Temple Walk

Pictures
1. The corner of a roof at a temple in Yang Yang. You can just see a wind chime at the very edge.
2. A mural of a pissed off holy man setting fire to a building for some transgression at the temple
3. The front gates at a Confusion school in Yang Yang
4. The inner compound of the Confusion school.
5. Rows of paper lanterns line the entrance to Naksan temple to celebrate Buddhas birthday next month.

Went for a great walk with some great friends the other day from Yang Yang to Naksan, two towns that are known for pretty much nothing. It was great day to hang out with Aubry, Paul, and Kelsey.

Hiking Up a New Mountain

For the past eight months, every time I wake up in the morning, I look out the window at this very peculiar cone shaped mountain that is just a few miles away, and every morning I think this will be the day that I will get up there and climb that damn thing. Well last Sunday was the day of reckoning.
After a fairly short bus ride on the one bus up north and a short walk through the rice fields that surround the base of the mountain, Conor and I finally reached the bottom and scouted out locations from which we could make it up the summit.
After a little while we had picked out our route and began moving slowly but surely upward through tangles of thorns and brush, following game trails and rock falls as we went up and up.
You could tell that this area had undergone massive trauma in the fairly recent past. All along the hike we found evidence that a massive fire had swept through the area no that long ago. Every where we looked there were half burned stumps and trunks of trees that were blackened by some sort of fire. The devastation was so complete that there was no growth younger than bushes on the mountain side.
After awhile we stopped to rest on a sort of saddle between a lower peak and the higher one that we were trying to get to. We were looking west, away from the sea, and down into a valley behind our little spot of heaven. From where we sat we could see a Buddhist temple and more graves than you could shake a stick at. It was obvious that at some time something really terrible happened here at some time. Korean graves are not usually together, they are usually placed in solitary areas with family groups. You almost never see this many graves together.
Moving on we saw something really amazing, especially here in Korea. For the first time in almost twenty months in this country, I saw a large mammal as a few yards ahead of us and slightly below, we kicked up a small deer that ran from us as if we were the hounds of hell. Knowing Koreans propensity for killing all things wild and eating them, it was probably a smart move on the deers part.
Moving on through even more thorns, I really should not have worn shorts this day, we finally reached something really strange just below the summit, a network of firing positions and bunkers with trenches connecting them. We found out the reason for this as we followed the trail connecting them towards the summit and looked back down the mountain on the south west side towards a huge army base buzzing with recruits doing what ever army conscripts do with their time here in Korea.
Moving up the trail on a well worn path by this time we finally reached the summit and were treated to a gorgeous view of the sea and the Diamond mountains in North Korea. Oh, I almost forgot, there was one other thing on the mountain top. A ring of white rocks that spelled out the letter H, a freaking helicopter pad.
Pictures.
1. Flowers thriving in the burnt stubble of the mountain side.
2. One of the many bunkers on the way up the mountain.
3. Looking to the east, rice fields and the sea.
4. Looking to the west, the Diamond mountains of North Korea are just to the right of the picture in the far distance. Yes I really am that close to our fraternal friends in the North.
5. With Buddhas birthday coming up you see these paper lanterns hanging every where.