Ok. Don’t know where the source of the featured image I used is, but, Starwars is going full throttle in Korea in the same way it is in the US. It hasn’t been spoiled for me yet (Thank glob!) but until now I spiritually wasn’t ready for it. Thankfully I have a movie theater literally behind my house so I will be able to see it somewhat uninterrupted in the coming days.
Last friday, this kind of stuff in the picture above is what I had to deal with. It was my last day teaching at a school that I was so happy to be finished with (I like some of the staff and love most of the students… but this school was both my main school and my most challenging). The students at all my schools had “last day syndrome” so even though I was playing Miyazaki movies and Adventure time with Korean subs, they were going crazy all over the place.
Thankfully, I already finished one of my schools for the semester, so I had 3 free days to kick it anywhere I wanted. Because I have a habit of being poor but my bank account was looking nicer than usual (a rare but welcome sight), I was ready to go anywhere and spend as little as possible in the place I landed. This time, I decided to go for Daegu, or more specifically for the sake of story progression, Gayasan mountain at the Hein Sa (해인사) temple an hour and a half from the city.
This is the gate to the national park. It’s an hour and a half bus ride from Daegu city but well worth the visit. From Imsil to Jeonju to Daegu to Hain Sa… and back to Daegu, I think I spent most of that day on the bus. I took a bus at 9:30am from Imsil (임샬) to Daegu ( 대구) which took me about 3 to 4 hours, arriving at 12:30pm or so. I spent an hour getting myself to the Hostel (that I spent one night in)….before navigating the subway back to the same exact bus stop as before via subway.
I wish I could say I stayed the night at the temple… which you can do! It is so peaceful and beautiful (as you will see). The price isn’t as bad as those in the city. Unfortunately I already paid for my accommodations at the guest house. As I write this however, I am in a love-hotel in a part of the city where I think it is safe to say I am the only foreigner lol! The price is right (finally learned to be assertive and barter where I can. Wrestled the price down by 20,000won). It’s very garish though. I like it because I know I can get it cheap enough, the rooms are cozy, and it is near where my girlfriend lives… but it is soooo sleazy! I didn’t bother taking photos of the room. It’s covered in all sorts of butts and things… It’s a very funny environment. Here I am, alone, in a room covered in butts watching the 6 starwars episodes on TV, just enjoying the heat and nice whirlpool tub (hahaha)! It also does not have a 4th floor because the number 4 is bad luck here. Not the only building I’ve seen that didn’t have a 4th floor.
To make up for the lack of sleezy pictures, I’ll show you the instructions for sharks trying to use the toilet and some photos of the Hostel I stayed at the night before. The hostel was very nice and probably the only one (or other one) in Daegu. No other travelers there though! Everyone was from Korea. I think Daegu misses out on some love because it is the 4th largest city, it’s midcountry, and although people say the nightlife is cheaper than Seoul, I dunno if I agree. Don’t get me wrong. It is a huuuuggeee city! However, I think Seoul takes the cake because it is so populated and diverse that it just happens to have more plentiful and cheaper venues as a result of how many people go there and the competition.
With that being said, other than seeing my girlfriend again, the temple was probably the most amazing part of the trip. I’m planning to go back very soon.
A brief history of the temple before I get into more photos: Hein Sa is one of the most important Medicine Buddhist temples around. It contains a collection of over 80,000 wood blocks containing the Korean Buddhist cannon: The Tripitaka Koreana (the largest cannon in the world). Unfortunately this temple has constantly been under attack and burned down by invaders. I think it’s been burned down three times. The first time was by the Mongolians who also managed to destroy all the woodblocks (about 700-800 years ago). Then the monks spent another 16 years re-carving the blocks using more advanced techniques of preservation. Then the Japanese burned it down (but the library remained intact), and then it got burned down again by accident (and yet again the woodblocks were kept safe by some miracle). The last attempt was during the Korean war, but a really dedicated fighter pilot who was probably also pretty annoyed at how many times this place kept getting burned to the ground, valiantly shot down all those who tried to destroy it. There are no smoking/fire signs everywhere. I think the guy putting them up was like “I swear on me mums life, if this place burns down ONE MORE TIME!”
This turtle-dragon gravestone was about 1km from the temple itself. Once you get there, there are more. I think the dragon on top is guarding one of the Dragon Balls.
A small retreat of some sort outside of the temple area by 0.5km
This is the first gate leading into the temple complex
A path leading to the second gate. I don’t have a photo of myself but as you can see from my shadow I’m decked out in my cloak and cowboy hat. I stuck out like some kind of wizard. Kids and adults gave me stares looks of awe as I walked around the complex.
A tree with wishes on it.
One of four important bells hiding around the country. In my Seoul Searching post, I showed a photo of the bell in Seoul. I think there are four towers too. Maybe if I ascend all four towers and see all four bells I will gain magic powers.
A cool dragon hiding next to the bell
Beautiful view next to a sign written in ancient Chinese
Decorations like this are all over the rooftops around the temples. The intricacy of some of the paintings and carvings is breathtakingly ornate. You can find something beautiful in almost any direction.
