Gyeongju, part II

Hello again! 

This is part II of my vacation to Gyeongju. If you missed Part I, click HERE!!


After looking at dead people, we figured we didn't have enough time to see the main attractions. Instead, we decided to follow these fascinating signs that said "King Munmu's Underwater Tomb."

It sounded completely fascinating, and Korean Boy had a car, so we figured we'd just go see whatever that was and see the bigger things tomorrow.


So we started driving. We followed the signs, not sure where it would take us.

"Munmu's Undersea Tomb"

"King Munmu's Amazing Marine Tomb"

"Underwater Tomb of the Great King Munmu."

Looking back, the fact that they couldn't come up with one name to call it should have told us something.


But anyway, we drove and drove and then I saw a sign for another temple, so we took a little detour and went to check it out.


This ended up being my favorite place in all of Gyeongju, and it wasn't even advertised well. We saw maybe two signs for it, compared to the 30 signs for King Munmu.

Anyway, here it is!


We parked at the bottom and walked up the hill.

As you can see, some martial arts training apparently happens here.

Temples are often guarded by statues like this:

Here is a dorm where the teenage boys training in martial arts stay. The sign says "No women permitted."  x.x

Another building. Office or something? We don't think we were allowed to go look, we were still walking uphill to the temple.

And the temple...it was unlike any temple I'd ever seen!

 Wha...what the heck is this?!

Well, it's a temple. On a rock.

Finally, something in Korea that's actually original and creative!! Instead of a building, it was a rock covered in tiny little cave shrines!!


I was excited to explore! Korean Boy was afraid of heights, so I went up alone.

It's higher than it looks, I promise.

At this point I went back down and got my camera so I could take some pics of some of the little caves:

I forget the number, but there were well over a dozen places to pray on this rock.

So many Buddhas!

Nice little shrine inside a cave...there's even electricity?!

And the whole rock was covered in little tiny shrines like this.

Now, the pictures really don't do it justice, but this was extremely scary. The rocks are uneven, slippery, and loose, the path is narrow (if there's a path at all) and the rails are way too low to stop you from tumbling over if you slip.

Right after I took this picture, this old couple appeared, put down a blanket, and started bowing right there on that slanted platform. I guess your life being in danger can make you feel  more spiritual? o.O

At this point I had enough. There was another place to go up, but I was on the wrong side and didn't want to go back around...so I found something that vaguely resembled stairs and headed down.

Then I found a random spring.

So cool!!

Part III soon.