The main agenda for today was to visit the famous Woljeongsa Buddhist Temple in Pyeongchang County. While planning our trip to Korea, my wife asked me if I had any specific places I wanted to visit, and I mentioned that I wanted to see a real Buddhist temple.
Here we are
In addition, at the end of the day, Jiyul's father decided to stop by the tomb of King Sejong the Great (Yeongneung) in Yeoju, which was equally impressive.
Let's start from the beginning.
Table of Content
- The way to Pyeongchang County
- Odaesan Minsok Sikdang (오대산민속식당) restaurant
- Woljeongsa Buddhist Temple
- Souvenir Shop
- Woljeongsa Temple Fir Forest
- Emart
- King Sejong Tomb (Yeongneung) in Yeoju
- YouTube Video
- Conclusion
The way to Pyeongchang County
The long way east
We started with waking up, breakfast and some TV.
The setup at Jiyul's parents' home
The Woljeongsa Buddhist Temple is located in the far east of the country and requires a bit of driving. My wife's father was our driver, and he is not young anymore, yet he handled the trip perfectly. He was really happy that we came to visit.
As we know, it's going to be cold again, so I decided to try these out:
I have never seen this before
They are self-warming insoles for shoes.
However, spoiler alert: my feet sweated through these insoles, which ruined my socks and made walking very uncomfortable, so I ended up throwing them out very early.
We had to drive almost to the Sea of Japan (East Sea)
Koreans really hate that name, Sea of Japan, by the way.
The road goes through a lot of mountains and tunnels
On the way, you will see the real Korean countryside and nature. Countless farms, solar panels, small towns and villages, and, of course, mountains.
This is a typical view on the way
It's interesting that I really enjoyed looking at mountains, but my wife, who grew up in Korea, prefers the Canadian countryside with flat surfaces, rivers, forests and lakes. I guess we always feel that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.
A reminder of the 2018 Winter Olympics
The Woljeongsa Buddhist Temple is located in Pyeongchang County, which is the home to the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games. It's a really nice place to host the games because the mountains are beautiful, and it has all the infrastructure.
I won't lie, I was a bit moody in the morning and during the drive, but after we had lunch and coffee at the restaurant, my mood went up.
I managed to call my cousins in Russia because I wanted to show them the mountains, then we went to the washroom with Appa (the father), and finally headed to the restaurant.
Odaesan Minsok Sikdang (오대산민속식당) restaurant
Odaesan Food Village
Because Pyeongchang County is located high in the mountains, there is a very special food associated with it that is only offered locally.
My wife's parents picked Odaesan Minsok Sikdang (오대산민속식당) restaurant because the father really wanted to try the food there.
Here is the meal for 4. It's all for us
What they offer is called sanchae jeongsik, a meal featuring a variety of seasonal wild vegetables that can only be found there, many (or all) of which are grown locally and collected on these very mountains. The meal felt very natural and healthy to me, and the owner of the place was serving us himself. At the end, I said "jincha mashisoyo" (very delicious), and he was happy. I noticed how carefully he was washing the windows and caring about every customer. There were also many photos, news articles and awards featuring this place on the walls.
We came out of that place happy, and the free coffee that many Korean restaurants offer at the end really helped to boost the mood.
The coffee was good
It's interesting to realize how easily a person's mood can be changed after a good meal. I have never thought about it when I lived in Russia and met my wife. We are all animals after all, and we have to take care of our basic needs first.
Woljeongsa Buddhist Temple
Buildings, monks and the fresh air
We can't just walk to the temple from the restaurant in the winter; we had to drive a bit more to get there. The temple was founded in 643 by the Silla monk Jajang, so it's 1,383 years old.
Octagonal Nine-Story Stone Pagoda
Being originally from Russia (a city of Samara, which is 400 years old), Canada felt like a very young country to me, which, I guess, it is. However, Canadians do a really good job of preserving their history, even though they are not always proud of it (like Americans). In Russia, however, especially in the 90th when the Soviet Union collapsed, the government was weak and didn't have money for culture and history. Plus, the Soviets destroyed a lot of pre-Soviet history.