One of many small houses filled with very ornate Buddha Statues. I think head monks sleep in here
Here is one of them. I didn’t get a photo of the large Buddha inside the main hall of warship because it was a more auspicious place. I didn’t want to be disrespectful and take photos of people praying, especially before doing so myself…. on that note, I need to learn how things work here. I am versed in the Theravada tradition and Khmer style of prostration… Here they are Mahayana and they have their own way of prostrating. I probably looked funny doing it the way I knew, so I’ll need to learn more of the customs involved!
This is the gate to where the woodblocks of the Tripitaka Koreana are stored
And this is a close-up of the inside. It wasn’t open today so I could only observe from a distance. The construction of the building is so advanced and astounding to engineers even today. It has the windows stilted in a specific way for humidity control, with charcoal beneath floorboards opened at very specific lengths. The government tried to make a new room for the woodblocks using the most advanced technology for temperatures and humidity adjustment available (which you know must be nuts because Korea lives in the future)… unfortunately the whole thing was scrapped because the test-blocks started to get mildew and they couldn’t fix it.
These are some pictures I took just outside the “photo area” where you could stand in front of a picture of the wood blocks so it would look like you were actually in the room. I thought the view outside of it was nicer
This tree has an interesting story to it. One of the important Buddhist scholars spent his last days on this hill, playing lute and attracting beautiful birds. He hit the ground with his cane and in its place this tree sprouted. There really is a very mystical energy coming from it. They call it the hill of the Scholar. I felt like I was being wordlessly whispered to as I stood on top of it.
I don’t know what this is, but it’s pretty.
After climbing down the mountain I bought some Reishi Mushrooms… but a wild boar wanted them more than I did! I think I made a friend!
I later left the mountain and crashed for the night at the Hostel. I did look around downtown for a bit but I got kind of bored from being on my lonesome. Found a bus bar though!
There are two more topics I want to touch on before ending this post. One is how awesome the names of places around here are. Because English is sort of a lingua fraca here and not tied to any of the cultural value we put on it, you see total disregard for interpretation of language. This means a lot of stores end in the word “story” like “jazz story, tea story, jacket story” etc. You also get some rather…amazing names too like these below. If I open a business, I want to do it in Korea so I can give it a name of utter nonsense. It’s a lot like how Americans get Chinese/Japanese tattoos without knowing or caring what they mean. You might have “water” inked on you in Chinese, but it’s the same character used in words like “sewer system, bottled water, toilet water, hose, lake, puddle, etc”
I love it though.
The last thing I want to talk about, because I didn’t get much of a chance to in my Seoul Searching post, is the subway systems in Korea.
The subways here are outstanding. I’ve only seen two of them; Seoul’s and Daegu’s. The one in Seoul at first glance will make your head spin but after a minute or two of figuring it out, you see what makes it so great (I use an app to help me with Seoul since it is so massive). Daegu’s is a lot smaller but SO efficient! I’ve taken a taxi which took me an hour to go where the subway took me in 20 minutes. Daegu’s subway system is what Boston’s should be. Everything is nice and clean, bathrooms available, directions laid out. As an enthusiast of hating Boston’s subways, I can say this was very pleasing. I miss absolutely nothing about the cold dingy slow and terrible Boston subway system. One of my first memories of the Boston subway was bringing my friend’s little brother with us there. The smell had him dry-heaving.
One thing that caught my attention is how subway stations act both as modes of transportation and shopping malls. Most of Daegu’s station stops are pretty simple, but the one in the downtown area is literally a sprawl of underground shops and food stores. It’s incredible when you are looking for your gate and you run into this:
FOR SHAME BOSTON! FOR SHAAAMMEEE!
Imagine what could be done if private investors could transform our terrible system into something this beautiful and convenient. Everyone in the city goes down and through here. Why hasn’t this opportunity been taken yet??
Other than that, I will leave you with some photos demonstrating how easy they make the subway to navigate, how cozy it is in there, and how safe it is. Words can’t describe it. The rails run so smoothly that you don’t even need to hold onto anything when it moves. My days of a rail surfer in Boston are over for now it seems. It takes no skill to stand up in these things while they zoom around at redonkadonk speeds.
Stairs going down one of many numbered gates so you know where in the City you are going to:
First the gates are closed, and a screen / intercom tells you when it is coming. The same systems are inside the train too, in English. You always know where you are going.
Train arriving
people get on and off
There are plates in the ground with color-coded arrows going all over so it is hard to get too lost.
It was an exciting trip! At the end of the day, I got to cuddle up with my Dahkling (Thai for “monkey butt”.. it sort of sounds like the word “darling” when you say it… Yeaahhh it’s a great pet name 😛 ) and sleep off the day… and then I went to a bar
I’ll be going back today! (It took me a few days to finish writing this). but then later I’ll be off for Cambodia so my next post will be more about returning to my home away from home in South East Asia. No podcast this month, but I’ll have a good one coming up this January!
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