The Splendor of Buyeo: Where to travel in South Korea that is not Seoul.

I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking at the beginning. Buyeo is a magical site and it’s quite incomparable to other places I’ve been.

Gungnamji pond is a manmade pond nearly a thousand and a half years old. The sites are reminiscient of Kyeongju but hold their own Baekje flair in contrast to the Silla vibe across the country.

If you’re crazy like me, you’ll walk from site to site. I wouldn’t recommend it. Take the bus, bike or a taxi. Anything would probably be better than what I did, walk 17km in the middle of the summer. Yet, I saw things that are going to stick with me for a long time.

The thing about walking a place like this is you really get a long time to take everything in and there’s sights along the way you wouldn’t see otherwise. As a photographer, I appreciate that a lot. Standing at the base of this old gate, I was happy knowing I wouldn’t have encountered it otherwise.

But nothing in the surrounding area can prepare one for the Baekje cultural complex and its splendor. The halls are walkable and it feels comparable to some of the sights up in Seoul. For a backwater UNESCO site, I was shocked at the scope of the site. And by how few people were there.

In the springtime, they have the lotus festival and other various events. It’s really somewhere that I’d like to return to frequently. For a few moments, I considered a move to the sleepy town. That shook off by the end of the day but there’s a certain romance in the air here.

The cultural complex has three main quarters (old capital, noble/peasant homes and the new palace) and then a full museum. It’s certainly worth visiting for the historically conscious traveler. The main castle reminds one of what you’d see in Seoul but then the old noble dwelling gives way to a much older style Baekje castle and fort. It’s a bit of a more gritty experience and contextualizes history in a different way.

For food, we had some Jjajangmyeon in town at one of the few places that seemed open during break time. We wanted to grab a meal before the bus took us back up north. It was a nice bowl of noodles before we found our way over to an old bakery. The Olympics were on TV and the guys working there were pretty kind.

We do always manage to find ourselves at a bakery of some sort. This one had a delightful swiss roll. It was the sort of thing we’ve been missing out on since we left the West behind.

The bakery was nice and the slower pace of Buyeo overall was on display in the atmosphere. A place to buy fresh baked goods and cigarettes. It isn’t something you see everyday.

The bakery was near the bus depot and I’d have no problem to recommend it. I walked through the Buyeo market as well but during break time, the options weren’t so great. Definitely you should add Buyeo to your trip!