Gyeongju World

Gyeongju resort is a large complex of hotels surrounded by burial mounds and other archaeological sites and is referred to as the "Museum without Walls", which gives you an idea of what to expect. But our little group wasn't here for the history, there's a theme park to visit which has been around for about 25 years only.

Arrrgggggghhhhh!!!!! Get the cute pink stuff away from me!

First coaster was another of the Dragon powered series. Rather disappointingly the "2 loops" referred to are of the horizontal variety :(

Second one was this corkscrew coaster and I think this took the title of worst coaster of the entire trip. It was truly horrible, so bad that I think most of us had hurt our necks just leaving the station and engaging the lift hill.

The big coaster and reason for visiting this park was Phaethon, which has nothing to do with snakes. According to mythology Phaethon was the son of Helios who upon entering heaven and being asked what he'd like requested to ride his fiery chariot for a day. Unable to control it Zeus kills him to save the Earth. Once you understand that story you understand why they chose it for a coaster...except for the dying at the end bit.

The theming on the ride is astounding and with the exception of DisneySea probably had the best theming of the trip. What I found a little odd though is that its clearly a massive investment in what is a pretty mediocre park. Perhaps the park strategy was to invest significantly and hope for a Babe Ruth "If you build it they will come" mentality, which by us being there had clearly worked. Or maybe they came by a little extra money one year and decided to indulge. Basically the ride doesn't fit with the rest of the park at all.

Now this reminds me of something...just a shame you've only got one choice on this ride.

Phaethon like all B&M inverters was a great ride and it had a custom layout which made it pretty good too.

Nina finds the haunted walkthrough too much whilst Even looks for another cockatoo to terrorise.

Garden statues show us how big the fish they just caught was.

The last coaster in the park was Space Tour an indoor flitzer type coaster. This was closed when we got there but the park got it up and running for us.


Here's a view from the lift hill. This was without a doubt the darkest ride I'd ever done with no trace of light or Emergency Exit light to pierce the darkness, and I was genuinely uncomfortable riding it. However once the car left the lift hill and turned the first corner it entered the main room and there were traces of light. Just a very teasing lift hill, which was amazingly effective.

I understand the principle behind this ride logo. It's the hare and the tortoise story previously seen at Everland again. However the position of the animals gave this a second interpretation. I just wonder how fast the resulting animal would be?

Phaethon made this park stand out and the group spent most of their time riding that. At the end of the day we made our way to the hotel, just 5 minutes away and having checked in, a few of us decided to head out for a Korean Barbecue.

You order your meat from a butchers just inside the entrance and then you make your way to your knee high table where you cook it along with vegetables and other stuff. The food was delicious, the only issue we had was with the cooking where we couldn't figure out how the extractor worked and we were generating quite a bit of smoke in our corner of the room.


A large water wheel we passed on the way back.

Gyeongju

Before leaving Gyeongju I decided to take a morning stroll around the area.

Here's a view from the hotel room overlooking Gyeongju Lake. The plan was to walk over to the Hilton, which is the hotel over on the left. In researching the area I'd found a sculpture garden in its grounds and thought it might be worth heading to.


The hotels all line the East bank leaving the view to the West untouched...well with the exception of the theme park.

The same wheel we passed the night before.

This is our hotel. Hotel Concorde, called so because it was built in a joint-collaboration between France and England. Or was that the plane? It's a nice hotel actually.

Not sure what this tree is. Part way between a normal tree and a bonsai.

The remains of last night's rain still hanging around on the plants. (Just me playing with the field of vision again)

A small van advertising some very big handguns. Check out their website to see what I mean.

Like a circle in a spiral. Like a wheel upon a wheel. Never ending or beginning on a never ending reel. Now why am I thinking of windmills?

A very wide exhibition centre. Too wide even for my wide angled lense...

Cute chicken!

The hotels all have nice hotel grounds, perfect for the morning constitutional.

Just playing with the camera again.

The sculpture garden. Most of the pieces were a bit too clever for my liking, where are the ceramics when you need them?

Making my way back to the hotel now and passing the baby duck boats. How do I know they're the babies? Because you can see big momma duck in the background, that's how!

Random building done in a modern yet traditional style.

The original plans for today were to go back to Gyenogju World Park before heading out to the ferry but as we'd nailed that park in the afternoon previously a little replanning took place and we were able to squeeze in another park that wasn't in the original plans; Tongdo Fantasia.