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.
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.
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.
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