17th - 18th of November - Jeju island

We had an early start to catch a flight out from Yeosu to Jeju, Korea's biggest island just south of the mainland. The flight was uneventful - a short domestic flight; less than 5 minutes after the spiel about staying seated with the seat belt fastened even if the fasten seat belt light was off, the cabin crew was asked to ready the cabin for landing. 

 

The first day was spent focusing on north and east, whereas the second day was primarily west and south. 

 

Arriving in Jeju city around 0930 the weather had changed dramatically from when we were on the mainland. Overcast, windy and cold - and with the occasional drizzle to mix it up. The weather could change quite fast, and despite the limited size of the island it could vary quite a lot depending on where you are. Being exposed and the tallest point in South Korea, Hallasan mountain, located in the middle of Jeju, certainly had a say in the weather conditions. 

 

Hamdeok beach. 

 

We headed first towards the popular Hamdeok beach and the next door cafe Del Moondo. The weather being as it was there were obviously not anyone out swimming in the waves, and the beach was covered by a tarp-like material to prevent the sand from blowing away. We all retreated to the cafe before returning to the bus. From here we continued to Seongsan Sunrise Peak where, after we had our lunch break, climbed to the top of the volcano crater where we had an excellent view of the surrounding area. Despite of the overcast-ness of the situation visibility was still good. It was a nice walk up - from sea level to around 180 meters the view was unobstructed for quite a bit. We were supposed to also see the local woman pearl divers do their thing while here, but due to the weather conditions it had unfortunately been canceled. 

 

 View of Seongsan-ri from the summit of Seongsan Sunrise Peak.

 

 Looking into the crater of Seongsan Sunrise Peak.

 

We then continued on to Seongeub folk village, a small town (well, village) that primarily still consisted of old traditional houses as they were built centuries ago. It was weird walking past the buildings, getting a open air museum-feel, and turning a corner and seeing modern cars parked outside a house. We were also told that when they in the past went to the toilet they always brought a stick; as they did their business into the pigsty they needed a stick to keep the pigs away long enough to be able to finish their business (obviously they use modern tech these days and do not have to rely on their pig-bonking skills). Apparently they have a local breed of pig on Jeju island; black pork. One can only wonder how they ended up being considered superior to normal pork.

 

Seongeub folk village.

 

A demonstration of how it goes when you lack proper pig-bonking skills.

 

Before getting to our hotel and checking in we had an hour to walk around the Dongmun market in Jeju city - not much different than any other market we have been through, but apart from black pork Jeju is very known for - and proud of - their tangerines. A lot of stalls sold them and/or goods that involved tangerines and chocolate in different shapes and sizes. And if you're looking for a tangerine-colored hat, ear warmer, buff or similar this is the place to be! 

 

Outside Dongmun market.

Statues representing the woman pearl divers on Jeju island. 

The one to the right is clearly fighting the strong winds.

The next day we left for Hallim park, a large area that was more than just a park; lava tunnels, botanical gardens including palms (Jeju is the only place in Korea that has palms) and a bonsai garden, birds and a folk village with Korea's largest Dolhareubang in Jeju. A Dolhareubang is basically a Jeju statue that is placed in a village or gates to project power and as guardians against evil spirits. The first ones were made more than 500 years ago. We had close to 1½ hours to walk around which I at first thought was a lot of time, but I found myself rushing through most of it, including the bonsai garden. They had surprisingly many bonsai, it felt endless, but due to the season (I assume) many of them were bare trunks with no leaves, leaving a slight less impressive impression. Some of them were very nice, but overall the average quality seemed significantly higher in the bonsai museum I visited in Tokyo. 

 

 Lots of bonsai.

 

 Careful you don't trip on the way out of the building.

 

Dolhareubang. 

