Once again we decided to go on a bit of a drive and hit up the town of Gyeonju… at this point we have pretty much gone everywhere in this country. In fact, more than the average Korean does in their lifetime…. so we were just pretty out of it at this point… regardless, the travel must go on!!!
Along the way we made a pit stop at one of the biggest temples in Korea, (name here). Supposedly it holds a body part of some famous monk, similar to pilgrimage chapels throughout Europe. I find it kinda odd how everyone thinks someone's femur has divine power, but whatever attracts tourists and keeps the money flowing into the churches coffers I guess. The surrounding area was actually prettier than the temple, the outside was absolutely gorgeous.
Pathway to the temple
Oh man deez rocks got writin all over them
Neato!
Afterward we went over to another big temple area, and checked it out rather briefly. To be honest, at this point me and Amy were pretty jaded to the whole temple thing, and everything sort of blended together into a temple mass that all looked the same.
On our way out, we were harassed like crazy by this little lady who demanded we eat at her restaurant. It creeped us out so much, we went the opposite direction but she made a roundabout charge and followed us to the location. We ducked into a different restaurant in protest to her assaults, and she finally left us alone. We then had some delicious beef with rice.
Our last stop was a pretty cool stone Buddha at the top of the mountain. There was actually roads all the way up, but they were DAMN scary as terrible Korean drivers barreled down, sometimes crossing into the opposite lane. These people are insane. We were tailgated by people thinking we were just too slow… going up a mountain.. after a small path, we finally reached the shrine and snapped a shot of the "no photo" Buddha. It was pretty cool.
Big ass bell near the start of the hike
Don't take photos of the Buddha, or you'll steal his SOUL!
The same building with the bell in it... i just liked how this looked a lot.
View from the top!
After being friends for over a decade mark finally wanted to be the tall one.
Another rocking view (good shots Amy!)
At this point we were done done. Super done, so tired and beat and stressed we didn't even want to meet any more of Mark's friends when we finally arrived back at Masan. We had some delicious Korean pancakes, and then called it a night since we had to get up so very very early this morning.
1 comment:
Hey Jesse, Really cool photos and story. Thanks for posting this! I am thrilled you went and did what you did! :-D Dad
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