On our second long weekend of May (that is right we got two in a row!) We decided to take it easy and recover from the madness that had been the previous two weeks. We thought a nice hike in the mountains just north of Daegu would be a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon... I had forgotten that it was Buddha's birthday and figured it would be peaceful to see a temple, check out the world's tallest Buddha and spend some times with friends. Little did I know that A LOT of people had this same idea!
We started off in the early afternoon taking the City Express Bus out to Palgongsan. That is one thing I LOVE about Daegu is that you can take the bus just about anywhere. This ride was about 45 minutes to an hour and it cost us a whole 990 won (or about 99 cents). However it wasn't the most comfortable ride as many Korean bus drivers feel the need to continue to heat the buses in over 20 C weather. Then add in a whole lot of people (standing room only... and even there just barely, its like there is no max capacity for the buses) and you have one sauna of a bus ride! 
Anyways we made it up to the base of the mountain and when we got out we were greeted by what seemed like karaoke in the main tourist square... so we started to look around for any kind of signage (that we could read) or tourist info booth (because they all have English maps). We really were not lucky with either of those so we just decided to start walking up and then we followed the guys with the hiking gear on! 
This seemed to work out just fine for us as we soon approached the imposing gate leading to Donghwasa. T
he entry fee was 2500 won per person which seemed pretty reasonable so we paid and moved on... This was where we found the "traffic jam". There was a line of cars stretching for quite some distance but when we moved on a little further we found out that it was because they were waiting to cross the one way only bridge. However there certainly were a large number of people on the temple grounds as it was the day before Buddha's birthday. W
e made our way up to the main temple area and checked out all the different statues of Buddha and the many buildings. Everywhere y
ou looked there were lanterns upon lanterns upon laterns. I kind of expected this as all over the city there are lanterns hanging from every tree and post but I wasn't expecting the sea of laterns in the main temple square. We didn't actually enter any of the temples as we didn't really know the customs and didn't want to offend anyone so close to a religous holiday. We did however get some excellent pictures from outside.
e made our way up to the main temple area and checked out all the different statues of Buddha and the many buildings. Everywhere y
ou looked there were lanterns upon lanterns upon laterns. I kind of expected this as all over the city there are lanterns hanging from every tree and post but I wasn't expecting the sea of laterns in the main temple square. We didn't actually enter any of the temples as we didn't really know the customs and didn't want to offend anyone so close to a religous holiday. We did however get some excellent pictures from outside.
From here we made our way to the Tongil Buddha statue, the world's biggest standing Buddha (33m high and 16.5m around). This statue is believed to cure sickness and prolong life. It is amazing. It is hard to describe the feeling of seeing something so hug
e in the middle of a mountain forest! The area around the statue included other temples as well as a pair of 17m high stone pagodas on either side. It was all very festive for the up coming ceremony on the Monday and there were heaps of people visiting. Some of the group had a chance to have a green tea ceremony break with a number of women dressed in the traditional Korean Hanbok clothing. The women told Ian that he was very handsome and Jay that he was very sexy! I wonder what the difference is in their eyes (I would say it is the facial hair... )After this we decided that we had had enough for the day and that we would go downtown to grab a bite to eat before heading home. As we headed back down the mountain (we had to wait for 3 different buses because there were SO many people heading back at the same time) we were undecided about a location for dinner but then when we got there someone suggested Quizno's. Yes that is right. Daegu has a Quizno's. And while I can't say it is as good as it is at home, it is the darn closest thing I have had in 5 months. It was delicious!
And now you are all caught up. The weekend is almost here and perhaps we will do something blog-worthy. Until next time. Peace.
1 comment:
Ive been reading your blog and I cant wait to arrive in Daegu!! I will be there mid July!
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