Chuseok in Busan - Part 3 (Beomeosa Temple)

Our final adventure on the first full day was to Beomeosa temple. It is bigger that Haedong Yonggunsa, but it was much less crowded. I assumed this was because rather than hiking DOWN to the coast, you had to hike UP part of the mountain to get to it. It was late afternoon by the time we go there, and the atmosphere was calm and magical in the slowly setting, summer sun,



There were about 5-6 different, giant staircases that led us to the top and to the main temple. Each tier had another entry way or archway to view. Most of the paint and woodwork had been restored in the last decade or so, and everything was glowing with the intense colors.





This part of the temple you had to walk underneath, up the 2nd to last staircase to get to one of the main tiers. You can sort of see underneath it how quickly the mountain goes down and into the distance in the background.


Off to the far left side of the temple was an exit (or entrance) with two giant, painted doors. The paint here either hadn't been restored at the same time as everything else or was simply more exposed and therefore dirtier than the rest. Either way, it made them look older and closer to their actual age, which I actually liked better.


Behind this exit from the temple was a "short" trail that led up to the northern gate of the exterior wall of the Geumjeongsanseong(금정산성) Fortress. We didn't realize as we started the hike that this meant climbing Geumjeong Mountain, nor did we realize it was actually a pretty long hike. We were all wearing sandals and flip flops and didn't realize any of this until it was too late, By the time we were at what we were told was a little past half way, the sun was already setting.


A group of Europeans caught up to us as we were waiting around trying to decide if we should continue and eventually we chose to go with them to the top and finish the hike. We were confident that so long as we picked up the pace, we could make it back before dark.


We made it to the top and to the gate in good time to see part of the misty, colorful sunset. We wasted no time taking a ton of pictures and after a short break, we headed back down the mountain, past the temple and to the bus that would take us to the subway that would take us back in the direction of our hostel. We were so exhausted from the hike up, and from the pounding our feet and knees took on the steep slope down, that we decided not to go out that night. Instead, we found a delicious Western restaurant that made everyone feel like we were back home and spent the remainder of the night relaxing in a jimjubang (bathhouse/sauna).



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Korean Wedding

Image
Two weeks before the event itself, the landlord of my apartment (whom I know very well and am friendly with) messaged me to invite my neighbor and I to his son's wedding! This surprising method of invitation was the first of many things I would learn about Korean weddings. Firstly, there are 2 types of weddings: "traditional" and "western". Traditional weddings are extremely rare, barely anyone opts to have them anymore, but many of its little practices still show through in the Korean interpretation of the "western" wedding. This is the wedding hall in which I attended the wedding. As you can see, it's very showy. The center aisle and the front area is actually a stage. These giant halls are rented for just the ceremony. A business or building that runs them usually has several and on a given day (especially Saturdays), there are usually many weddings going on at the same time, and 3-4 lined up in the same event hall for the same day, get
Read more

Korean Baseball Games

Image
Now that spring is here, one of the fantastic must-have experiences in Korea was a baseball game. And, wow, are they exciting! It's nothing like baseball games I've been to in America. First off, you're allowed to bring in whatever kind of beer and food you want - no having to settle for gross and ridiculously overpriced beer! Secondly is the ambiance. Each side has one of these stages with several dancers and an announcer. The home team gets to advertise theirs on the big screen, but each team is equally loud. They cheer and sing and dance through almost the ENTIRE game. When your team is up to bat, the whole crowd (on that side that is rooting for them) stands and chants, sings and does hand motions all lead by the announcer and the dancers. In this particular game our team, the LG Twins, was losing by quite a bit. But even in the last inning, no one failed to cheer their hearts out at the top of their lungs. If anything, they cheered LOUDER because we were l
Read more

Seoul Trick Eye Museum

Image
Our last day in Seoul for the long May weekend, we went to a couple places. The first, located in Hongdae, was the Trick Eye Museum. It's an amazingly fun place set up purely to take funny and awesome photographs due to the optical illusions painted in the space. Each work is accompanied by instructions and an example photo to show you how to take the best picture illusion. Here are some of the ones we took that worked out the best.   In addition to our purchase of a ticket to the Trick Eye Museum, we received a complementary admission to the ice museum next door. This place was smaller, but it was fun, too. It was SO COLD inside though (obviously it needed to be).
Read more