Gyeongju Expo Park

Gyeongju is the tourist center of Korea. Maybe Jeju Island and Seoul attract more visitors, but for total touristness, Gyeongju is the spot. From the 7th to the 9th Centuries Gyeongju was the capital of the Shilla dynasty and the earliest civilization dates back to the 1st century. So, lots of old stuff, relics and tombs and temples. But there's also a lot of new stuff, cultural oddities to blend the ancient with the modern. There's a teddy bear museum. There's a sex museum. There's an amusement park and two water parks. There's a giant glass building with a pagoda hole punched in the center. It's a crazy place and if you feel like you've lived in Korea for two years and hardly "seen" anything or done anything touristy, Gyeongju and Gyeongju's Expo Park is a good place to start. Inside the park is a fossil museum, the giant pagoda hole punched building with a history museum inside, a statue park, indoor and outdoor auditoriums, and just a ton of weird, cool little details here and there. Sara and I spent a couple hours here last Saturday, virtually alone. This probably had to do with the fact that it was 100 degrees outside and everybody else was at the water park. As always, here's 10 pictures and some foolish comments.

Gyeongju Tower

This part of Gyeongju is dominated by Gyeongju Tower, as it can be seen from all around Bomun Lake and the area around the amusement world Gyeongju Land.  Inside is a history museum and a viewing room.  17 stories, very cool.

Shades

My Tiny Wife

Every time we go to Gyeongju we see this building and the area around it is usually empty.  Every couple of years they have a big expo where they bring international food in and all the schools take a field trip, but usually, there's nobody out here.  It only costs 7,000 won, or if you're lazy or cheap you can jump the fence.  I'm not saying you should jump the fence, but you could.

The Proposal

Inside Gyeongju Tower in the history museum they had a photo zone setup.  Three models wearing traditional clothes that I took picture after picture of, firing my flash all over the place.  The guy watching the museum didn't take his eyes off me the whole time.  

The Ghost Bridge

This is some kind of ghost bridge, complete with a Korean myth about ghosts building bridges and maybe castles.  The color tags are written on and zip-tied to the bridge.

The Last

"I have some bad news about your sister.  And your brother.  And your mom and dad and everyone you ever knew."

In The Heat

It was a million degrees in the sun, but we fought through it because... I don't know why, we  just did.

I'm Flying

The sculpture park was wild.  The statues are probably something obvious that I just don't understand, but I had no idea what was going on here.  Why all the animals?  Why the flying horse?

The Monkey Plots

I love this monkey.  Why's he holding a knife?  What's he planning? 

The Dragon

13 statues maybe, the dragon and the monkey were my favorite.