 

From here we went to visit the Soesokkak to see the Estuary. Honestly; there wasn't much to it - we arrived at local tour boat company where we were introduced to life jackets and then spent an hour or so on a small flat-bottomed barge (with a roof) and benches along the sides together with a bunch of other people. Our guide then pulled us all the way down to the end of a small canyon where we had plenty of time for selfies and photos. He also handed out tangerines (of course) and talked a lot about the area and geological features (most of it is lava rock) - unfortunately we depended on our tour guide translating for us - and while I can't say for sure we didn't get half of what was said, our tour guide talked way less than our local boat guide.

 

Soesokkak estuary. 

 

Having had lunch coming back to land we continued on to Cheonjiyeon waterfall - a waterfall hidden 20 minutes' walk away from the road. It was a nice walk along paths in a wooded area but while the waterfall was nice to look at it was just a waterfall. 

 

Cheonjiyeon waterfall. 

 

Following this we visited Sanbangsan Bomusa temple located at the foot of Sanbang mountain. The temple had a nice view south of Yongmeori coast and the sea. It was admittedly a temple like the many other we had seen on the way, but they had a lot of small buddha statues and figurines placed everywhere, and even seemingly gilded quite a few. With the weather being heavily clouded, the few times when the sun got through the layer of clouds the light really made the gilded statues shine. 

 

Sanbangsan Bomusa temple.

 

 Looking out from Sanbangsan Bomusa temple south at Yongmeory coast.

Someone seems to have been good. 

 

From here we returned to the hotel and our guide to the entire group out for a final dinner together - which of course was barbecue with black pork. This was the last day of the tour of the 6 of us who had been doing the 2 week tour, while the 9 "new" people would return to Seoul and have a few days there before going their separate ways. 

 

Big thanks to Robert for being an excellent guide throughout the tour. Big thanks to Lisa, Anne, Bebe, Ailie, Vivian, Christine, Laurence, Kathryn, Miranda, Colette, Sarah, Nikky, Mary and Mandy for being awesome people - at least for the time we were traveling together in South Korea. It was nice meeting you all and I hope we one day get to meet again somewhere.

14th - 16th of November - Jeonju & Yeosu

With the start of the western part of the tour the 6 of us from the eastern part of the tour joined the 9 new people and had a late start at at 1100 when we took a train south to Jeonju where we arrived at 1400. We got taxis to a fancy hotel from where we walked a few minutes into the old part of town and checked in for the night's hanok stay. This is a traditional house so we were put into rooms with mattresses on the floor - but otherwise "normal" as in with power and in suite bathrooms. There was also heating in the floor, but it seemed that most people struggled with the controller as most kept their doors wide open whenever they were around to try and lower the temperature inside. There was a lower and upper floor, with one mattress each place, and one would assume that the upper one would be in the warmest place. That was not the case - due to the floor heating whoever was below would have the feeling of getting fried. I couldn't be bothered conquering the steep ladder so I stayed down - but being alone I used both mattresses and that seemed to keep me from the worst of the floor heating. But the room was still warm enough to be able to sleep without covers and a window slightly open despite the temperatures outside dropped to 5-ish degrees. 

 

Our hanok stay in Jeonju. 

 

View of the old part of town. 

 

In the afternoon we were introduced to the Gyeonggijeon Shrine, another temple on our way. The old part of town was fairly small so everything was within walking distance. It was similar to many other temples, but this also had (replicas off) paintings of former kings, and there was a small exhibit showing the techniques they used to copy the originals (or rather the remains of them) as faithfully as possible. From there we had free time to roam before meeting again at 1830 to go to a local restaurant that served a hanjeongsik dinner - a traditional full-course meal with pork, fish and numerous side dishes (rice, vegetables, broths etc.). With the seemingly endless dishes being presented on the tables it felt like a insurmountable task, but we got through most of it and it ended up being a very tasty experience. 

 

Main street in Jeonju.

