Temples and mountains!

Yesterday we explored one of the biggest Buddhist temple complexes in Korea, at Songnisam National Park (about 1 1/2 hours west of Taejon). What a day it was!!

The scenery on the way to the park was spectacular - lush green hills and steeply-peaked small mountains, quaint villages, beautiful rows of onions, vegetables and rice fields. The ride, however, involved a lots of twisty turns, dips and ascents, so a few members of our family were quite green with motion sickness by the time we arrived!

The temple site was incredible. There was an extensive complex of buildings, from residences for Buddhist monks to prayer/altar side buildings, one main temple, and a stunning 5-story historic temple (the only one of its kind left in Korea, originally built in 553). The workmanship on these buildings was so intricate, with layers of carved wood painted in detailed patterns of bright colours. There was so much to observe in each structure!

Towering over everything was an enormous 33-metre gold statue of Buddha. It was enormous and, at one point, the sun came out and it was if the whole thing was illuminated from the inside. Quite incredible.

We hiked up the mountain to a hermitage, which was also focussed around one main temple, with several smaller out buildings. It was closer to the mountain peak and was very peaceful.

At the base of the mountain were many shops and restaurants, and we feasted on a traditional lunch where we sat on the floor at low tables and dined on numerous small dishes of various greens, vegetables, mushrooms and kim chi. We also enjoyed some substantial dishes based on rice, potatoes (pancakes - the kids loved these) and beef (for some people in our travelling group!). There were lots of street vendors along the street selling herbs and sweets, as well, and they kept giving samples to the girls (and to some boys belonging to another family) because they thought they were so cute. Older Koreans really adore young children and are very demonstrative with their attentions. One woman thought Cora was so beautiful that she gave her a whole package of sweets, hugged her and lifted her right off the ground, gushing the entire time about how beautiful she was. It was very sweet.

The day was wonderful, and it was fantastic to get out of the city for the day and hike and explore. Hope you enjoy the photos!!