Korea Part 2

Apologies for the delay in continuing the Korea saga - computer crashed.

We took a taxi from Gyeonju Bus terminal to our hotel - hang the expense; we had dragged those cases far enough. It transpired that we had booked into a lakeside resort about 5 miles out of town but fortunately it was out of season. The gardens were wonderful throughout the resort and very inspirational, may be the garden design at Mas de Bouye will be updated - watch this space!

We did intensive site seeing on our first full day at Gyeonju. We decided it was easier to book a tour, which was definitely the right choice as we went all over the area. Gyeonju was the centre of the Silla Dynasty 1400 years ago. The Silla nation eventually adopted the Buddhist religion so temples featured heavily. The first one, Bulguksa, was the best and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We were amazed and pleased to see that school children were brought in their hundreds to see their cultural heritage ( and they all wanted to say hello, asked where we came from and did we know David Beckham).

There were only 7 people on our tour and 4 of them were a charming Korean family Mum, Dad, Simon and his brother. Simon was in his twenties , spoke good English and acted as our guide all day. He translated all the time, helped us with food and encouraged us to try Korean customs. However, he failed to tell us that beer bottles do not contain beer. John took an enormous swig only to find that it was "soju", a spirit fermented from rice wine and favoured by alcoholics as it is incredibly cheap and strong. John reckoned it was a kin to industrial alcohol!

Next day and Tour 2. This time there was a coach load of people including Simon and family and Jane, a Korean-American who had just finished Law School , having previously spent 4 years in France. Lots more temples and ruins (you can overdose on temples) but the highlight was lunch. We went to a small fishing village that was a bit seedy but reminscent of hundreds all over the world. Jane explained that we could have "live" fish or beef stew. John enquired what she meant by live fish as we had been given to understand that it was raw fish. She explained that when she was last in Korea aged 10 she had gone with her family to a restaurant to have this dish and her father was served with a fish on his plate which she assumed was dead until he cut into it and it flipped - I immediately chose the beef stew. When we arrived at the restaurant we had to take off our shoes, sit on cushions on the floor and eat at tables a foot off the ground. OK if you've been doing this from birth but incredibly uncomfortable for 2 old foggies. Whoops, something must have gone wrong in translation because we got the raw fish anyway ( but Jane and I were incredibly relieved that it had been prepared and was not still jumping around). Amongst the array of dishes was a grilled trout, how on earth do you eat that with chopsticks? Easily it would seem, as I turned round to see perfectly picked bones on Simons table. We ate the raw fish wrapped in lettuce leaves and it was totally bland, hence all the spices, one presumes. Then along came the fish stew - for beef read fish - well fish heads actually. As it was put on a burner, like fondue, we decided to cook our fish in the stew.

When we went outside we saw great big tanks full of fish, gives a whole new meaning to the word "pantry".

We certainly experienced a new culture and we couldn't get over how pleasant and helpful everyone was. We were given raw chestnuts by one family and when we got off the bus at the end of the tour, Simon gave us his card - he was assistant business planning manager for Louis Vuitton, in Seoul. Pity I didnt know before as my handbag had broken 3 days earlier.

The following day we had to make our way to Busan, the seconded biggest city in Korea which was an hour away from Gyeonju. However we were rather concerned because we had not been able to get any money out of the ATMs whilst we were in Gyeonju and funds were virtally non - existent. Coupled with our money problems Guy had told us that there would be hundreds of people travelling as it was the biggest public holiday of the year, a fact confirmed by the tourist office. At the bus station our first stroke of luck, they took credit card for the fare(£5) and then the bus left in 5 minutes with us and 2 others on it! (Next episode when I get more stamina).