 

The following morning we left around 1000 and drove towards Yeosu where we arrived in the early evening around 1800. Along the way we stopped in two locations; the Damyang bamboo forest where we also had lunch and the Boseong green tea field. Arriving in Damyang we started going our separate ways for lunch - apparently a street along the river was called noodle street as it was known for the endless noodle eateries along the bank. We found a place and got one of the benches outside and enjoyed a tasty round of noodles. It felt very local as only very few of the signs were also in English - luckily they have a habit of putting photos of the dishes on the menu (and Google translate also helped). The bamboo forest felt like a bit of a letdown as while there was a large area with bamboo, the combination of them putting a lot of paths in and the ground being broken up by varying height differences and rocks it never really felt dense but rather like rather thick fencing between different paths and areas. The hour we had to walk around was nice but it never felt as forest-like like what we experienced in Japan. 

 

Plenty of small statues and oddities spread out in the bamboo forest.

This cube was one of the weirder things. 

 

An hour's drive later we arrived at the Boseong green tea field were we also got an hour to walk around; here we were able to walk through the field and up to a lookout point we're we could see the entire field and also see the see. Once again the great weather and visibility made it a climb very much worth while. 

 

Walking in the green tea field.

 

Arriving in Yeosu we checked in and we all (or at least most of us) got a room with a view. The main part of the city is on one side of the river and our hotel was on the other side, looking out over the river and the city and it's waterfront. Most of us got rooms having this view, which only go better during night with all the lights turning on. A couple of us went down to a chicken restaurant next door for dinner, and while sitting there most of the group came trickling down for dinner. Our guide had recommended it, and the only other option was the hotel's restaurant or a supermarket meal unless you wanted to walk across the bridge to the city. While the chicken to our disappointment wasn't fried it was still very good. Though awfully difficult to eat a wing that's greased in sauce and all you have is a fork and a tong. 

View from the hotel room in Yeosu.

 

At 0900 the following morning we drove off to Art Land, a building with various activities where our guide took us to the open air sculpture exhibition where the was a giant hand you could walk up into that overlooked the sea and nearby islands. We had almost 1½ hours free time here, but it seemed like most people weren't interested in the other activities (a Ferris wheel, media - and trick art exhibitions and go carts). It seemed to be a resort of some sort where there were rental houses surrounding the establishment and it honestly felt a bit out of place. The time we had seemed to be spent by most by just hanging out and relaxing until we'd continue the day's schedule. 

 

Reaching out (big enough that 6-7 people could comfortably stand in the palm).

 

There were some very weird statues at the sculpture exhibition. 

 

 Stairs to... Nowhere.

 

From here we drove to the maritime cable car ride across the river into the city which gave a great view of the city and it's waterfront - though having the view we had from the hotel it wasn't much different - especially considering part of our view from the hotel is the cable cars going by outside! Though if you did get a room overlooking the main road instead this would definitely be a nice ride. It was also an easy way to get to the other side (not figuratively). We were then brought to Yisunsin Square in central Yeosu where we had time to go for lunch. 

 

The afternoon was free but we had the opportunity to return to our bus which would take those interested to the ARTE museum. This is basically a visual exhibition which is very instagramable; dark rooms with mirrors and projections which give an almost surreal and at times slightly disorienting experience. A room could be covered in animated roses, endlessly in all directions due to mirrors, and in the middle there could be small box, covered in mirrors but with a door into a small room with a completely different visual. Like walking around in roses and seeing an opening in nothing into a completely different world. It was quite the experience and quite fun in a way, and despite it being Sunday there were very few people there which enhanced the experience. This is not something that would work very well if it was crowded. 

 

 

 

From there we walked out to and around Ogongdo island before walking back to the hotel and arriving in the late afternoon. After a short walk back out onto the bridge to see the sunset we gathered a few people and left for the city waterfront where we sat down and had a round of delicious seafood and pork. They do seafood very well here and pork seems to be universal in the entire country. 

 

 Sunset from the bridge. 

 

 The bridge seen from opposite the hotel (which can be seen on the right of the bridge).

 

Eateries in the tents underneath the bridge (and further on to the right). 

They all had almost the same menu and prices so in the end it (probably) wouldn't matter where you ended up sitting down. 

