My (South) Korean Vacation (Part 2)

One day, I took a day trip to South Korea's third most popular tourist destination (unbeknownst to me at the time), Gyeongju. Most of the city's attractions were spread out over a rather wide area. At one point late in the day, when I was already pretty tired from all the walking I had done, I had the choice of climbing a fairly steep hill to see a shrine at the top or calling it a day and heading back to the bus station. I'm glad I decided to burn a few extra calories. My biggest reward was getting to take pictures of a whole bunch of little statuettes that surrounded a lantern at the top, like the ones shown here.

More of the little figurines. Notice the little guy on the far left, showing off his pitching motion! The fella on the far right has a baseball glove, too, but I'm not sure why. Is he supposed to be the catcher?










I also found this at the top of the hill, painted on the side of a shrine.











I took this picture of the underside of a roof of a building that was on the grounds of palace complex. (Gyeongju)










I took this picture on the grounds of the Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul.










A building on the grounds of the Banwolseong Palace in Gyeongju.










The yin-yang symbol painted on an old door of a shrine in Gyeongju.













I saw these lanterns in Busan, down the hill from Yongdusan Park.










A door on the grounds of a temple in Seoul.










Busan has an amazing fish market. Part of the market is indoors, but most of it is outdoors. It stretches for several hundred meters, and it seems like millions of fish are for sale, most likely for cheap. 99% of the hawkers were elderly women.










A good deal of the seafood being sold was just thrown into baskets on or near the ground. Some of the creatures were already dead, whereas others were still squirming around. There was also no shortage of fish being skinned alive. Fish guts were flying everywhere. There were surely countless health violations going on, for Western standards, anyway. But this wasn't the West, so all was well.










Many fish were displayed inside-out.










It wasn't just fish that was for sale.













Some of the many boats that bring in the daily haul.