There are many opposing views on history in Russia, Canada and the US, and I guess in Korea, but Koreans managed to preserve their culture and history well, which also applies to food, not only buildings and religion. This can only cause a feeling of respect. They found what really matters and what is beyond political arguments.
The main entrance
The temple complex is not that big, but there are quite a few buildings available to the public, and a section of the temple that is closed to the public's eyes.
If I remember correctly, the top-right section is for monks-only
Here we could see classic Korean architecture.
The sun and snow creating a good picture
We could also see real monks walking around.
I tried not to film them in general, but I hope it's ok
I saw a monk talking on a mobile phone, and Jiyul also mentioned that the monks at this temple have their own YouTube channel, so I guess they are not completely isolated.
This temple is connected to another temple via a trail, so I was imagining how in old times they would walk from one temple to another to exchange food, news and gossip.
The entrance to the trail
The trail possibly led to this temple 동대관음암. There are actually a lot of small temples in Odaesan National Park, which I discovered when I looked at the map.
What was interesting to me is that the lamps on the bridge had solar panels.
Very technological monks
The mountain air was fresh, but it was still cold, so it was time to leave.
Lastly, I wanted to say that this temple offers a "temple stay" experience, when anyone can live like a monk for a while and get a feeling of this way of life. There are Korean TV shows that feature regular people and celebrities going through this temple stay.
This reminded me of my cousin Marina, who lives in Moscow, who is really into yoga. They had an experience when a group of people would go to an isolated island, eat very primitive food, if anything, and barely speak with each other, all to practice solitude and look deep into yourself.
Souvenir Shop
A lot of owls
Right at the entrance gates, there is a souvenir shop where we wanted to go. It was good to be indoors because it was still pretty cold. The shop is spacious, and there was one worker to assist customers. A calm religgious music was playing (we were humming it later).
An owl and a little monk (we didn't buy those)
I bought a magnet and a different little monk. Jiyul and her parents bought something else.
This is what I bought home
I also bought a bunch of owls for my mom because she collects them (she has hundreds of various owls at this point; she can open a museum, I think).
The view from the souvenir shop window. Nice to be indoors
After warming up, we were ready for a walk in the forest nearby.
Woljeongsa Temple Fir Forest
A little bit of nature
In addition to the temple, this area features a park with a thousand-year-old forest.
Here is the trail. It goes on much further
If it wasn't that cold, we would spend more time there and would walk longer.
But it was freezing
However, the road is beautiful, and it gives out a very special feeling in the winter.
A frozen river and a bridge
People also like to place stones on top of one another to build structures.
Only a few towers survived
Interestingly, I have never seen people building things with rocks like that when I lived in Russia until 22 years old. It may be because I haven't travelled there much, or maybe it wasn't just that popular at that time. Also, there just aren't that many rocks and mountains in the place I lived. When I came to Canada, I noticed people were doing that, and that was the first time I saw that.
Building something out of rocks is such a simple and primitive thing that our ancestors did thousands of years ago (by building dolmens and menhirs, unless aliens made them). It was so strange to me that I had never seen it or thought of it until I was like 25 years old.
Emart
Korean grocery store
It was a long drive back, so we stopped by a grocery store.
I wanted to buy this Lipton somehow. It was good
I thought that the taste would be like Yupi, a nostalgic powdered instant drink mix, and, luckily, it was something similar to it. I have never seen this in Canada.
In general, the large Korean grocery stores that we visited were not that much different from those in Canada. I haven't noticed a big difference.
The only interesting thing is that when my wife's parents came to Canada, they were always saying "how CHEAP Canadian groceries are", which I don't think is the case at all, but what that means is that for them, for Koreans, Canadian food prices are still ok and lower than in Korea. Korean restaurants are much cheaper, though, than in Canada.
This is Emart
My wife refers to this as "PC guy" as a way to explain the Korean business world. Emart belongs to Shinsegae, which is run by Chung Yong-jin, who also owns a lot of other things. So for me, to understand, my wife always refers to any of the businesses related to him as "PC guy", because she thinks that the owner of the PC (President Choice), aka Lablaw, is a good example of a Canadian rich man who would be similar to Chung Yong-jin. It's kind of our inside joke thing.