13th of November - DMZ

Today was an early start - we found ourselves ready to go in the lobby at 0600, and on time we trotted out to the bus and headed north. An hour later in light traffic (while the southbound traffic towards Seoul wasn't nearly as light) we arrived at the main entry to the DMZ, the Imjingak Tourist Information Center. The point of getting there so early was that our guide could get in line to convert his permission to tickets as the first group so we wouldn't have to wait longer than necessary - and it succeeded; there were no other tourists around than us. The parking lot was completely empty. We were placed into one of the restaurants that was already open and had breakfast served while he went down to stand in line.

We had our breakfast, he got our tickets, and at 0940 we got on to the first (of 11 during the day) shuttle busses that would take us around to the different places. Though not before our guide led us around the area where we got to see the freedom bridge (where the North and South exchanged POWs after the Korean war), destroyed train line and various monuments. The destroyed train line was technically a short bit of train tracks with a destroyed locomotive placed onto it; it was the last train to cross the border bringing supplies to the US soldiers in what now is North Korea, and trying to get back to safety they had to abandon it and destroy it to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

 

Freedom bridge.

 

Train used for bringing supplies to US troops.

From here we went to the first stop on the tour; the 3rd tunnel; a tunnel that the South had found the North had been digging in an attempt to mount a surprise attack. The reason for the name is that it was the 3rd tunnel the South found (you didn't expect that, did you?) out of 4 that the North had been digging, theory being they wanted to get to Seoul unnoticed (tunnel no. 3 is less than 50km from Seoul). There is an expectation that there may be more - even many more - tunnels around, but as the North changed tactics with the introduction of nuclear armory the South saw no reason to continue using resources on finding these tunnels. The first 3-400 meters was a steady steep 10-ish % decline, the South's intercept tunnel, reaching the bottom where you then walked app. 300 meters in a low tunnel, reaching the end - the 1st of 3 blockades preventing you from reaching the border (the blockade is basically a concrete wall with a small window letting you see the other walls). Standing at the blockade we were only 179 meter from the border - the closest you'd ever get. Then you returned the same way back and up again. Before starting the walk you had to put bags, phones and empty your pockets and put everything in a locker as photography was not allowed in the tunnel (and anything the metal detector reacted on was also deemed not bring-able). Then you donned a hard hat before starting the descent - and while it seemed silly on the way down as there was a high ceiling and plenty of space, the horizontal tunnel was a different story; you could constantly hear throughout heavy donks when people didn't bend enough and therefore hit their heads on the low rocky ceiling.

Bridge to the north.

Apart from the tunnel there was a small building where we were shown an 8 minute documentary about the ordeal and it was like no documentary I had ever seen. Heavy thumping music for soundtrack as taken from a military propaganda video while exposing the viewer to short flashing videos showing the history behind the DMZ. Then it could switch to calm visuals showing how wildlife flourished in the DMZ without humans around with nice quiet classical music in the background and BAM - back to hard heavy thumping music and more conflict heavy imagery. That happened a couple of times and it felt so surreal. The contrast was so drastic and out of the blue it almost gave you whiplash.

Statue showing a halved globe where North and South Korea are indented on opposite sides,
making the two sides fit perfectly together.

From here we were brought to the Dorasan Observatory where you could look out and into North Korea - both from a large theater with huge panoramic windows and from the roof where they had lined up telescopes. From here you could see the fake villages the North had build, the famous (?) flagpole with the large North Korean flag waving, among other things. Unfortunately visibility today wasn't the best so seeing anything across the border posed a bit of a challenge. Unfortunately this was also a place where photography was forbidden, though I couldn't help think that it was a great - and in a way slightly surreal - view that easily could carry a few photos. But I wasn't up for testing the security and seeing how much I could get away with before getting tackled by soldiers and carted off.

The Peace Bell.

