Mountains, Temples, and Lego Cities
Spring is here!
At least, it seemed it had arrived yesterday. Both Nicole and I have been growing extremely bored with the usual weekend routine of moping around through the grey streets of Heaundae, or downloading episodes of Rescue Me, but as a potent little storm rolled in Friday night and battered the yellow dust clouds from China down to the ground, we were left with blue-bird skies and nearly twenty degree weather on Sunday… great weather for hiking. We took to the hills. Four hours of hiking was a shock to my system, although it felt great at the time. Today, movement is difficult. Typing this is arduous!
Here are some pics:
The above shot was taken from the cable car on the way up. They sardined us in on the way down, leaving just enough room for us to breathe in the shared oxygen. And below, Bodhisattva Bernath and Nic standing with mountain bikers before the south gate of Geumjeong Fortress.
It was pretty busy up there. The Koreans were dressed to the nines, all gortex and knee-high alpine socks. They were more friendly and pleasant up at higher elevations than they normally are down in the city! They come up to the mountains in droves on the weekends, have picnics, get half-whizzed on makgeolli and soju, and have sing-alongs around transistor radios.
Above, beyond the smiling sun-lover in red, you can see the fortress walls snaking up the hill. I wonder what it was meant to keep out — the wall is only about two feet tall?!
You can pretty much see all of Busan from the lookout we climbed up to, everything from Dalmaji Hill to the east, to the harbor to the west, and beyond. These pictures don’t even come close to getting it all.
It was other-worldy up there. So many sky-scrapers, many of them exactly the same, seemed to go on forever in uniform rows. All visible lowland surrounding Busan houses development, it seems.
And just for an abrupt contrast:
YEEEAAAHH!!! Cass - The best fucking night you’ll EVER HAVE!!!!! Subtlety has no place here… especially in marketing.
The weekend before, the weather not nearly so nice, I visited the temple which is a few blocks from our apartment, just past a bunch of supermalls. Here are a few photos to prove it:
The Buddha above is the cherished Noraebang Buddha, or ‘Singing Room’ Buddha. Looks like his song is up. Shhhh!
I’ve actually been very interested in Buddhism lately, and have been meditating daily. This involves trying to do the following:
Pulling the mind into focus… stilling it…
…getting it to remain fixed and still…
… and calmly watching it. Of course, I spend the majority of my time on the first of these!
Hope you enjoyed these, and we hope to see everyone back home in July and August. Comments always appreciated. We send our best wishes atcha’all!
suteebun
