South Korea (한국): 2:00 a.m. Octopus and Bulguksa

Every Friday I seem to adventure over to the only purely American/Irish pub in town, O’Brien’s. They have great American classics ranging from bacon cheeseburgers to Taco Tuesday’s to Fish ‘n Chips, my favorite. Even better than the food is the atmosphere: a great selection of American rock to listen to over a game of pool or darts. This week I wanted to show the Samsung engineers an American Friday night so they were all invited. Three of them met us at the bar around 7:30 p.m. for some burgers and good conversation. We played some pool, which they were very good at, and then we played darts, which they promised they are going to practice. It was a fun night and at around 11:30 p.m. I left O’Brien’s with every intention of going home to bed. They insisted we go to a Korean bar a few blocks over in an even more congested downtown area.

In the new downtown there were easily two to three times more lights and neon signs than on the street where O’Brien’s is located. There were buildings with Soju bars, Whiskey Bars, Wine Bars, Karaoke Bars, Virtual Golf, and Pool halls. It felt college with so many people out past late at night. Now I understand why in

Korea

you can’t get a coffee earlier than 7:00 a.m. and why people sit down to eat dinner at 11:00 p.m., they are a very late rising and late partying culture. We strolled into a large Korean restaurant that had a very open atmosphere and along with the menus came some bottles of Soju. They ordered one giant steamed seafood platter. It took some time for it to arrive but when it did it blew me away. The server brought a giant pot to the side of table and spent a few minutes clipping whatever was inside it. As he lowered the pot onto the table it was easy to see there was stuffed squid, an assortment of different sized clams, hard boiled eggs, shrimp, and yes, an octopus. Before it hit me that I was looking at a bowl of octopus, I was already chewing a piece of it. It was one of the chewiest foods I’ve ever eaten with a flavor much like lobster. About ten pieces of octopus entered my stomach before the Samsung crew insisted visiting another bar. It was about 2:00 a.m. at this time and we were walking to yet another party spot.

Side Note: Two days later I walked back to this restaurant and saw live octopus and squid swimming in a fish tank outside. I still can’t believe what I ate.

At the third location they ordered a bunch more food. There was a large Korean-style scallion and hot pepper pizza and a big tray of mini-omelets. Along with the food came more Soju and some Korean wine. The wine was more of a dessert wine, much like Moscato, and they combined it 50/50 into a pitcher with Soju. It had a very delicious taste and if I didn’t accidentally mistake so many super hot peppers for scallions in the pizza, this place would easily have been my favorite dining experience in Korea thus far. It was somewhere around 3:30 a.m. when the cab finally arrived back at the hotel and the only two things I did before going to bed was made sure my alarm clock was off and my room was set to “Do Not Disturb”.

The real downtown Changwon

Dinner #2

Cutting the tentacles

2:00 a.m. Octopus is served

Too shocked to look up

Eric preparing a concoction of wine and Soju

Very tasty

Spicy Korean pizza and omelets

Later in the weekend on Sunday, Min Gu was parked outside the hotel and we drove about 35 minutes east into Busan to Changsoo Lee’s apartment. We were going to spend the day a few hours northeast in the area of Gyeongju, a very historic part of Korea. Outside of Changsoo Lee’s apartment was his wife and two kids who were also joining us for the journey. It was awesome to meet his family and I expect we will do more activities together in the weeks to come. Changsoo Lee mentioned that he lived on the 23^rd floor of the 24 story building. These super tall apartment buildings are in every city and they are more popular in Korea than owning a house. We snapped a few photos outside of his apartment complex and then drove 100km to our first stop of the day.

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A: Changwon B: Gyeongju Bottom Right: Japan

The first stop was an ancient Buddhist temple called Bulguksa (bull-gook-sah). Bulguksa started construction in 751 A.D. and was completed in 774 during the Unified Silla Period (668-935). The Japanese burned the site down in 1593 because it was being used as a militia base. In the early 1970’s the site was restored after a lot of research and excavation. Bulguksa is home to six national treasures including some pagodas and two gilt-Bronze Buddha’s that are just less than six feet tall.

Prior to entering the sacred temple grounds, everyone has to pass under a sacred guard tower that has large creatures guarding the entrance who stop all devils form entering. Inside was a large courtyard with two pagodas and a very large temple one could actually take their shoes off and pray inside. There were two more smaller Buddhist temples on the property as well. Unfortunately we didn’t see any monks but they do still practice in the area to this day. Before leaving, Changsoo Lee’s wife and daughter wanted to buy me a gift to remember the journey. I chose a small package that included a stone Buddha and stone replicas of the two Pagodas at Bulguksa. These will go great on my desk at work back in the states or on a bookshelf in my apartment.

There are many temples all over

Korea

and it is easy to point them out two ways: 1) they all end in “sa” and 2) on maps they all have a mirrored image of a Swastika. Changsoo Lee explained that some claim Hitler was heavily influenced by Buddhism, hence the similarity. In doing some research on my own, Buddhism and Hinduism are strong users of this symbol.

Changsoo Lee's family

Changsoo Lee's apartment area

Gyeongju

Bulguksa

Buddhist Guards

Bulguksa Entrance

The inner sanctuary

The main temple

The main Buddha

Outside the main temple

Stone Pagoda Garden

My stone tower

The Buddhist alarm clock

The painted ceilings felt very Mexican

After Bulguksa and a Korean lunch eaten while sitting on the floor, our final destination was the Gyeongju National Museum. The museum was much like the Smithsonian with so many interesting displays of art, jewelry, pottery, weaponry, and much more. One of the most famous parts of the museum was the Divine Bell of King Seongdeok, known for its age, beauty, and distinct tone. This bell was about 10 feet tall and extremely detailed given that it was created in 771 A.D. Supposedly to this day scientist have tried to recreate the bell but can not come close to getting the same, elegant sound. I’ll let the pictures do the talking from here on out.