In the end we visited Unification Village, the only village in the area, for a short bit before returning to our starting position. At this point it had become noon and we got an hour to have lunch before returning to Seoul. The visit to the DMZ was interesting - especially due to the reason why it's there. The restrictive photo rules made it hard to document much of it, but in a way I understand. While it seemed quite relaxed on the surface, all soldiers at the checkpoints along the way (passports where checked and cross referenced with their tourist lists of the day) looked quite young, there was an energy in the air, combined with the information plaques and videos, indicating that this is fucking serious business. Apparently it is also the best guarded and watched border in the world, with app. one million troops combined along the border. So while it may look easy going for tourists it is far from that.

I was a bit disappointed that the tour didn't include the JSA - Joint Security Area - which is the place everyone have seen photos from; the square blue buildings where very serious looking military guards are walking around and posted looking down along buildings. Unfortunately due to security issues they have limited access to visitors so it was naturally not part of the tour. Bummer.

Returning to Seoul we visited the war memorial before returning to the hotel. My 2-week tour is apparently two different tours combined, so after today we will only be 6 that continues down through western South Korea, 6 flies to Osaka to continue their our, while the remaining 4 will be going home. We 6 who will continue west/south joined the welcome meeting in the evening together with the 9 new people who will be joining us.

Big thanks to Leah, Ashley, Amy, Daniel & Trish, Tanya, Sam, Nathalie & Sonja and Dieter for being excellent tour mates and company this past week. I hope we will have the opportunity to meet again some time, even you are spread out from Hawaii to Australia.

10th - 12th of November - Gyeongji & Busan

Leaving Golgulsa temple we drove for a short while towards Gyeongju before arriving at the Yangdong Folk village - a small town never found by the Japanese when under attack by them which meant that it had never been burnt down and the buildings there were original 4-500 year old constructions. They were all inhabited as any other normal residential area, but two families had opened their doors so that people could have a look inside in parts of the houses - mainly inner courtyards; we never got inside any buildings. It was a very nice village, nice and serene, but it was also quite remote so any practical tasks would require at least half an hours' drive (and there was no info on the quality of their internet). 

 

 

 

After having lunch we continued to Cheomseonge Observatory and the nearby Royal Tombs. The Observatory is Asia's oldest observatory (built between 632 and 647) and obviously not in use anymore, but it seems largely whole despite its age - though it has started slanting around 5 degrees since getting hit by an earthquake some years ago. Following we had a walk around nearby tombs of past kings - I couldn't help compare them with the numerous burial mounds from the Stone age we have in Denmark, though these were significantly larger. They had excavated only one, mainly - as I understood it - because that superstition prevented them from disturbing their ancestors. The one they opened up had thousands of various precious objects, but not a single body. The conclusion was that it had been setup as a decoy and the body wasn't there (my theory is that the excavation did disturb the ancestor and he walked out without them noticing). It was possible to go inside this tomb and see a few of the things that was found. Lots of gold and intricate designs on jewelry and armor. Basically what you'd expect in such a place. 

 

 Cheomseonge observatory.

 

Royal tombs. 

 

We left for the hotel where we checked in in the afternoon. Unfortunately the hotel - with other hotels - was located a bit remote from the rest of the town so there wasn't much to do outside except a few restaurants. Therefore, 1½ hour's later the bus was ready to take those who wanted out to a Korean barbecue place where we had thick slabs of pork and plenty of side dishes - exactly as it should be. It was followed up by a drive to the Anapji Pond - an artificial pond at the former Donggung Palace. The 20 minute drive there brought us through almost empty roads - until we reached the parking lot of the pond which was absolutely teeming with activity. We got our tickets and did the 40 minute walk around. This was clearly a very popular destination to go to at night and understandable (to a certain degree); the completely still water and the lighting made the area incredibly pleasant to look at and if it hadn't been for the huge number of people it could have been a very nice evening walk. 

 

The following day we left at 0840 in an attempt to get to Bulguksa temple before too many arrived; we got there around 0900 and we managed to have a bit of time before the arrival of the big crowds. It is the biggest temple in South Korea and compared to the others we saw it was definitely significantly more expansive. Many more gates and courtyards, various buildings and multiple pagodas. 

