Our Beomeosa Templestay experience!

When we were discussing our current trip with Korea Tourism's Toronto office, they asked if we were interested in taking part in their Templestay program. We had heard about it, and thought that it would be an interesting experience to learn about Buddhism and experience a day in the life of a Buddhist monk.

They have quite a few different programs available, but when we read about one that has a "trekking" option, we had the pen in hand, ready to sign up!

Joined the Korean Navy!

What a beautiful day today. We just wandered the city of Yeosu, and what a lot of fun we came across!

Tom and Elicia had come up with a bit of a walking tour for us, and we figured we could do it in somewhere between two and four hours depending on how many little side trips we did along the way. But we found there is simply too much to see! What a beautiful city!

A temple with a view

We had stayed up late last night (past midnight!) with Tom and Elicia. Great conversation, and a few laughs too. They're a fun young couple with a fantastic future ahead of them. Anyhow, 8:00am came around pretty fast, and they still had to go to work. We were up pretty much just in time to say goodbye to them, but thankfully we didn't have to rush off anywhere.

We've been going pretty much nonstop since we arrived here just under two weeks ago, but of course we're only here for 28 days and we don't want to waste any of our time.

A long travel day

I think we traveled about 250 kms (155 miles) as the crow flies and it took us 12 hours to do it! But everything happened according to plan, including a great evening with our new friends for the next three days!

It was an early start to the day. We were up at 5:30am!

The Koreans have this right...

Our plans this morning depended on the weather.

If it was nice and sunny with a clear blue sky, we were going to be headed up to the top of Mount Hallasan. No visit to Jeju Island is complete without a hiking trip to the top of the highest peak in South Korea.

And if the mountain looked too cloudy, we would do a hike along the coast.

Lava tubes and volcano craters

Last night as we went to bed, the wind was blowing like crazy! The windows were rattling, and with the forecast calling for the edge of the typhoon to brush against our area, we weren't sure what kind of sleep we were in for.

Next thing you know, we woke up and it was morning!

The typhoon has begun...

We left Jeju City this morning and headed down to the other major city on the island, Seogwipo. We had read that it wasn't that easy to figure out the intercity buses on the island, but we didn't find a problem. In fact, we thought it was relatively easy!

We took the number 780 bus. It stops at various points around Jeju City and we thought the stops were all well marked. The only problem we encountered was knowing where exactly to get off once we reached our destination, but the bus driver made sure to let us know. There is an automatic route callout system on the bus, and it does so in English as well as Korean, so that helps as well.

On Garbage Detail

We had been communicating with a fellow named Jim who runs the Jeju Island Tourism facebook page. He asked if we wanted to join him on a volunteer trail hike whereby the volunteers pick up trash along the trail. They're having a trail festival here next month and they want this particular 18 km section to be as clean as can be so they're doing "clean-up" hikes four times this month in preparation for the festival.

We volunteered to join in!

Love it when a plan comes together - Jeju Island!

We had a plan, but a lot of things could have gone wrong. So we were totally happy that it came together the way we wanted it to.

The plan started with getting up this morning. At 5:30 in the morning!

It's always an adventure...

I'm telling you, I can't believe we managed to get on and off both the correct buses today. It's almost amazing.

You can't understand what's on most of the signs, and you can't ask anybody any questions. It's actually a very strange feeling. So when we went out to the bus stop and actually managed to get on the right bus...you feel like you hit the jackpot!

Riding the rails at 300 km/h (186 mph)!

Yesterday, I had been on the Korail website to check what time our train was going to leave. I had read that from Monday to Friday you can easily travel without a reservation. But it looked like it was really easy to book, and the website was all in English, so I went ahead and bought our tickets online.

I was given a reservation number, and the whole transaction proceeded seamlessly. We were booked on the 12:20pm train from Seoul's Yongsan Train station. Note...Seoul has two major train stations, so you need to make sure you know which one your train is leaving from!

Fun day exploring Seoul, but not without it's hiccups!

We left the apartment at about 10:30am. A little later than planned, but still lots of time to see the things we wanted to see. But wow...this is such a huge city and we keep on coming across new things that make us realize that you could spend a month here and not see everything you want to.

This was our first day out exploring in Korea on our own! We went down to the subway and had no problem transferring and getting off at the correct stop near the Seoul Tower. Although, we did stop and pull out the subway map to have a look. Only took seconds and a local Korean was there to ask if we needed help. They're really good that way. If you look like a lost tourist, somebody will ask if you need help!

Views of Seoul from our Han River cycling tour!

This is a fun and inexpensive activity for anybody wanting to tour Seoul a little bit differently. And, you can get some exercise at the same time!

Koreans love cycling. So much that they have transformed much of the shoreline of the Han River that runs through the middle of the city into park space and wide, well marked bicycle paths. On a beautiful day, it's a great way to see the city. And it really gives you an idea of what a big city this is!

Dancers, acrobats, and tightropes

What a fun day we had!

We got an email this morning from our friend June, saying that she and her boyfriend Park would like to take us to the Korean Folk Village in Yongin, about a half hour south of Seoul.

"Sure", we said..."let's go"!

A Korean Wedding

But because this was an international event, it was not a traditional wedding. The whole affair was done the way the bride and groom wanted it done and because she is Korean, and he is Canadian, they mixed things up a little bit! And good for them!

We were ready to go around 10:00am, and our friend June arrived to go with us.