Gyeongju-Busan-Seoul Day 3 ( Part 5) – visit to Golgulsa (Stone BuddhaTemple) with the Gyeongju City Tour Bus

5 May 2012  

The Golgulsa (Stone Buddha Temple) would the final place of interest in our Gyeongju City Bus Tour. The bus parked at the foot of a hill where Golgulsa is located. We were the last few passengers that alighted from the bus but the guide was nowhere to be seen.  We reckoned she had led some members of the group up the path to the temple without waiting for all passengers to alight.

The temple was located halfway up a hill and it was an inclined walk up. By now, we were feeling a little tired, even though we did not walk as much as yesterday. We took our time to make our way up to the temple. Along the way, we could see a large Budhha sculptured on the face of the rocky hill, several hundred feet up, to our right.

Steep inclined walk up to the temple.

Our destination, Golgulsa amongst the greenery.

View of the Buddha, sculptured on the rocky face of the hill.

We finally made it to the temple. There was a scheduled performance of Zen martial arts (Sunmudo) by the monks. Golgulsa is a major centre for learning of these martial arts. 

Now I understood why the guide was in such a hurry. She did not want us to miss the performances.

Zen Martial Art performance.

We found a seat to rest and watch the performance from afar.

There were steps leading up the rock cliff to the Buddha. On my own, I may have made the climb up the steep steps to the Buddha above the temple but decided to give it a miss this time.

We made our way slowly down the path, before the end of the performance. The walk down was better.

Pretty flowers with black butterfly in contrast. Shot on the way down from the temple.

The walk down was not without peril. Near the bottom, there were many small caterpillars hanging down by a silk thread from the branches above. Some got on my body.

Sculpture of a Smiling Buddha and a dog with rosary beads round its neck – located at the foot of the hill.

The Smiling Buddha had a small caterpillar on his face.

The visit to the temple marked the end of the Gyeongju City Bus Tour. There were a couple of other Gyeongju City us Tours ending here as well. The guides organised us into a few groups – those heading to the SinGyeongju KTX Station, those going back to the hotels in the Bomun Resort and those heading to the city center. We followed one of the bus that would bring us to the city centre as our plan was to have dinner in town.

Overall, the Gyeongju City Bus Tour was an very cost effective and time effective way of seeing the many cultural and historic sites within Gyeongju in a day. 

Note: Check the latest itineraries, schedule and prices for the Gyeongju City Bus Tours here.

We ended the day with a delicious but expensive Korean Beef BBQ dinner in downtown Gyeongju before taking the public bus back to our hotel (Hyundai Hotel) in the Bomun Resort area.