Getting out and about in South Korea

Bullet Train, British Rail More Like

We used the subway for 2 stops then a lot of stairs and escalators to get to the main train station.

The bullet train from here was very smooth but didn't seem the speed we imagined. It actually arrived late so felt like home.

Temple Time

The temple is interesting although seems more set up for tourists than we expected so doesn't feel too personal. We had a practice at their martial art training. It's called Seonmudo and this temple is the main place for it so has people from Europe staying for months to train with the monks. After that we did 108 prostrations which is standing up then kneeling flat down. I was a bit slow at this so did a few less than 108. Karen and Liz had ducked out at this point.

The following morning a few of us got up at 5am for morning chanting and meditation. The chanting also involved banging these wooden kettle drums, a few strikes highlighted my rhythm hadn't improved so I tapped the stick against my hand to avoid upsetting the monks with random banging.

We then walked up to the statue of the Buddha's. This is set high up on a mountain and was carved over a 1000 years ago. There is also an alter built in a cave at the top of the mountain. A steep climb up and down but mostly steps and definitely worth seeing.

More Mixed Cultures

After this we had a bus tour of the area visiting, Yangdong Village with really old houses which are still lived in, an ancient observatory at Cheomseongdae, and then some massive tombs. The tombs look like giant molehills from the outside.

We had tea had at bbq restaurant which shows an advantage of these tours the food was cheap but great and only Korean was spoken so without our guide I think we wouldn't have found it or if we did would have been impossible to communicate

After tea we our guide suggested we go to Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond. This palace is a series of replica temples and places the originals like most of the historic buildings were destroyed by the Japanese during their colonial rule. We managed to negotiate with the bus driver to drive us there and back for some money rather than having to get taxis. HE was only due to take us back to the hotel after the meal. This site was brilliant, the temples are reflected in the lakes and lit up brilliantly at night,

Bizarrely from wanting to go home the bus driver then put karaoke on and we drove along singing to gangnam style, which was quite a change from the morning chanting with the monks.