Exhausting trips, information overload and fascinating relics (not Nick)

After another busy touristy day and getting back to our room fairly wiped out, we finally opened our in-room bottle of pop. And indeed what better way to spend a relaxing evening meal after said busy day, but to be out in the freezing breezes. We had booked into The Grill which is where we dined on our first night. It was a little different then as we had the sultry warmth from Hong Kong. Now we were well into Korean waters and our temperature was 5 degrees. Now, being a “standards” sort of person, I dressed for the “elegant casual” dress code. As we went out onto deck 10 the cold wind really hit us. Ok, so my idea of trousers a fairly robust top with wrap and fleece didn’t really hack it. We aimed for a table with two heaters and were offered blankets. I hadn’t done too badly with my attire, only there was one massive fail, that I was wearing sandals.

Nick opted for a steak and to cook it himself. Great idea as that added extra heat for him to huddle around. I opted for Arctic Chard cooked by the chef, which meant I didn’t have the benefit of the extra heat. We had a chat to a couple of German’s who were ordering ice cream for their dessert. As if it wasn’t cold enough. By the end of the evening I had three blankets strategically positioned around me. I seem to recall vowing not to make this same mistake on our last Silversea cruise. Some people never learn.

This morning we woke to me thinking we’d accidentally left one of the lights on last night. No, it was in fact the sun streaming through a crack in the curtain. The sea was flat calm. We made the most of our day at sea, simply chilling, knowing the next day was going to be full on as we do Busan. As we make our way from Incheon to Busan the sea is peppered with tiny islands; the Dadohae Sea National Park, 1700 islands to be precise. Dadohae translates as sea of many islands. It’s known for its varied marine life including orcas and killer whales. Sadly we didn’t see either.

Having had a day’s rain, a bad sea state day, plus two full-on days excursions, it was lovely to stretch our legs properly on an eight lap stride of the deck after a sushi lunch at Kaiseki. Silversea Nova, our 54,700 tonne home is classed as environmentally friendly. Not something you can generally say about a cruise ship. However, it’s powered by a combination of Liquified Natural Gas, fuel cell system, and batteries, enabling it to be emissions free when in port. Plus the vessel is very quiet along with being incredibly clean. No hint of exhaust fumes coming out of the funnels.

As the sun set, we sat in our room with a class of pop, watching the serene waters glide past us, ruminating on what the plan would be for our safe return to the UK. Not that we want to think about that yet, but we’ve touched base with our Silversea consultant and he has reassured us they are aware of the situation and are on our case and will hope to advise us by Sunday. The problem being that the UK government is currently saying no travel into UAE unless it’s essential travel, but Emirates are saying we will be flown into Dubai only if there’s a guaranteed chance of a plane to our final destination. Interesting conundrum.

We fancied an easy option for dinner so went to Atlantide, the ship’s main restaurant. As we’d had a spicy and substantial lunch we just wanted a simple dinner. We ordered our rosé wine and asked if we were the only ones drinking it. We’d noticed that the staff only brought red or white to the table and rosé has to be requested. No, others were having rosé too, but mainly at lunchtime. Rest assured, we were told, there are over a thousand bottles on board. Phew, crisis averted, we should be ok for the remainder of the trip.

We had a rude awakening at 6am as the alarm went off. We’d arrived at the port of Busan. Another beautiful concrete jungle with sweeping bridge in front of us. There’s a theme running here in Korea. And so we set off for the hike to find today’s bus. Just to give you a feel for my (unusual)lack of exaggeration, we left our room at 7.30 and got to the coach at 7.50. There was a maze of doors to go through into the port area. Cameras everywhere some telling us to walk through the entrance slowly as it was measuring our temperature. Finally we were checked over in immigration and allowed in. All those cameras and the security conveyor belts in place, but no need to go through the scanners, which was weird.

Our guide for the day was Sam an effervescent, dramatic, entertaining South Korean of indeterminate age. We had the usual factual overload:

• Driving from one end of South Korea to the other takes 4 hours

• They produce enough rice for the country, but no longer produce for North Korea

• Korean people prefer the community of living in an apartment rather than a house plus they prefer the fuel efficiency

• All apartment blocks have a helipad for emergency evacuation

• 3.4 million people live in the city of Busan but 7 million in the surrounding area

• Hyundai is the largest manufacturing company with 512 acres of land

• Hyundai are moving more and more to robotics after staff demanded too many privileges

• Korea has the highest density of robots in the world. 2023 stats show 1012 robots per 10K employees

• There is barely any crime in Korea

• No drug or alcohol issue

• There are no guns

• Night crime in Korea is the lowest in the world

• There is little theft. 70% of lost and found finds its way back to the owner

• Any felony is met with a long term imprisonment to deter others

• The main tree in Korea is the pine, but pine plague is taking all the trees from the area

• As they get rid of the pine trees, they replace with others

• In 1921 the tiger and leopard became extinct following the Japanese occupation

• As a result, wild boars and deer have taken over

• Hunting is prohibited due to too many accidents with humans mistaking other humans for the boars

• There are 1 million Vampire deers but only the male has the long external teeth. Vampire deer can hop

• Illegal Immigrants get paid the same amount as Koreans but don’t pay tax

• They lose everything if they go back home

• Women get ahead over men because they don’t do military service

• Men do 18 months National Service getting £1000 salary a month and allowed to keep their mobiles

• 20% of the population are Protestant, 17% Buddhist, 8% catholic. The rest have no religion

• As a comparison, the birth rate in Japan is 1.26, whereas for Korea the rate is 2.68

• There are only 3 car colours. Black, white and grey anything outside those colours is considered flashy and the person wouldn’t be able to sell their car

• Electric vehicles have blue number plates

• Where we’ve been today, the Gyeongju region, in 2016 there was a 5.9 earthquake with 300 aftershocks. No deaths and no buildings destroyed

• Since the earthquake, a public alerts system has been set up which has extended to alerts relating to missing persons, air pollution issues when the dust coming from China when it is so bad schools shut down and oxygen masks are used and everyone has to stay inside

There were numerous other facts, which I wasn’t fast enough to take in but were fascinating and gave a real feel of the Korean people and their culture. It is evident they have suffered so many horrors in the past but their resilience has made them the nation they are today.

