On Sunday, an English friend and I hiked up Gyeyang Mountain....nothing out of the ordinary in itself, but it offered some fun stories.
Story 1: Point and Click...No Problem (?)
Upon arriving at the top of Gyeyang, I asked (rather, mimed to) a Korean man to take our photograph. After much hand motioning and shuffling about due to the position of the sun, we were in place. He then squinted at the camera for a bit, thought he took the picture, but didn't. I ran up and back. We stood there for a bit, then repeated above. We began to get a bit of a kick out of this (you all know how subdued my laugh is). This, combined with my jogging back and forth and the chuckling of his buddies, began to attract quite a crowd of bemused onlookers. They stood back, grinned, and constantly urged us to stand closer together. This particularly amused me. "No, no! Chingu, chingu (friend, friend)!" My friend managed to snap a picture of the drama. You can even see the lady on the right motioning us closer together:
Funny! In any case, he did eventually manage to shoot us with my camera:
Story 2: More Mental Respite
After picking our way down what was more of a dusty landslide than a path (oops...my fault), we came to the bottom, where we happened upon a park and a Buddhist temple. The men standing outside were gracious and motioned that we were welcome to look around, which we did, although we did not go inside. I despise looking/acting/feeling like an obnoxious/uneducated tourist, particularly when I am the only westerner around, but my desire for photos of this enchanting place was too great, and we both snapped away. There were few people around, and I reasoned that next time I return, I won't be taking pictures.
Here is my first shot:
When I first arrived in Korea, I was unaware that the symbol you see above is Buddhist. I was continually caught off-guard, thinking, "Why are there swastikas everywhere?" This little hut housed a giant bell right beside the temple:
The golden paint doesn't really show up in these photos, but it really is golden and shiny, not just yellow. The temple walls were paneled with squares about a foot in length and height detailed like so:
Hundreds of years ago, the Korean language used Chinese symbols for writing instead of the hangul alphabet that is used today. Thus, Chinese symbols often adorn the old temples:
More ornamentation:
This charming fellow and his buddy kept watch over the main doorway upstairs:
And now we come to my all-time favourite photo of the day. The doors were covered with tiny wooden painted flowers, which made it look solid. But when we walked up close, we saw that the spaces in-between the flowers were little windows. We pressed our faces up to the tiny spaces (can anyone say children at a candy shop?), and what we saw was breathtaking: a room walled floor to ceiling with tiny golden statues (I assume Buddhas? I don't know). In the centre there were large golden statues surrounded by plates of fruit and sacks of rice (offerings I'm guessing). Then along came a monk to light some candles, and I managed to take this photo:
Marvelous, no?After we had finished gawking and being awe-inspired, we continued back along the base of the mountain, toward where we had begun our ascent...and came upon another temple!
The monk we saw in the courtyard was so friendly, even though he didn't speak English. This time we asked (again, mimed) if we could enter, and were graciously welcomed inside (those glass doors on the first level). We left our shoes, coats, and of course, cameras at the entry and walked down a small hallway. We then entered the room with the Buddhas. This room was smaller than the first temple's Buddha room, but it was still really cool. We sat on mats, and I got to see 3 people enter to say their prayers. It was beautiful, and a wonderful way to start off my week. Best of all, it's really close-by, so I can visit whenever I want.
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