After 3 days of indoor living, hiding from the rains in Busan, we were ready to get back outside and see some sights in the fresh air. Fortunately for us there is no better place for this than the eastern side of Korea.

The Route

Mountain vistas, waterfall hikes, open air museums, coastal ‘biking’, floral fields and phallic parks…an outdoor heaven waiting to be explored, just add sunshine!

Our journey from Busan took us north east to Gyeongju – known as the ‘museum without walls’ as it is filled to the brim with historic sites within its boundaries;

The traditional culture of the Yangdong Folk village

then to Pohang as the jump off point to hike the 12 waterfalls route;

Andong, the home of Soju, Mackerel and Love(ly) Motels

Yet more folky vibes at Hahoe Folk Village

Finishing in the outdoor playground of Samkcheok for holiday resorts, canola fields, coastal rail cycling and the always cultural ‘Penis Park’.

Gyeongju

Gyeongju is one big historical site, that just happens to have a small town located within it. Crammed full with temples, palaces, tombs and museums spread over kilometres of space that could take many weeks to explore fully.

We only had a couple of days to see all that was on offer, hence this involved plenty of walking and filling up our nights as well as days.

As the sites hare so spread out, nowhere is that central to stay without having some distance to travel, but to be close to the Hanoks and restaurants we chose to stay at Happy Village.

An aptly named, warm and friendly place to stay with Hanok style rooms facing a central courtyard area where you can relax and share your breakfast in the sunshine with your fellow travelers.

Orientate yourself to the area’s centuries of history with a visit to the National Museum for one of Korea’s best museums…even Lyssa (who rarely enjoys museums) was fascinated by all the riches of the Silla dynasty that created the sites of Gyeongju.

If you are staying in the centre (and it is towards the end of the day), then pair it with the Anapji Pond just across the road which just has to be seen at night.

Where the lights of the walls and pagodas are beautifully reflected in the mirror-finish pond.

Between the central town and the National Museum is a great walk through fields of canola

and sporadic bits of history that pop-up through the Wolseong-Gongwon.

Walking around the town you will see many green mounds / small hills, these are the Tumuli that are the burial chambers of the Silla nobility, and not the home of the teletubbies!

The best place to get up close (and inside) the tumuli is the Tumuli-Gongwon – a park that has 23 tombs and particularly the Heavenly Horse Tomb that has been opened up to give you a feel for the scale of things inside (it is a bit of a tardis).

Food in Gyeongju (as everywhere in Korea) is plentiful. Embark on a traditional banquet at Byeolchaeban Gyodong Ssambap where plates upon plates of banchan (side dishes) are served along with a sukiyaki equivalent that will fill your tummies quite nicely.

For something simpler, and yet still tasty is some excellent fried chicken at ThankYou Chicken!

The sites of Gyeongju continue for kilometres and kilometres around the town itself, so if you are time limited (as we always are) then you have to be selective on where you visits.

To break up the tombs and museums try heading out east (around 25 mins by car) to the Bulguk-sa temple. A World Heritage site that has a wonderful balance between nature and temple.

and as long as the tourist count is low, then it is quite a blissful place.

Yangdong & Pohang

Heading northwards, our next stop was the Cultural Village of Yangdong

A pretty little place set in a rustic valley along with 180 traditional homes that you can wander around (trying not to intrude on people’s lives that live here).

For some rugged outdoors head to the Bogyeong-Sa temple as the starting point for the 12 Waterfall hike.

It’ll take about an hour along a rocky pathway to cover the first 8 waterfalls, with the majority turning up right near the end of this stretch.

For us, 8 waterfalls were enough and we had to head back to the car, racing the dusk as we were going.

Andong & Hahoe

Andong makes for a good overnight stop in your journey northwards, accommodation is both interesting and cheap and there are a couple of spots to see whilst you are passing through.

We arrived to our ‘love’ motel (Goryeo) in the evening…naturally we didn’t know the hotel’s designation until we arrived (!) but darkened corridors and a red light outside each room quickly gave the game away.

Just round the corner from the hotel is ‘beef rib alley’ where you can indulge in some great beef ribs and enjoy Andong’s best product…its Soju. Soju here is much stronger (25%) and even tastier than the domestic product, so do make sure you have a bottle (or two) plus get some to take home too.

The next day we continued on the Soju theme with a visit to the sleepy Soju museum, part of the Andong Soju Brewery you’ll find a nice little presentation on the history of Soju and celebrations of Andong (such as Queen Elisabeth II visiting)

Plus you’ll get to taste some of their super strong soju (45%) that proved a little bit too much for us! All this soju makes for a healthy appetite and so we headed across town for lunch by the Woryeonggyo Bridge – Korea’s longest wooden footbridge no less.

Making for a charming sight spanning the waters of the lake, if you arrive around 12.30 / 18.30 or 20.00 then you’ll be treated to a fountain show that comes from the bridge itself.

Just by the bridge you can have a pleasant Mackarel lunch that is one of the local specialties.

Before leaving Andong do stop off at the Mask Festival site by the river. Even if it is not festival season (Sept / Oct) there are still displays of the huge masks in the grounds that make for some good photos.

Spend the afternoon at the Hahoe Folk Village. Just 20 minutes from Andong but a world away with its traditional houses and rustic way of life.

It’s quite a large village, set amidst a meandering river that will keep you within its boundaries.

Our final destination for this leg of the trip was Samcheok…the Korean holiday resort town on the east coast where we stayed at the huge Sol Beach resort to experience a Korean holiday resort.

A huge place that is molded in the style of Santorini that had even our Greek friends wondering where we were when we sent them pictures!

The hotel is located right on the coast with a nice little beach and a boardwalk that runs into the local town

where you can reward yourself after a walk with fresh sushi and seafood amongst the neon glitz.

Our short stay did not give us enough time to relax and enjoy all the facilities but we did manage to do some really fun stuff in this holiday town.

Follow the coast a few miles south and you will come to the Canola fields that host the Samcheok flower festival (around April)…pretty, but nothing compared to Holland in April.

A few miles on and you will come to one of the most quirky places on our whole Korean itinerary (which is saying something) – Haesindang Park (Penis Park)!

With more than 50 phallic carvings and statues set in a huge coastal park, it is hours of fun for photo shoots.

Why so priapic? It’s all down to a local legend of a drowned virgin that was affecting the fishing catch of the village, and the way to combat this (and bring back the fish) was to put up the phallic carvings to appease her.

Our last activity in Samcheok was to go for a rail cycle along the coast, from Gunchong to Yonghwa, a 5.4 km ride that is as quirky as it is unique.

Make sure you start from the Gunchong end as the route is more or less downhill from there, timings are 9am, 10.30, 13.00, 14.30, 16.00 , and it’ll take about 1.5 hrs to do one way (the trip is one way with a bus back).

You move in convoy, so if you want to speed up either get bike at the front or the back (for accelerated bursts), then just sit back, pedal away and enjoy the scenery.

The highlights of the cycle are passing through a number of rail tunnels that have been converted into a Disney-esque small world ride with disco lights, lots of neon and music to encourage you along the journey.

With our exercise done for the day it was time to leave Samcheok, the East of Korea and head back to Seoul to catch our flight home. After two and a half weeks, Korea had really grown on us, the people, the sights, the food (the drink!) and we are sure you will love it too…enjoy!