JAG Journeys: Buddhist temple

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Sokcho Trip - Day 2: Naksan Beach

We had planned to go back up to Seoraksan N.P. and hike another quite popular trail on Sunday, April 29. But I had kind of injured my knee somehow near the end of our hike the day before (probably just strained something in the strenuous climb straight up the side of the rock wall) and we decided to just rest up instead. We found a fun cafe just down the street from our hostel that was decorated with camping equipment and we ate breakfast there. Then we walked to the nearest bus stop and hopped on the bus for a 20-minute ride south to Naksan Beach in Naksan Provincial Park. Unfortunately, we had no way of knowing when to get off the bus since the announcements were way too quiet to hear over the noisy bus motor and other traffic. So we asked the bus driver several times to tell us when we got to the right stop. He made it seem like he would, but then, just as we were pulling away from a stop, I noticed a sign for Naksan Beach. After consulting with the driver yet again, it turned out that was the stop we wanted, so we had to keep riding until the bus got to the next town, before getting off to find another one heading back. We made sure to get off at that bus stop and then it was just a short walk to the beach. Our guidebook said that Naksan Beach is the most popular beach on the East Coast during the summer, but we found it nicely vacant of crowds. There were some people there enjoying the warm spring day, but we had a lot of room to ourselves. We lay in the warm sand, waded into the cold water, watched other people race around the beach on tiny ATVs, and watched still others take motorboat rides just off the shore. I managed to get completely caught up in the sport of sea-glass finding, and as a result, our return to Sokcho later that evening included many pieces of the green glass rubbed smooth by the sand and waves. Jonathan had brought his cloth frisbee along on our trip and we had a pleasant time throwing it around for a while until my knee started to hurt a bit. Then it was back to lying in the sand again, before I played a rousing game of wave tag with the ocean. Later on we walked to the north part of the beach and out to the end of a long jetty. Then we visited Naksan temple. By the time we had explored most of the temple grounds, we were famished and our legs were crying for a rest. We bought two Chinese pancakes (fried dough with sweet syrup inside) from a vendor just outside the temple gates, then we walked back to the bus stop and called it a day. A perfect relaxing spring day at the beach was just what we needed!

Hip cafe with camping decor

Jonathan comfortably sitting on a Thermarest

Fishing boat (the lights strung across the front are for catching squid at night)

Glad we brought our handy cloth frisbee, we got some good use out of it!

Ali playing wave tag...

...and finding sea glass

Just one of the many pieces of sea glass Ali collected

Later we headed over to those jetties

The local speedboat operators just rev their boats right up onto the sand! Ouch!

Looking for more glass

A walk by the sea

Jonathan with Seoraksan in the background

A speedboat speeding by

The concrete "stones" they used on this jetty were huge!!

Statue in the hilltop Naksansa (Naksan temple)

Inside the temple grounds, we were greeted by a tortoise

Cool-looking tree

Bird-fountain

Just a nicely landscaped area

The statue of the goddess of mercy, Gwaneum

Looking back toward Sokcho (but Naksan is in the foreground)

An Ali-sized doorway

Temple and pagoda

The pagoda itself

There's usually a huge bell somewhere on the grounds of most temples

One of the gates

Really nice landscapes

For pictures and commentary about our other days in Sokcho, click the links below.
Day 1: Seoraksan National Park
Day 3: Biking around Sokcho
Day 4: Sunrise and foot tour
Wrap-Up: Extras

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Busan Trip - Day 4: Fortress & Temple

On Saturday, December 31, we headed to the hills for some time out in nature. First we traveled up a very windy road to Geumjeongsanseong (Mt. Geumjeong Fortress). It's the largest fortress in South Korea and was built in 1703 to prepare for further invasions from Japan. (The Korean Peninsula has constantly been invaded by Japan or other surrounding nations.) There is only a 4km section left from the original fortress, but it's being rebuilt and the mountain is crisscrossed with hiking trails and dotted with small villages. As we bounced back and forth on the switchback road, we caught glimpses of the city below us between the bare forest trees. At the top we had a bit of confusion as to where we should go. We found an English map of the mountain and decided to hike down one trail for a bit to get to one of the four fortress gates. After reaching the East Gate and taking some pictures, we turned around and went back to our starting location and then kept going up to the Daeryukbong, just one of the peaks on the whole Geumjeong mountain range.

Arriving at the East Gate

A view of the mountains and a small village from the East Gate

Trail along the fortress wall

Daeryukbong peak

Busan is a very sprawling city (click to see full-size)

So much haze we couldn't see the harbour

We made it to the peak!

Newly-built section of wall

After relaxing at the peak for awhile and eating some sandwiches we'd brought along, we hiked back down to the windy mountain road. From back down in the north part of the city, we searched for the right bus to get to Beomosa Temple. After walking up and down the street looking for at least half an hour, we figured out our mistake and went up a perpendicular road rather than a parallel one that we'd assumed it would be on. It was only a quick walk to the bus stop after that and then a short drive up a one-way circular road to the temple entrance.