Never mind the Bulguksa

Yes, yes, alright, it's another Korean temple complex. I appreciate we're all getting a bit bored of these red gates, sloping roofs, stone pagodas and massive clanging bells now (I'm not bored of the bells), but since Bulguksa is a pretty significant temple, I had to see it before I left Gyeongju.

I'm drawing a line under Korea's Buddhist heritage now. Just as I said after visiting the Mother Temple at the end of my Bali trip, and Preah Khan after an exhausting two days of temple trekking in Cambodia, I'm through with temples in this country.

It's not like you're really seeing Korea's heritage when you visit these places anyway, as the Japanese pretty efficiently burned everything of interest down during their various invasions over the centuries. Although Bulguksa was restored to its original eighth century (AD751-774) form, you're still taking photos of something built in the 1970s. Like the thousands of tourists who take photos each year of the 1980s facade of Hatshepsut Temple in Egypt, which is this blog's top non-glamour hit. You idiots! I have nothing but contempt for my readers.

Are you still there? I like you really. Here are some final things from Gyeongju.

The Valley of the Kings of South Korea

With its generous selection of important dead people buried in oversized tombs along the west bank of a river, walking around the necropoli of Gyeongju reminded me of Luxor's Valley of the Kings (and Queens - let's not be sexist, even though it was Egypt where that sort of thing is actively encouraged). It wasn't as good though, obviously. I knew when I toured Egypt that I'd peaked in terms of historical sightseeing, and it's all been a futile waste of my time and yours since then. Still, if it keeps me from Photoshopping my face onto Scott Bakula I'll take any excuse to get out.

I was surprised to see these Super Mario Worldesque mounds popping out of the ground when I arrived in Gyeongju, and even more surprised that no one seemed to be paying any attention to them, instead flocking to sites of negligible historical value that had briefly featured in some Korean TV drama or other. But at least this meant I'd get some clear photos to make up for my washed out photos of the similarly shaped Chocolate Hills in the Philippines.

It was probably around the time I reached the fifth set of identical, featureless mounds of turf that I realised why the Koreans aren't so enthusiastic. Still, they look quite nice at sunset.

Gyeongju glad the banana's gone?

Another week, another increasingly unpronounceable Korean city. After the limited appeal of Jeonju's Hanok village, Gyeongju's abundance of mountains, valleys, forests, lakes, tombs, temples, grottos, shrines, pagodas, pavilions, parks, monuments, museums, villages and archaeological sites was a little overwhelming, especially as I'd originally only planned to come here on a day trip from Busan. What a naive, handsome fool.

I only managed to see about half of what I wanted, but I guess that's just more reasons to think about returning to South Korea in the future - always leave 'em wanting more. Or at least take advantage of my borderline obsessive compulsive need to catalogue everything.