Our drive from the ship to Gyeongju took 90 minutes. The drive itself was not particularly interesting visually, but the time went very quickly with the constant interesting commentary from Sam. We went over the Gwangan bridge, a double-deck bridge spanning over four miles. Each carriage way is one way, so the other directional traffic goes on the upper deck. To get on to the bridge we encountered a spaghetti road system, again thankfully only one way, the approach being really high and very narrow. It sparked another Tourette’s episode. One wrong move from our driver and we would simply have been history. As we drove further way from the city area and into the Gyeongju district, the land was much more green with all the shops and houses mirroring temples in style. It felt almost incongruous having just left yet another concrete forest, to now be in an environment that I couldn’t exactly say was lush, but was more natural.

Our first stop was the Gyeongju Bulguksa temple and as we got off the bus, the weather was noticeably really cold. Thankfully we had the kit to deal with it. This temple was started in 751 and completed in 774. The temple served as a centre of Silla Buddhism and of prayer for the protection of the country from foreign invasion.

Sadly the entire temple was burnt down by Japanese invaders in 1593, because the temple was used as a base of the volunteer militia. Though the main hall and a few other principal buildings were rebuilt, it wasn’t until 1969-73 that the temples were completely restored after thorough research, investigation and excavations of the ancient temple site.

Then off for an early lunch, which we were grateful for due to the cold and early start. Another Bulgogi for Nick and Bibimbap for me, both washed down with a Cass beer. I’m going to miss these lunches when we leave  Korea.

After lunch we went to the Gyeongju tombs. These were roughly 155 varying sized, grass mounds dating back to the Silla dynasty 57 BC to A.D 935. We went into the smallest of the tombs, the Cheonmachong tomb, aka the heavenly horse tomb. This is the only tomb open to the public after it was excavated in 1973. We saw replicas of the wooden chamber construction plus a small volume of the over 11,000 artefacts that had been found inside. Along with the temple we had visited prior to lunch, this is part of the UNESCO world heritage site. Next to the tomb we were allowed into sat the Hwangnamdaechong tomb, the largest twin tomb on this site. We commented that if 11,000 artefacts had been found in the small Cheonmachong tomb, what on earth would be found in the over double sized twin tomb. How could they not excavate all of these tombs? Sam’s response was simple. Would you dig up your grandfather’s grave to retrieve his gold ring? We all agreed that wouldn’t be appropriate. His response was that there is a massive respect for seniority within Korea and that these ancestors should not be disturbed. He admitted that situation would probably change with the altering state of mind of the younger generation and that maybe in the future these tombs would be excavated.

Next stop, the National Museum. We had little expectation for this and felt it would be on a par with the previous days’ museums we’d visited, however, we hadn’t accounted for the difference an engaging, entertaining tour guide can have on some old relics. The museum holds a significant quantity of relics from the Silla dynasty but perhaps most importantly, on display before you enter the museum is the Emille bell, or the Sacred bell of the Great King Seongdeok. The bell, weighing just under 19 tons, was cast in bronze in A.D. 771. It measures 3.75 metres high, 2.27 metres in diameter at the lip and is 12 to 25 cm thick.

Inside the museum we were shown a small selection of interesting items from the tombs, crowns, jewellery, weaponry, pottery etc, all with a story behind them. The one that caught our attention was a fairly uninspiring, badly damaged piece from a tile. Usually tiles had two shapes and the over shape was always male (depicting a gargoyle) and the under shape was female (depicting flowers). One such female tile unusually had the face of a woman on it. There was a very long and elaborate story surrounding how it had been donated by an anonymous Japanese benefactor.

When we had the big reveal, we weren’t that impressed until it was explained to us that this artefact became the inspiration behind the logo for LG. So the brand’s logo is known as the smile of Silla.

To save me rewriting the blurb:

The LG logo, often called the "Face of the Future," is designed to form a smiling human face from the letters 'L' and 'G' inside a circle, symbolizing a customer-oriented, friendly approach. Introduced in 1995, it represents humanity, technology, and the brand's commitment to creating a better life. 

Key details about the logo's inspiration and meaning:

• The "Face" Design: The 'L' represents the nose, and the 'G' forms the outline of the face.

• Cultural Inspiration: The logo is reportedly inspired by the "Smile of Silla," a 6th-century Korean roof-end tile artifact, signifying, among other concepts, a blend of tradition and future.

We heard so many other stories, too many to document. Eventually it was back on the coach and slightly better traffic returning to the ship, so the journey didn’t take us quite so long. Sam was, by far our most entertaining, engaging, amusing and informative guide to date. We both felt we learned the most about Korea, the Korean people and its culture on today’s tour. However, he had, quite frankly, exhausted us.

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