was not a famous temple. It was a hotel that was mimicing the style of the temples.
Then we exited town and entered the sort of park associated to our first historical site, which was a big Buddhist temple called Bulguksa. We continued climbing this hill, now on a footpath through a park with vendors stalls on the side. It's a bit reminiscent of the footpath up the hill to the caves at elephanta in Bombay, except without cows and monkeys, and since it was early in the morning the stalls were not opened yet.

At the top of the hill was another parking lot, and several large busses full of elementary school children being unloaded.

I think this post is long enough. Let me finish with some links. Well, actually, allow me to save time and give due credit in one fell swoop, like so