 

 

 

We drove for 1½ hours to reach Busan where we started off by visiting Gamcehon Culture village, a part of Busan which has been kept in its original form; numerous colorful buildings set close together up along a hill side in a half-circular fashion. It reminded me a lot of Namche Bazar in Nepal, and people apparently compare it to Santorini in Greece. Especially with today's sunlight shining directly onto the buildings it was a very pretty view and the village was very photogenic. Unfortunately we only had 50 minutes before we had to continue so there was no time to explore any of the narrow streets that cut through the entire area, something we easily could have spent hours on. 

 

Gamcehon Culture village.

  

 

From here we drove to the Jagalchi fish market in town; a market where you can buy almost any kind of fish whether you want it filleted, dried or still fresh - in the indoor part of the market all the stalls had aquariums where the fish/shellfish/other sea creature was swimming around and ready to be sold. To be honest many of the fish seemed stressed to their eyeballs being packed in the small aquariums and while very interesting I did leave with a slight sour taste in my mouth. From here we had some free time to roam the nearby food and traditional market to get lunch and if we wanted to get souvenirs. 

 

After lunch we drove to the east side of Busan (until then we had only been on the west side) to Haeundae where we visited another temple, smaller than the previous, which overlooked the sea. It was nice, but it was "just" a temple with the view being its uniqueness. We left for our hotel to check in, and fortunately, as opposed to last night we weren't particularly isolated as there was plenty of dinner possibilities only a few minutes' walk from the hotel. 

 

 

The following morning we met to leave at 0900. It turned out that a few people had been down to the beach in the late afternoon after arriving and seen the sunset - something I hadn't considered at all. Based on the photos taken it had been quite wonderful and I was a bit bummed out that I had missed that. Oh, well - instead I got to enjoy zoning out in the hotel room for a bit before dinner. 

 

We left for Dongbaek Island, a small patch of land barely a bridge from the main land, a small island with a small circumference of app. 1km. The island is known for the APEC House - the building built for the first APEC summit in South Korea in 2005. Since then it is used to be shown for tourists and rented out for the occasional conference. A rounded building of glass and steel overlooking the sea. Continuing the walk around the island you got a nice view of Haeundae and the beach in front. There was also a statue of a mermaid though it had no connection to the Danish one in Copenhagen (it was also significantly larger). 

 

APEC House.

We continued on to Yongdusan Park and Busan tower getting a very nice view of the city. It was quite small at the top but there were only a few others than us around so it was never crowded. With clear air (not clear sky) you could see the entire city that wasn't hidden behind hills. I must admit, based on the Seoul tower the view here was more interesting and I would have loved to see the city from the tower at night. From here we went to the train station, had lunch and at 1303 we departed on a 2½ hour train ride back to Seoul. 

 

 

9th - 10th of November - Temple stay

We left the hotel at app. 0830, and as we would only be gone for 3 nights before returning to the same hotel we had the option of leaving our big bags at the hotel and just bringing a small bag with enough for the 3 nights. I managed to have room in my carry-on to leave my main bag, making it much easier to transport me and myself around. We took the subway to Seoul station where we transferred to the KTX Bullet train towards Busan, getting off at Gyeongju after 2 hours.

 

Seoul station - it's one large screen going the entire length and width of the hall. 

The train is referred to as a bullet train and it is easy to get associations to the Japanese bullet train with the long sleek noses and very smooth operation. It turned out that while these trains are much faster than the subway trains, and less blocky than the subway trains, they turned out to be fairly ordinary trains that took us out of the city. 

 

On arrival in Gyeongju we had an hour for lunch before getting picked up by bus and driven to the temple where we would spend the night. We checked in at 1400, got assigned our rooms and given vest and pants to wear. Luckily the pants were long and very comfortable, and you were allowed to wear what you wanted underneath the vest so you didn't freeze. As it was a "functioning" temple there were rules about how to dress when you visited with a nightly stay, and the pants and vest were said uniform. 

