we took a southward 3.5 hour bus ride from seoul to korea's 3rd largest city, daegu. the ride was beautiful, through korea's mountainous and forested countryside. we checked into motel amore - an establishment of the "love" variety - complete with mirrors, a round bed, and a vcr with a free video "library" down the hall. it was clean, in a convenient location, and the price was right at 30,000 won or $33.00 per night.
the next day we toured the city and visited a traditional medicine market. we saw large jars with strange roots, dried leaves, flowers, and herbs, reindeer horns, dried gekkos, and huge metal "pressure cooker" looking vessels brewing medicinal herbal infusions. some koreans still believe that medicinal herbs can be used to cure all illness.
the following day we took a daytrip to haeinsa, an unesco world heritage site. it's one of korea's most signifigant and most beautiful temples and houses over 81,000 original woodblock scriptures, making it one of the largest buddhist libraries of it's kind. the woodblocks are stored in special buildings equipped with advanced ventilation, temperature, and humidity controls. we enjoyed the peacefulness and natural beauty of haeinsa for the day as we listened to the chanting of the monks resounding throughout the temple grounds. haeinsa is definitely the most remarkable site we have visited in korea as of yet.
from daegu we took a 1.5 hour bus ride to andong, a small city (pop 169,000) that is noted for preserving much of it's traditional character. the city is know for mackerel, soju, and masks - of which we are interested in all three. upon checking into our motel, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that our room comes complete with a computer and high speed internet service. this will give us the opportunity over the next couple of days to catch up on emails, the blog, and researching the last few details prior to entering china. more to come on korea...
alina
No comments:
Post a Comment