Day 02 - From Gyung Ju to Gimhae

The next morning, we were supposed to wake up at 7.30am. However, we woke up at 8.30am, which was 7.30 Malaysian time. After washing up, we waited for Hansu's friend. He was going to join us for the outing. As we waited, We went upstairs of his house to have a look. There was an open space up there with a wooden table and few pots. According to the tv program which i saw the day before, these were the kimchi pots. Soon, Hansu's friend arrived. We greeted him, but he was shy. Hansu said that he did not speak english much. It would be quite hard for us to communicate. Anyway, he introduced him as Sumo. Sumo drove another car, Jimmy and Sanghyun went to Sumo's car. Siewchun, Cathy and I with Hansu.

Our first destination was Tumuli's Park Souvenir shops. As last night, the shops were closed, we did not manage to see anything in the shops. This morning, Hansu had a problem searching for parking place. Finally, he parked his sonata nearby a small village area. We walked all the way to the souvenir shop, however, we went back empty handed. Things were quite expensive there. We left very soon.

After that, Hansu brought us to Tesco. Along the way to Tesco, we passed by a street full of flowers. They said, it is the symbol of Autumn - Chrysantunum. We got excited and stopped by to take photos.

Korean Tesco namely Homeplus, was almost the same as Malaysian Tesco, the difference was most of the products there were written in Korean. Bananas and pineapples were sold at very high price. About RM12 for pineapple. I saw many kinds of biscuits and cookies which we have back there in Malaysia, but here it was all in Korean. When Jimmy and the others have finished their shopping, we went to the counter to pay. Plastic bags were not given as free. We had to pay about 35won for each plastic bag.

About 11.30, we went to have an early lunch, or I should say, brunch, as we did not take any breakfast. It was a Korean buffet restaurant, with various kinds of Korean food. It's only 6,400won per person. I saw many kinds of rice available there. Such as, barli rice, corn rice, etc which i never tasted before. There were also seafood, rice cake, vegetables, soup. We had a great time enjoying the food and desert.

After a satisfying lunch, we headed to park where there was a huge windmill. The sun was blazing that afternoon and the temperature was ok, not very hot. However, my head was throbbing again, and I really felt uncomfortable. We took some pictures and later headed to Mt, Tohamsan, where Bulguksa Temple and Seokguram Grotto located.

First, we visited Seokguram Grotto, which was at the top of the hill. Along the winding road, we could see the breathtaking city view of Gyeong Ju. It was simply marvellous. In Seokguram Grotto, there was the serene central status of Buddha gazes out over the forested hills and across the East Sea to the horizon. According to Hansu, previously when the Buddha statue was not surrounded by blocks of stone, the sun that rises in the morning, the sun ray shined directly onto the Buddha's forehead, forming an impressive scenic view which attracted many tourists. However, we were not allow to take photos there.

Soon after, we drove down the hill and arrived to Bulguksa Temple. Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa were both added to the UNESCO's prestigious World Cultural Heritage list in 1995. Here are some views in Bulguksa Temple. Before we returned home, we stopped by a souvenir stall and bought some gifts. The lady was kind, she gave us some souvenirs too. We walked back with big smile. As SangHyun was exhausted, so Sumo and Hansu went down hill to get their cars and we waited them by the street. The picture here shows our tired faces :P

When we got back to Hansu's home, it was only 5.30, but we were extremely hungry, we had some snack – Gyeong Ju bread. Sumo showed us some Korean coins which we did not have yet, we also showed him some Malaysian coins. We talked and rested and packed our luggage until 6.30pm, then we departed to Gyeong Ju bus terminal. The last bus to Gimhae would be leaving at 7.30. We sat Hansu’s car to the terminal together with Jimmy and SangHyun in Sumo’s car. Later, Hansu returned his car to his house and Sumo fetched him to the terminal.

In Gyeong Ju terminal as we waited, we bought the ticket. Tickets there were purchased through machines. It was a lot more convenient. Hansu came few minutes later and together we headed to the bus. The bus came on time, closed the door at 7.29, and left at 7.30 sharp. As I was too exhausted, I slept all the way to Gimhae. Behind, Hansu was laughing his head off as he saw my head kept falling to the right (sleeping :”>).

We did not reach Gimhae bus terminal. Instead we dropped off at a bus stop, and took a cab to INJE. As we were loaded with luaggage, so six of us had to take separate cab. Hansu, Cathy and I in one and Jimmy, Siewchun and Sanghyun in another. The driver was impatient. We hadn’t even place our luggage in the boot, he already moved forward. So we hurriedly dump our back pack and got in the car. Taking public transportation in Korea indeed was heart racing!

We finally reached INJE university after a turning. The driver drove us to the far end of INJE where Indeokje located. It was the biggest dormitory of INJE. As we got down the car, Shin already waited there, he was so excited and practically rushing his way to see us. We waited the rest at the railing. They called it Titanic, as there was a steel railing there high on the hill. After a short chat, I suggested we asked for the key first in case the person in charge left early. Due to some communication problems, the person seemed puzzled with our enquiry. After the guys translated our message to him, and he checked on with some other people and finally said that, we were assigned to Bio Tech Village not Indeokje. Fortunately we were informed that earlier. Hansu told the rest to wait at Bio Tech so that they did not need to carry their heavy bagpacks all the way up the hill to Indeokje, as they were taking bus, and they hopped off at the main entrance. We went down to Bio Tech Village to meet them.

Surprisingly, Bio Tech Village is a modern building with high tech facilities. They were made of many glass doors with secure entrance. According to them, it was a newly built hostel, and is quite expensive to live in. We agreed to their statement as we saw the facilities in the room. We did not require a key to enter to our rooms. All protected with pin numbers. There was an attached bathroom in each room. Everything was properly designed for twin sharing. Even cabinets, mirrors, shelves, tables were in set of two. There were air conditioner and heater too. After settling down, we met downstairs at the lobby and went for dinner. It was 10pm, and we were starving. We walked down the street outside the campus. Unlike Cyberjaya, Obangdong street was alive with exotic outlets of entertainment, food, fashion, accessories etc.

That night, we ate and as our dinner. Bukgeumbap is a kind of fried rice and naengmyeon is a cold noodle - dough made from buckwheat and potato flour and is cut into slender noodles and boiled while very fresh. The strained noodles are added to a chilled broth made of chicken stock or water from dong chimi (winter white water kimchi). After the dinner, they bought soju again and we gathered at Shin’s room at level 5. As girls were not allowed to enter guys dormitory, Shin was an expert in this, he taught us the way to sneak into level 5, by taking the elevator to level 7 (girl dormitory) and used the stairs to the “secret entrance” of level 5. We used Shin’s laptop to transfer our pictures, and also chatted with them. We also discussed the language of Chinese and Korea. It was another happy moment again before our bed time. At 12am, we went back to our rooms and have a good night sleep.