Saryonggul caves, King Munmu Tomb, Dada Teahouse

We drove out to the Bulguksa Temple area for brunch, then went to see some cool rocks and caves by the sea, and King Munmu’s Tomb. Then we dropped by the most remote, weirdest park you’ve ever seen (horror movie) before getting a nice green tea. We finished the night with a local dish, grabbed a beer, then spent our second night at the super-amazing hanok guesthouse. This was day three of my four-day trip to Gyeongju.

O Mignon cafe brunch

Our first night in our hanok accommodation was super comfy and cosy. It was chilly out but sunny. We drove to Bulguksa Temple area and had a brunch of salad bowl (poke?) and a jambon baguette at O’Mignon (오미뇽 브런치카페).

Next we drove to some coastal caves called Saryonggul (사룡굴 (전촌 용굴) and Danyonggul (단용굴(전촌 용굴)). You park at Jeonchon harbour (전촌항) then walk towards the sea past the breakwater. You bear left and follow the trail up to the cliff. Eventually you’ll come to a place to get down to the rocky beach and find the cave. Not really caves it turns out, but still, pretty holes in rocks! We messed around there for a bit then went back to the trail and wandered a bit further north. I went exploring through some trees and found a tomb area. Back on the beach at a concrete bay (for catching shellfish) we found some interesting fish!

After that, we drove south to The Tomb of King Munmu. It’s in the sea under some rock so not much to see. Apparently there’s a stone that marks it. Too cold to swim out and check!

Hwarang Hill

The next location I regret for two reasons. It took ages to get there on a windy road, and once there, especially in this weather, it was very meh. Also, freezing winds! It’s a park or resort area called Hwarang Hill which is probably fun to visit in better weather. To me it looked like some abandonned fun park complete with scary figures! Highlights were a big wooden chair and a big grassy hill with a view. Nuff said…

Dada Teahouse

We made our way back to Gyeongju and stopped at Dada Teahouse (다다티하우스). They had an impressive selection of Korean and Chinese teas and also have classes on tea, too.

Hyanghwa Jeong dinner, HeuHeuHeu beer

Next we drove to the train station to drop the SOCAR back; we wouldn’t need it the next day because we’d be looking around town. Drop off was easy, then we got the bus back to town, about twenty minute’s ride. On the way Romana found Hyanghwa Jeong (향화정), a place that served a local dish with (I think) sea snails and rice. It was okay, not my favourite! The place was quite cool though. Then we walked to a cool bar called HeuHeuHeu (흐흐흐) next to some of the big huge tomb mounds. It serves a bunch of beer from around the world in bottles and draught. I got a very sour Belgian beer. This was my second time here; I came with my dad in May earlier this year. In better weather, they open the huge windows and you can look out onto the tomb park.