Beauty & The Beast

Greetings once again! A couple of weekends back, Lynne and I travelled down to Cheongju to see our good friends Ross and Amy. For those that don't know them, they have been working in Korea for a little over a year now.

This was shockingly the first time we have ever left Ilsan or Seoul, so we were very excited about seeing another part of Korea, and the scenery in between. The Express Bus Terminal in Seoul was initially a little daunting, but luckily we were granted two tickets for our desired destination even though we were a mile away from the correct ticket booth. As you may already know, after touring Canada by Greyhound we are bus experts, even managing to endure a 48 hour bus journey in terribly cramped conditions, without going fully insane. If the buses had been more like Korean buses, however, things would have been much easier!

It turns out that for a little more expense, you can choose to ride an "Excellent" bus. True to their name, these buses are fantastic. The seats are all more like plush leather "lazy-boy" armchairs, and the amount of room you have is incredible. I celebrated such a comfortable mode of travel with some early beers, clearly forgetting my notorious peanut sized bladder.
The countryside between Seoul and Cheongju was quite nice, if a little unremarkable. To me, anywhere without mountains tends to feel pretty mediocre, I just can't help it. And this particular stretch must be the 10% of the peninsula which isn't considered mountainous. Apparently we should have passed a building crowned by a massive sign reading "GAY", but we unfortunately missed that one. We did spot a tall structure in the middle of a field called the Dongmoon Elevator. We were puzzled at why anyone would want to ride an elevator to the top of this tower in the middle of a rice paddy, but it turns out not to be that at all. Which is a shame!

Arriving in Cheongju, we were greeted by a hungover Ross, sporting the familiar blinding tangerine of the Dundee Utd top. Ah the memories. Our plan for this weekend, was to visit the temple of Beopju-sa in Songnisan National Park, and to come back to Cheongju for some hardcore drinking. Two events desribed by the title of this very post.

We boarded another "Excellent" bus bound for Songnisan, a trip Ross and Amy had made before and had estimated to take about 40 minutes. Turns out Ross was slightly inaccurate by about 80 minutes, and his punishment for miscalculation was a 2 hour bus journey with a hangover which was starting to turn ugly. Ha! As we got closer, the thickly wooded hills turned into impressive mountains, and the psychotic bus driver tackled a series of suicidal hairpin turns as we sharply climbed towards the park. We also passed through a town called Boeun, which looked like the arsehole of Korea. About a mile before the park entrance, we passed the Minister Pine, a very grand 600 year old tree. Legend tells that the branches of this tree obstructed the path of King Sejo and his procession, so he ordered the tree be cut down. Before this could happen, the tree raised its branches of its own accord, allowing the King to continue.




The tiny village of Songnisan was a very quaint and relaxing place, with plenty of shops selling the usual tourist pish. On the way up towards the temple we all attempted to walk barefoot along the yellow ochre path. Which is actually red for some reason. It's supposed to have various healing qualities, but holy shit it's painful! We didn't manage too far before giving up.


From here, due to a lack of time, it will mostly be pictures. If you want to hear more regarding the history and specifics of Beopju-sa, then click here.

The centre-piece of the temple, and our main reason for visiting, was the 33 metre tall bronze Buddha. Cast in one mould and made entirely of bronze, it is the largest and heaviest free stansing Buddha in Asia! Obviously it is truly a sight to behold.








Although it's difficult to see in the picture above, there are many piles of rocks in the middle, constructed by visitors in the belief it will bring them good luck.


Many of the buildings were covered in artwork depicting gruesome and savage scenes of torture. Which was nice.



A shady snap of some resident monks. The blurriness shows Lynne's fear at being caught in this dubious act. A life as a secret agent does not seem likely.



At one point this temple was home to more than 3,000 monks, and this was the gigantic bowl used for all their rice!


I try to contain my excitement at the mountains!


Everywhere you looked there were armies of massive dragon flies. You could honestly see as many as 20 hovering around in the same spot at times.



After an extremely beautiful and interesting visit to Beopju-sa, it was time to head home, get gibbering drunk, and behave like maniacs. Hence the Beast part of the title. Ross wore a pink shirt. Quality. And contrary to this photo, he is not a big fatty, I don't know what happened to give him a pelican chin here.


After downing numerous shots of Lemon Soju (despite my claims of never drinking soju again), I had worked up the courage/foolishness to order some Bondeggi. This was my big moment, and it had to be done. As usual we could all smell it even before it appeared out of the kitchen, and as the bowl of bubbling insects was set down before me, I contemplated feigning a medical emergency to rescue myself from this ordeal. However, I decided instead to attack it with gusto, skewering 3 of the mushy larvae on my fork, and launching them into my gob. Words that spring to mind are, warm, mushy, gooey, smooth, and, of course, disgusting. The only good thing to be said is they don't taste quite as bad as they smell when a huge pot is boiling away. At least it's done and out of the way, and I get to enjoy watching Northy's Bondeggi initiation when he finally gets here. What a joy that will be haha!



We were also served a gigantic platter of fresh fruit, which had many interesting uses. After this we went to a few more bars, a hip-hop club called Harlem (not my scene but who cares when it's an "all-you-can-drink" affair!), and inevitably, a Noraebang! All in all, a fantastic weekend.

GOING......

GOING.......

GONE!!!

In more recent news.....

I finally checked out the mysterious trail near our apartment. Turns out it goes on forever, up into some mountains, where there are two temples with monks. Who would have guessed it! I was still a little disappointed it didn't lead to Stephen King's Pet Sematary cos it bloody looked like it would. Anyway I took some pictures of what is now called "Chris' Mountain", or in Korean... Kurisu-san, and they are very cool.

My cockroaches are multiplying, I am making a little pile of dead ones. I will blog the picture when it gets to be an impressive mound.

Went to Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival on my birthday weekend. Great time, tons of pictures. Stayed in a Love Hotel which had a Sex Chair in it. This is all considered very normal here!

We are on holiday this week, and leave for 4 days on the beaches down in Busan. Should be superb.

It finally stopped raining and it is HOOOOOOT!

Hopefully blog these things after Busan, bye for now folks!