A delightfully rainy day.

Yesterday was one of my 10 (holiday) days off of my year here and I didn’t really have any plans but I also didn’t want to stay at home all day in my apartment listening to the rain outside. So I decided to head to a museum to at least do something that I couldn’t do back home. As I was getting ready, however, Leona called (it seems I’ve made a friend). And we went off on this rainy day in search of a mild adventure.

Our first plans got foiled because it started raining buckets but we decided to hop on a bus (not entirely sure where it would take us – but we knew it was generally the right direction). We ended up at the opposite end of the mountain area we wanted to be at – a beautiful, and swanky café with glass walls to afford views of the surrounding mountains (about an hour and a half walk away probably) but the place was lovely and I’ll be getting back there to explore some more as soon as I can. While looking around and trying to figure out where we were a Korean guy started yelling out to us. Saying hello, asking us to come over, etc. Seeing as it’s often hard to find someone who speaks English, we did. It was hilarious! He was jumping up and down, excited – when he could tell we were coming he shouted “Yeah!” and rushed out to greet us more fully. It turned out there were a number of guys there who were soldiers ‘guarding the mountain’. As one said. We asked if they knew where the “BlueMoon Restaurant” was and they pointed the way but said it was a half hour walk and we shouldn’t (or couldn’t) take a bus. Then one, the most silent of them all, said ‘one minute.’ He left, came back with his umbrella and began walking. He told us he’d show us where (we assumed he’d walk a little ways to point us in the right direction) but instead he led us to his car and clearly expected us to get in. So we did. The drive he took us on was beautiful but I’m sure I couldn’t have walked it in less than an hour and a half (and I’m a fast walker). I think Leona was starting to get slightly concerned he misunderstood us, but I was just enjoying it – I figured we could catch a bus or taxi afterwards if need be.

He dropped us off at the Blue Moon Restaurant though and we discovered afterwards that the temple we had hoped to visit was actually closer to the place we first got off the bus and we cost about $12 in a taxi to get back to. So, I pulled out my map and suggested we go to one of the nearer temples. Leona had wanted to show me a particular statue at the other one, but she agreed. We headed up, and up, and up as the rain poured down the steep drive like a river. It was very worth it though. The actual river on either side of us was magnificent, and the rain interspersed by drizzle and mist created an incredible atmosphere of mystery and wonder. We even found a massive waterfall. There were times when my breath was taken away and I felt sheer delight at the aspects of God’s wonder we were encountering.

Eventually, we made it to Pagyesa Temple and Buddhist monk village. The story behind these temples is that King Kukjong of the Joseon Dynasty had a dream one day that a Buddhist monk was coming to his palace. The dream seemed so real that he ordered his servants to look at the Gat in search of the monk – and there they found him. It was a priest of the Pagyesa temple. The king was amazed and beseeched the monk to pray for a hundred days so that the king might have an heir. His prayer was answered and Prince Yeongjo, later to become one of the most famous kings in the dynasty’s history. Pleased with the priest, the King gave the monk a new name and offered help to the monks of the temple by asking permission to use the temples as a place to keep the memorial tablets of former kings. By doing this he stopped the problems that were being caused by Confucian scholars and allowed the monks to live in peace.

The intricacies of the painting and woodcarvings on the buildings were inspiring. We saw Buddhist monks praying and got glimpses of the inner temples – so elaborate and ornate, with rice paintings and fabrics and ornate golden statues. Precious and wonderful, but also saddening at the same time.

We kissed memorial tortoises hoping they’d turn into princes and walked the little trail up to the monk village where we were greeted by a statue of the female praying Buddhist and temples and halls. On the way down we stopped at a little restaurant and had Dulce Biumbop – a rice, vegetable and egg dish served in a hot bowl that you stir and cook yourself then continued the rest of the way back to the restaurant. Wonder of wonders though, it had begun to clear up. With only slight drizzle coming down we decided to take advantage of this opportunity and continue our exploring. We traveled some paths and entered a Korean farming village (mostly vineyards). It was wonderful. These were not the ugly villas and apartments of Daegu but Korean life we imagine the way it was before Westernization worked its changes. Determined to reach a far off church in the valley we ended up being forced to take the main road, but we reached it anyway and though it wasn’t much at all – the hill we had to climb to get to it provided some more amazing views.

We never made it back to the restaurant (we figured it would take another hour at least to walk back up it (and the rain by this time was back to it’s heavy state) but it was a perfectly wonderful day. There’s few people I’ve met who I think could have enjoyed it the way we did. So many would have decided to turn back many times I think because of the weather and the potential for discomfort. But I think we were blessed in finding each other. We were able to experience a day and see views of the mountain with the misty rain, and billowing clouds transforming it that I doubt the majority of tourists have witnessed (we actually didn’t see one other foreigner the whole day – which wouldn’t have been too abnormal except for the fact that we were in a tourist area . . . minus our village excursion).

* The pots are for soaking and fermenting Kimchi.