I got up at 7AM to catch a bus to the 3rd largest city in Korea, Daegu. From there I took another bus to Haeinsa which my guidebook lists as “must-see.” After 3 hours traveling total, I made it there. Unfortunately, lots of renovations to the structures and throngs of school children on field trips prevented it from being perfect. It was still pretty nice way up in the mountains and I got to peek into the Tripitaka Koreana (80,000 wooden blocks used for printing).
Apart from “Hellos!” from children, I met a traveler from France there. He is going through North and South Korea for 3 weeks. He can do this because in France they get 5 weeks of vacation per year so he doesn’t have to quit his job.
Later I headed back to Gyeongju where my room was. The owner is pretty nice. He hand draws maps for guests to use every day, which seems strange. He doesn’t like to use a copy machine. I also met a older German traveler who lives in Taiwan. He had a lot to talk about, but I found out he works for a German company in Taipei, Taiwan and I got his business card.