Korean Bound

We arrived in Korea on Sunday, October 23, after about 41 hours on the ferry. We went from Tokyo to southern Japan, Kitakyushu, and then cycled about 15 km to Shimoneseki, where we caught another ferry from there to Busan, Korea. The ferry from Shimoneski was very rough, definately the roughest water I've ever been in. It was full of Korean toursits running to the bathroom to get sick. Luckily, thanks to a little dramamine, I didn't get sick.

In Busan we spent a day seeing some sights that we hadn't taken the time to see before. We weren't quite ready to cycle in Korea, and we had a lot of time before our flight out of Seoul, so we decided to stay an extra day. We made a day of sightseeing and hiked to Seok-Si, and temple that is hard to find, tough to get to, but well worth the visit. After climbing a peak, and walking around the mountain, passing many Koreans dressed to climb Everest, some little resturants on the other side of the mountain, we finally arrived at the Seok-Si Temple. A quiet temple outside of the second largest city in Korea, nestled in the mountains. It was breathtaking. The temple had large Buddha carving and the temple itself was set inside the rocks. Totally worth the visit.

We cycled out of Busan and decided to stop in Gyeongju, a tourist city, before taking a bus to Seoul. We had a lot of time, and have already over spent out budget, so we decided to do a night at Golgulsa, a temple which is also the headquarters of Sunmudo, a zen martial art. The templestay proved to be one of the highlights of our entire trip.

We arrived at Golgulsa at around 2:00 p.m., enough time to change into our monk wear, put our stuff in our separated rooms and head to our first session - archery. Archery is used as a form of meditation at the temple, and they were kind enough to give us a little lesson. Martin proved to be the star, and hit the bullseye a couple of times, I think he lost his calling. After archery we were to do "Community Work" however, the Head Monk was out of town, so we were let off easily. Dinner time was at 6:00 p.m. and the meal was fantastic! Monks are vegan, but, in Korea, they do like their pepper paste, which is very spicy. We then were off to Sunmundo training where we learned some kicks, stretches and a few yoga-like poses. We were in bed early since we had to wake up at 4:00 a.m. for our morning chants.

Day 2- Woke up with no issues, partly because if you were late, you had to do 1,000 bows, which is Not easy. The chants lasted 1/2 hour, and I tried to keep up, but giving that it is in a different language, I quickly gave up and just listened and bowed when i needed to. We then did a 1/2 hour of meditation. I thought this would be hard, but it was agonizing for me, partly because we had to sit in lotus position, which is crossing your legs and having one foot on top, ouch! Then we went into walking meditation. Both Martin and I agreed that we do much better at walking meditation. Martin is convinced that his climbing is a form of meditation, and talked about opening a temple of his own. ;) 6:30 a.m. was breakfast, again, delicious! After breakfast we had a bit of a rest before going into 108 bows. My knees really started getting raw after the first 50!

Overall, the templestay was a wonderful experience and I recommend it to anyone going to that part of the world. Yes, it was a tourist attraction, but we were able to get an idea of what life is like in a temple. I'm happy I'm not a  monk. ;)