As if we hadn’t had our fill of culture after the last two days, Buyeo just happens to house a UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the Baekje Historic Areas.
The Baekje dynasty was one of Korea’s famed Three Kingdoms - Goguryeo and Silla being the other two - and controlled much of southwestern Korea for almost seven hundred years. Buyeo is the present-day location of its former capital, Sabi. They constructed a fortress called Garimseong here to defend the city, alas to little avail – the Baekje kingdom finally ground to a halt in 660, defeated by the Silla forces who went on to crush Goguryeo and rule the whole peninsula shortly afterwards.
Today, you can walk on the grounds of the fortress and visit the museum that accurately and beautifully exhibits replica scenes of times past.
With its glory days many centuries behind it, Buyeo is much like any other small town in Korea - a compact, modestly busy centre, and a prevailing air of quiet. We stayed at the Paradise Motel, but it was just one option out of many - motels here were plentiful and nondescript.
Here, too, the forthcoming election was in evidence on the streets. We came across the opponents of the “Green” Party we encountered back in Jeonju – here, it was the “Blue” Party who were campaigning, with just as much fanfare.
We ended the night outside under the stars, drinking 7-Eleven’s finest and realising that we only had about a week left in our trip. Seoul was calling our name.
“If you vote for me, I promise we will win the World Cup next time!”