King Sejong Tomb (Yeongneung) in Yeoju
UNESCO World Heritage Site
On the way back, Jiyul's father thought to visit another famous Korean heritage site, the King Sejong Tomb (Yeongneung) in Yeoju.As I mentioned before, Yeoju, where my wife's parents live and where we were staying, is a relatively small city, yet it has quite a few interesting places to visit.
A beautiful Korean pine tree
The site was closing very soon, in an hour or so. We were rushing.
Jiyul with her mother, and I was walking with the father
It was still cold, but I think at that point I started to get used to it. It was also strange to me because I am Russian, and I live in Canada (two very cold countries), but man, I was always cold in Korea in January like it's the North Pole, and that's considering the fact that I was wearing a Canada Goose jacket that my wife's parents bought me. I don't know why Korea felt so cold for me.
King Sejong's monument
This is a very important king in Korea because he changed the writing system and, instead of Chinese, he basically invented the Korean language and alphabet.
As my wife is Korean, I was learning Korean for a bit (at least one year seriously with "Talk To Me In Korean" books), and I do understand something and can slowly read Hangul, but of course I am pretty bad. What I wanted to say is that even though the Korean language also has "characters" like in Chinese and looks intimidating at first, every Korean character is actually just a letter with one sound (in most cases), just like in Western languages, which means it's much easier to learn for Westerners than Chinese (at least to learn how to read).
The number of illiterate people in Korea before was very high because learning Chinese is hard, but that was the main language. With the implementation of the Korean writing system, it became much easier for regular people to learn the language, and it was a huge part of the national identity, so King Sejong is kind of a founding father of modern Korea in some sense.
This is all, of course, just my personal take on it. I am not a historian.
We continued our walk.
There are also a couple of small Korean traditional houses on the way to explore, which reminded me of Korean TV shows about the past
Korea is a beautiful country.
It's nice to look at those photos now, after 6 months, at my warm home and enjoy their beauty. But when I was there, it was too cold to enjoy
We are approaching the tomb.
The tomb is on the hill on the right
It was a very peaceful place, yet we were almost running because the closing time was approaching. I think it would be a totally different experience to visit this place in summer and without time pressure.
There were barely any people at that time, I think mostly because of the weather.
This is the actual tomb
The statues are guarding the king after his death, spiritually speaking, and there are a few benches for the spirits to sit on when they decide to visit the place and come out. It's interesting how many cultures evolved and went through similar stages in very different parts of the world.
We took a picture together with Jiyul's parents.
We are trying to smile
I actually enjoyed this place because I don't like the crowd, and it's a pretty nice park. It was very fresh, and I even had a little run to the top of the hill myself.
It's very spacious
I was able to catch a little bit of sunset.
It was time to go home.
The very last thing for us was to get Korean Pizza Hut Pizza. I have never tried Pizza Hut.
Parents had to drive around while waiting for us because there is no parking
I was craving Western food a lot, however...
Here is the pizza at home
Korean pizza had a sweet potato feeling at its edges, which I didn't really like, but I should stop complaining about the food, especially when others are buying it for me.
Lastly, here is a Korean garbage sorting station.
I think I counted 11 kinds of garbage there
Koreans are famous for sorting garbage into millions of different kinds. Respect.
YouTube Video
See more in the video
There is much more to this trip than I mentioned here. All can be seen in our video:
A few more parts from this Korean trip to come.
Conclusion
Good and bad
Here is what I liked about this trip:
- Mountains
- Fresh air
- Free coffee after the food in restaurants
- Buddhist temple architecture
- Music in the temple's souvenir shop
- Lipton Iced Tea powder
- Large open spaces
- Korean pine trees
- Many kinds of garbage
Here is what I disliked about this trip:
- Waking up early
- Cold (but it does produce a unique experience)
- Self-warming insoles
- Korean Pizza Hut
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