Cultural Tour

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Steve got up at 4:30am on Saturday morning to play golf at the hotel (which means I also got up at 4:30 because I was closer to the phone when it rang for his wakeup call). It was still dark when they started, but he said watching the sunrise from the course and seeing the mist rise with the mountains in the background was breathtaking. The golf courses in Korea are much narrower than those in Canada because they have less space, making the golf especially tricky. They also have nets along the fairways to prevent you from hitting people playing on the hole next to it. Steve found this out as his tee shot went awry and ended up landing on the green of the hole next to theirs. His golfmates unfortunately wouldn’t let him count the shot on the next hole.
After listening to the speaker on Saturday morning, we headed out on a cultural tour. The first stop was Bulguksa temple. This Buddhist temple was originally built in 528 AD, but had gone through many renovations since then. You first walk though a covered gate, inside of which there are four statues. My friend Cat (who is of Korean ancestry, but grew up in Australia) said they really freak her out - they are supposed to represent the guardians of heaven, and they decide who gets in and who doesn’t. As I was taking pictures of them, a group of Korean women walked through, carefully bowing to each statue.
We continued over a bridge and past a beautiful pond until we got to the temple complex. It was amazing: the architecture was unlike anything I have ever seen. The painting on the underside of the roof was vibrant and interesting, and really complemented the natural surroundings. There were a lot of neat rooms and very steep staircases. There were several different buildings with different Buddha in them. There were people who had come to worship and would take off their shoes, go inside and prostrate themselves then get up and prostrate themselves again. It was interesting to watch. I wanted to take pictures, but there were signs around (clearly in English) asking us not to, so I didn’t.
Next we went to the Seokguram Grotto on Mt. Tohamsan. It was a refreshing walk through the forest at the top of the mountain to the stone temple which holds (if I get this right) a Buddha statue called Bojon, made of stone.
Finally we stopped at the Korean Folk art village for a little shopping. There were all sorts of things there, from masks to wooden boxes to jewelry to ceramics. We decided to take a taxi back so we could have a better look around. We ended up buying a beautiful serving dish, and Steve picked up a couple of Kimchee pots to use as rice serving dishes.

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Photos

Steve's Golfin' Buddies
Steve, Brian, Brian and Grant

One of the guardians of heaven
I liked this guy 'cause he is holding a lizard.

Reverence
This is still a working temple where buddhists came to pray.

The view from Seokguram Grotto
We hiked out to this view!

The Bojon Statue
Another slightly illegal photo!