People living at this temple were practicing the martial art of Seonmudo which basically is a sort of martial art which combines mindfulness, yoga-like approach and slow and precise movements. And at 1500 we were given an presentation of this by some of the practitioners at the temple - together with a ton of other people who only showed up for this (and maybe staying for a few hours so they could have walk around and e.g. see the temple at the top of the hill). 

 

 

 

At 1600 we were introduced to the temple etiquette and the concepts of Seonmudo, and this was followed by an hour of training in what basically was a gym hall where we were around 40-50 people. It involved a lot of stretching exercises combined with exercises that tested your agility and flexibility (some of them were walking on all fours with stretched arms/legs - forward and backwards, low, mid and high kicks - the trainers mid kicks were my highest kicks...). While it was fun to try much of this was surprisingly difficult, especially as I am as limber as a steel rod. We finished off with 108 Prostrations; a gesture used in Buddhist practice to show reverence to the Buddha, his teachings, and the spiritual community - from standing position you sit down on your knees, put your forehead down with your hands palms down next to you head, turn hands around bring them up to your ears, turn them palms down again and bring them down and stand up. 108 times. And you had around 5-7 seconds for each. I stopped counting at around 3, but I believe I ended giving around the 30s or 40s. The distance from sitting to standing position got further and further for each Prostration. At least I was not the first one giving up along the way, and as we sat and relaxed waiting for the rest - and instructor - to finish, you could see how people slowly but steadily dropped out one by one. Still, there were around 30% left still going at the end which I thought was quite impressive. 

Having finished we left - me with slightly wobbly legs - and it was almost perfect timing for when dinner was served at 1800. After this it was free time until 2100 when everyone were supposed to be back in their rooms. At the outskirts of the temple area there was a café where some of us headed to after dinner and sat until it closed at 2000 before we returned to our rooms. 

Out travel group consists of 16 people where 3 are men. As the rooms at the temple had room for up to 3 people we were all put into the same room. Mattresses on the floor (they were surprisingly good, and wider than the beds at our hotel in Seoul) with a cover and quite nice pillow. With heating in the floor the room was nice and warm, and the following morning quite.... musky. Looking forward to a good night's sleep I quickly realized I was sharing a room with two people who seemed to be engaged in a snoring competition. 

The plan was to be woken up at 0500 by Buddhist calls so we could join the morning chanting service at 0530 (which was near the top of the hill at the other end of the area which meant you only had a few minutes to get out of the bed if you wanted to make it in time) and while I am not a fan of early mornings - especially when I'm on vacation - I thought I might as well participate in in (all these activities were voluntary, but if you didn't partake you'd have to entertain yourself in the mean time as there was nothing else to do and you couldn't leave the area (and there was nothing for miles)). I was woken up for the 4th or 5th time at around 0315 and thought it would be no problem getting up at 0500. The next time I woke up it was 0638 - double trouble: not only did I miss the morning schedule, it was 8 minutes into the 30 minute breakfast! One of the others was already awake so I quickly nudged the third and gave him a quick update before I tossed on some clothes and went to get breakfast. 

 

Buddha at the top of the hill

 

The view from the top.

There was another training session at 0900, and while I considered skipping it as I expected it would be mostly the same as yesterday, I ended up participating anyway. Only 2 from our group showed up so there was more room today. Yesterday it was a sole instructor who had instructed us, today it was one of the main instructors (I believe) together with a French woman who had been training here for quite a while and assisted along the way. Another 20 minutes of warmup but afterwards we went outside and utilized the road up to the temple; a fairly steep pavement road which added another challenge to the activities. Walking on all fours backwards UP the hill was.... interesting. As the instructor reminded us: "careful with your teeth!". While it felt much harder, the two of them clearly had a lot of fun together which resulted in it feel much more lighthearted despite being harder than yesterday. It seemed like she had trained under him - at least for some of her time here - and he seemed very proud of her progress which when stated clearly flustered her. 

Cutting it close to our departure time, on finishing I rushed back to our accommodation and got changed to my normal clothes, tossed a bit of water around and got packed in around 5 minutes to be at the bus at 1030 when we left for Gyeongju city, a short drive away.