Buddhas B-day

So the twenty fourth of May this year was the jolly fat mans (Buddhas) birthday. All over Asia this day is celebrated as the devote make their way to the temples to pray for a successful year while the less devote, i.e. us English teachers, mearly head out for the free food that the monks hand out to the masses.
Thursday, the holiday itself, was great, expect for the rain that came a little later. We all made it to the appropriate bus stop at the right time and headed out to Hwamsaa temple, a little out of the way place that we figured would be a better time than the better known temples at Nak-san and Sorak.
After hiking a bit after our bus ride we finally made it out to the temple itself and spent most of the morning wandering around and talking while waiting for the food to be served.
We had a great time watching monks drumming and seeing the faithful bowing towards the golden Buddhas. The entire temple complex was heavily decorated for the festivities with rows and rows of paper lanterns hung in honour of Buddha.
Pictures
1. The view of the massive stone that marks the entrance to the temple
2. It is only on rare occasions that non monks are allowed into the bell area, and Buddhas birthday is one of them. This is the massive drum that you hear when it is time for prayers.
3. The head monk, I think, banging the massive drum that signals the start of prayers.
4. Bibimbap, kimchi, and soup, the traditional birthday lunch. Bibimbap is one of my favourite things to eat in Korea, a mix of rice, seaweed, red pepper paste, and vegetabels.
5. Strings of lanterns litter the forcourt of the temple.

A little Nature Hike

After eating a great meal, courtesy of the monks at Hwamsaa Temple, I led our merry band down through some fields, stream beds, and lakes to get home. Despite a few misgivings and some potential rumblings of mutiny from the crew about my benevolent leadership, much to every ones surprise I eventually got us all home, within eighteen minutes of when I said I would.
It really was a great hike, encompassing large parts of rural Korea. We headed through fields, orchards, forests, lakes, dry stream beds and full ones, it was really memorable, made more so by the fact that about half way through a nice soaking rain started to hit. (Thanks for coming with me Aubrey, Kirsty, Helen, and Paul.)
Pictures
1. This is how rice looks before it is planted. It is a really timeless process, planting the rice. If you see people doing it it looks just like it must have been done a thousand years ago. The first thing that has to happen is the rice paddy must be tilled, not a bad job, you can do it with a tractor. Next, it gets a little more involved and labour intensive. The farmer has to string miles of flexible pipe to bring in the water to flood it to a depth of about six inches. Finally the little rice shoots that you see in picture one are hand planted.
2. We saw a huge number of frogs on this hike, this is just one of many.
3. Spring flowers that have fallen into the stream.

Random Shots

I went out for a little half drunken stroll with my good friend Mark the other night. It was fairly warm, the first really warm night of the summer, and we grabbed a few ice cold bottles of Cass and headed out.
We hit all the high points on the north end of Sokcho, the ferry terminal, a pavilion that overlooks the ocean, the rocks by the beach where we sat and drank yet more beer, and finally the sea police memorial.
Along this grand trek I was able to find a few photographic opportunities for my faithful viewers.
1. Sitting by the beach having a cold beer I spied this little kid perched on one of the huge concrete blocks they put on the seafront to combat erosion.
2. The memorial to the sea police who have lost their lives in cross border raids with the D.P.R.K. since the end of the war in 1953.
3. A cold front had passed through Sokcho earlier in the day leaving this incredible line of clouds moving across the east sea towards Japan.
4. A poster in the ferry terminal with a great message.