Joe and I went on what was probably our final road trip in Korea this past 3-day weekend. We almost weren't going to do much of anything this weekend, but then realized--holy s**t, these are our last few days in Korea! We have to explore!
So we did.
What we discovered, if we hadn't already discovered it during our winter road trip, is that Korea is best explored by car. The trains are fast and efficient, but you don't get to see much. The buses go everywhere, but you can't hop on and off at will. Car is the way to go. Especially for a country like Korea that is sprinkled with temples, shrines, museums, traditional villages, and cultural assets (all numbered and catalogued on plaques and brochures galore) every which way you turn. You can't drive 10 miles in any direction without hitting a temple or a shrine. And the great thing is everything is either free or super cheap to get into. I don't think we've paid more than $3 to get into a museum.
First we went southwest to a place called Damyang which is known for its bamboo forests, daetongbap (rice cooked inside bamboo), Metasequoia Road, which has been voted one of Korea's most beautiful walking trails, and for being generally gorgeous. The bamboo forest was magical. The daetongbap was delicious. And Metasequoia Road, which ran alongside a river, was peaceful. We went early enough so that the bamboo forest wasn't crowded; because of the size of Korea, it seems that everyone always goes to the same tourist spots, which can make communing with nature impossible. After eating our daetongbap, we decided to head toward a fortress on the outskirts of town. The drive there was gorgeous--lakes, lush foliage, small towns here and there.
We didn't end up actually finding the fortress (signs in Korea lie), but we found something much better: Yeondongsa Temple. Even though the color scheme and architecture of temples are similar, every temple is different. This one was nestled high in the mountains, and had a beautiful pond and stream--the sound of the running water punctuated our time there as we explored. For most of the time, we were the only visitors, so everything took on this heightened sense of mystery--it was like stepping into Narnia.
Next, we headed toward Gwangju, where the May 18 National Cemetery is. In the 1980s, the military slaughtered over 300 citizens who protested against a militarized government and who demanded a democracy. The government called these people Communists and thereby justified their murders. The cemetery, and museum, was built to honor those people who had died and those who had been imprisoned and tortured. We read that what Tiananmen Square was to China, Gwangju was to Korea. It was a really sobering experience to walk through the museum and the grounds, and to see the faces of all those who had died. There were visitors crying as they walked through the memorial, which reminded us of how recently this event had happened in Korea's history and how painful the memories still are.
From there we drove south to Boseong, which is famous for its green tea plantations. I had been wanting to check these out for ages. We ended up getting there right at dusk. We had just enough light to see the dramatic sweep of row after row of green tea growing along the step mountainsides. It was probably one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Sorry, Grand Canyon.
The next day, we headed east to Gyeongju, a city that every Korean person will tell you to visit. It's known as an outdoor museum--you can walk or bike through shrines, fields of flowers, museum grounds, tumuli parks (where important people of old are buried), etc. Though only an hour away, we hit mega traffic because this so happened to be the one weekend when school kids actually get vacation and families travel. Once we had passed all the miserable traffic and gotten into the city, we loved it. It was hot as all get out, but we pushed on through the humidity and walked all over the place. The city was bursting with flowers. It was beautiful.
From there, we headed up north to Jangsa Beach to meet up with some of Joe's friends who own a private beach there. We tried to hit up a temple, but it was closed. Boo. Joe went swimming in the sea, we chowed down on some abalone rice and steak, and then headed home.
Our last day of the weekend, we decided to stay a little closer to home, since we had to return the car by 6pm. We went north with no particular destination in mind. We stopped wherever we felt like stopping. We ended up stopping at the Waegwan War Memorial (the site of one of the most important battles of the Korean War), a mini temple called Buleunsa, the most gorgeous lotus field/pond near a town called Seonsa, a gorgeous, sprawling temple called Dorisa, a shrine/temple for some army commander in the 16th century, and then finally to Sangju Museum. Driving in and around Sangju was so beautiful. I've never heard anyone even mention Sangju as an interesting destination, but it's chock full of temples, shrines, museums, an equestrian park, and miles of verdant fields. And, the people are beyond nice. So many people talked to us, asked where we were from, and welcomed us to Sangju. Daegu looks like a mean step-sister next to Sangju.
We didn't want to give the car back by the end of the weekend. We wanted to keep driving all over Korea, seeing more temples and museums, buying more roadside peaches and apples, taking more pictures. Though it may sound cheesy--we fell in love with Korea that weekend, just like we had during our winter driving adventure. And we needed that.
Side note: we were a bit late returning the car. There was no key drop box, so we parked the car and jammed the keys in between the double glass doors of the office. Luckily, Avis didn't charge us extra and they weren't too upset that we had nearly broken in to leave the keys. Korea.
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