Korean Job Discussion Forums

[captain kirk]

Ha, this is Dave's. You think I'm being cynical or jaded, right? So often the posts, when they're really raving and rarin' to go, are one hundred mile an hour stylist rants about being donkey kicked out of a job, ripped off, and set on the street trussed and tied with an apple in your mouth for Koreans to laugh it.

Well, no, but I have been recently donkey kicked out of a job so smoothly it felt like Vegas. As part of my spiritual, soul healing I'm on a trip to anywhere but work, since that doesn't exist anymore. And, on my way, I stopped in Kyongju. Not deliberately, mind you (I've been there five times) but because the motorcycle failed. It wasn't charging anymore and the battery just steadily depleted from Cheonan to Kyongju, where it quit (turned out it was the coil, magnets and wire which pass on a charge).

So the mechanic's apprentice walked me to a nearby motel for twenty bucks. Inside this nice, quiet clean place off nice, quiet main street, on the white walls, were Korean traditional prints. One, I woke up looking at, was a natural scene (the other caligraphy). In the natural scene a 'seeker'/hermit is sitting by a river and forested bank with mist and mountains. Nature seems alive and he sits head bowed as if in awe. Kinda have to be out of work and out of luck to appreciate a picture like that. Thanks, I appreciate it!

And, looking out the yogwan window, is a sea of dragon, tile rooves. Those little Korean cottages hunkered down in the valley out of the wind. And, daintily padding across this sea of rooves, a cat. Another sight best appreciated mellow with a side order of unemployment. That day, my one day in Kyongju while the autobike was getting fixed, I walked from the bus terminal directly across the river heading towards a low foothill. I like to 'bushwhack', hike where there's no trail. Get to see the texture of the wild, untrailed land. And, as the sun was going down, an orange ball lighting up the pines and casting their snaky-trunked, sinuous, dragon-bodied shadows onto the forest carpet of brown, ochre fallen leaves, I got out onto the road and saw a tourist destination up on the mountaintop.

It was the tomb of admiral so and so and it was made in the year 700. Paid 500 won and walked up to it, 30 meters in circumference and, at its base and running aroud, stone carved friezes showing zodiac animals. Carved with the artistic sensibilities and worldview of the artists from the culture of that far off time. Cool. Walk back down to Kyongju and it's mellow. The people are old and gold, like those far off times. Just gotta say I had a good time in Kyongju appreciating where time stops and looks behind to the dreamland of the past. Nice feeling, nice place.

[pest2]

Never made it to Kyongju but heard it's supposed to have the best artifacts in all of Korea...

Yeah, as much as I complain about it here, there are certain places in Korea that are quite cool (to visit).

[Homer]

Kyungju is a great place to visit.

We have family there so we end up spending a weekend in Kyungju now and then.

Ever see the Sokuram Grotto at sunrise?

That is a sight well worth seeing..it is awe inspiring.

[Pericles77]

[Homer]

Ever been there at sunrise?


If not...you are missing my point.

Not to mention that the building and glass partition are there to preserve this national treasure.....

[Zack_in_Korea]

yeah kyongju is among my favourite cities in korea.. along with anyang.

[whitebeagle]

After my visit to Gyeongju id put it right up there with the greats: Incheon and Uijeoungbu

[visitor q]

[Bulsajo]

It's fun for a weekend. Is the Scorpion guy at the wierd hostel still there? What a wierd place...

[Ya-ta Boy]

Wonder whatever became of the 'professor' who demanded an apology for being asked to speak to other restaurant guests during his (?) birthday date at a hotel there. It's been a couple of years since that one. I think of it everytime Kyoungju gets mentioned. Still boggled by that one.

[bluelake]

I lived in Kyongju for fourteen years+ My wife still has her business there, so I get over there often (I'm just a stone's throw, over near Pohang now); I'll even be there this weekend. It's a beautiful city that everyone should visit at least once while in Korea.


T

[skookum]

We spent three nights there a few weeks back. The first night, our hotel was too HOT. We went to another for the second night. It was too COLD. So, off to the third one on the third night (the Gyeong-an, just about 3 blocks from the train station) and it was JUST RIGHT! One of the better of the cheaper hotels.

I first came to Gyeongju in 1975 when there were still houses around Cheomseongdae. They did a lot of urban removal but there's still a lot to see - I've been there quite a few times and see some things new each time.

[Pericles77]

[animalbirdfish]

[captain kirk]

It's just so laid back and golden. It reminds me of Canada's Banff. It has something people come to see and the citizens are mellow hosts. I didn't see a scorpion guy at a weird hostel, though, Bulsajo. So dunno if he's still there, with his scorpion, at the weird hostel....