Gyeongju is known as Korea's open air museum being the historical capital of the Shilla Dynasty for over a 1000 years. A short hours bus ride from Daegu I've visited many times during my stay. Biking is a popular option and something surprisingly I've never done during my stay or many visits.This weekend I decided to try something different and explore the many biking trails away from the centre and most famous sights. I had already been spending the weekend in G...

Korea has an abundance of Temples and having visited so many I'm trying to find the more unusual ones to visit. One I read about was Golgulsa which I planned to visit on my weekend trip to Gyeongju. Golgulsa temple is unique in several ways not only having rock cliff shrines and a giant carved Buddha but I also wandered into a martial arts display that takes place twice daily.Golgulsa is located in the country well outside the Gyeongju city limits. To reach it yo...

This evening I got to experience another jimjilbang, this time in Gyeongju. For those unfamiliar this is a cheap place to crash for $10/nite with a communal sleeping hall and communal showers.The tourist info office said there were three jimjilbangs in Gyeongju in different parts of town and fortunately there was one next to the Teddy Bear Museum which I had just visited (see previous entry)Admission was 11,000w ($10) and as I had come early after 7pm I was the o...

Korea has a peculiar fascination with Teddy Bear Museums. There are two in Jeju Island, one in Seoul, and two in Gyeongju. On a previous visit to Gyeongju I had mistakenly visited its other Teddy Bear Museum thinking it was this one so today was able to finally visit the right one(See Gyeongju's other Teddy Bear Museum http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-e ntries/londone7/1/1333313873/tpod.html)The Teddy Bear Museum spans two floors and is broken into many inte...

After spending the first half of the day in Pohang I caught a bus to Gyeongju and went to the tourist info office to plan the rest of the day. I was planning to goto Golgulsa Temple and then come back to a jimjillbang to spend the night there.The tourist info office explained there were three jimjilbangs in different parts of town. One was next to the Teddy Bear Museum which I was unsure whether I should go this weekend or to leave if for another trip. Since they...