It’s the Lunar New Years, a big holiday for many in Korea. It’s a time when families get together,  elders give advice and money to the younger gens, and guys go out drinking with their hometown friends. With our families a few thousand miles away, I and fellow Buanite teacher-friend, Linda visited some Buddhist temples instead. We decided on Naejangsan, about a twenty minute intercity bus ride south of Buan.

It was a byooteefull day. The sky dumped several inches of snow the night before. The temp was somewhere around freezing which is just where i like it for these hiking activities.  The sunlight pierced through some high clouds while at the same time a few lower clouds were spitting out some flurries. It was cool.

We planned on doing a Triple Temple Tour but we only managed to pull off a Two Temple Tour. Which…was perfectly fine with me because, of course, ‘Two’ still begins with a ‘T’ ^^. Our detour happened just after hitting up Temple Two. We saw a sign pointing up a mountain side and the innate human desire to summit was too much to resist.

The switchbacks on this trail were rare. The trail went straight up the mountain side. There were many steps, stairs, and more steps, and an occasional knotted rope to make it humanly possible.

I’m discovering that its really not the temples I like so much, its what surrounds the temples. The temples are located in beautiful areas, at the confluence of valleys, perched under the protections of staggered stones, or resting along mountain sides. Nature surrounds.  I don’t know anything about the Buddhist faith and maybe these statements I’m making are obvious, but these places are escapes and i imagine, real escapes a 1000 years ago.