Bulguksa Temple

We are in Gyeongju for a few days exploring the many World Heritage
Sites here.  Gyeonju is near the south east coast of Korea and has the humidity of our south east coast.  We went to the Bulguksa Temple today and spent about 3 hours wandering arund.  It is in a mountainous area with lots of pine trees and ponds and nature around.  We met a woman from Philly on the bus and hung out with her the whole time.

These are random pictures of the temple area. It is a Jewish tradition to put pebles or stones on a gravesite when you have visited, and we have noticed this carries into other cultures also. The stones above were piled high in several areas of the Temple grounds.

I haven't seen many temples with this stonework, most of them are made of wood which is why so many of them have burned down over the centuries.



This lake was loaded with koi and very peaceful..  On a side note, we have all noice that the children here are really well behaved and we have no idea why.  We've seen lots of children fall down, one even fell of a broken bus bench and whacked his head, yet none of them cry, in fact they look embarrassed.  In the restaurants, they sit quietly at the table, no yelling or fighting. I never here the parents raise their voices, and they seem to indulge them.  I don't know what their trick is.

This is another Buddha picture.  Believe it or not, they are all slightly different. Last time we were in Japan we were with some travelers from England, and they had a phrase, ABT, which meant Another Bloody Temple, but so far I haven't felt that way.



This last picture is just a doorway at one of the buildings there, and I loved the colors.
I had thought it would be fun to go to the University this afternoon to have lunch and hang out.  The map the hotel gave us was unfortunately not to scale, and when we got off the bus at what we thought was the closest stop to the university, we ended up walking over a mile before we said forget it, as we didn't seem to be getting any closer.  Ted kept saying what a great adventure it was, and how sometimed getting lost is the most fun. Not. Luckily, we ended up at a French bakery (go figure) and carbo loaded our lunch.  Tonight we ate at an Italian restaurant in the hotel.  I think we are getting a little tired of Korean food.  Tomorrow we head on to Jeju island wich is supposed to be like Hawaii.  I have my doubts. We are planning dinner at a Mexican restaurant we heard about.