a day trip from Yeosu to Hyangiram temple on Dolsando

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On my second day in Yeosu took the Planet’s advice and headed down on a local bus to Dolsando the long island to the south now joined by a bridge to the mainland. The Planet had advised of the temple called Hyangiram there at the bottom of the island/end of the bus route. It was very scenic going down for the most part. When you were out of the built up areas it was very green with trees etc and rice paddies and small time agriculture (as in a lot of those mustard greens which are used in the local kimchi).

Got to the end of the line (literally) at about 2pm – the bus ride takes about an hour and max fare is about $1. Before hiking up to the temple got some lunch stuff from the local convenience store, which had some nice stools looking out the windows at the ocean view/fishing boat pier below and many floats (crab pots or what?) in the bay of the harbour. It was however very hazy and no idyllic pix were had – it also came up somewhat misty up the mountain blowing in from the sea so no point in hiking further up the mountain as the view would only become worse (not to mention the effort). The various bits of the temple were nice and there were speakers in the woods with Buddhist chanting going on which made it suitably atmospheric. And lots of stone turtles with 100 won coins sitting on their heads – must be some wish for longevity or something given the turtle significance elsewhere. I spent a couple of hours there and managed not to get offered kimchi samples on the way up/down as there a very large number of kimchi shops there!

The buses were more frequent than the Planet had led me to believe – about 2 an hour, rather more than the 6 a day they said. On the way back, local market stuff being what it was, an old couple got on and dragged on 4 big, clearly heavy sacks of onions/garlic etc to take to town. A suitably rural rustic atmosphere then.

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Photos

Dolsando Hyangiram temple
with mountain backdrop

Hyrangiram Buddha does what with bones?
not sure about this!

Hyangiram temple seaview
great if not so hazy/misty

Dolsando mustard greens
and red composition