We took the bus to Bulguksa temple. To was soon out of the town zipping past rice paddies rimmed with very healthy chilli plants. Each temple in the complex had a monk chanting and a man whose job was to keep visitors shoes neatly lined up at the side doors.
I couldn't decide if this was an aardvark or a pig.
This was definitely a camera hog.
We waited for almost an hour at the place the incoming driver had pointed at to catch the bus back to town. The bus that arrived whisked us off to the top of the mountain. I should have suspected something was different when he put on driving gloves. There is a large statue of Buddha further up the path. We didn't get off the bus. Just enjoyed the drive back down and caught the right bus back to town. Travel is full of adventures.
Next we visited a site that has some restored pavilions around a pond. All sorts of things have been salvaged from the mud at the bottom of the pond. A great place for a party.
The area is studded with burial mounds. We found one you can walk into. The king was buried in a wooden room with all his best goods and the lot had stones piled all over. Grass, and trees eventually, grew on top. Strangely enough, many survive intact, treasure and all. The Buddhists introduced cremation and the aristocracy got wealthy because all that stuff got shared around instead of being buried every generation. And that is my theory of the fall if the Silla empire.
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