This past weekend was a step away from the neon city lights and into the serene mountains of Sarauksan National Park. The adventure took place under the guidance and expertise of a 55 year old Korean comrade. He is a Buddhist and a bit of a mountaineer. He was keen to show Malcolm and I the Buddhist way and Korean climbing culture.
The car ride to the national park took 7 ½ hours in the Seoul traffic, we arrived to Baekdamsa Temple in time for dinner. A rare vegetarian weekend in Korea.
We picked up a fellow Buddhist on the drive into the temple. This 67 year old Korean woman became my umma, mother, for the weekend. She showed me the ropes and proper procedures. Our main way of communicating was hand gestures and pointing. When I needed to find the bathroom and wasn't willing to get into the charades of things we had to call in reinforcement. Another visitor at the temple spoke English. So I said to him “Toilet?” and his reply “You mean, Where is the toilet?” Ah, yes, thank you for correcting my english!
The evening was spent strolling the grounds and trying our hand at the Buddhist rock building. (my skills go back to time spent with Greg working on his project in NC). The balancing act of the stones of all different sizes covers the stream in front of the temple and are then continued to be seen the entire trail to the top of Mt Saurak.
Baekdamsa Temple has reached new fame because the ex-president of South Korea, Roh Moo-Hyun, who recently committed suicide, stayed at the temple for a years time. Malcolm and Mr. Hwang were invited to stay in the ex-presidents room.
Early to bed, early to rise. Umma and I laid out our blankets at 9:00 PM, at 3:30 AM we were gentled awaken by the beat of the wooden drums. It was time for the morning prayer and meditation.
Candle light and the vibrations of the Monks voice chanting was a new way to start the day. We had a morning walk along the water, and then returned for breakfast. It was 6 AM and rice and soup was being served. This is not America. Malcolm and Mr. Hwang's roommate joined us for breakfast. He was very concerned about the hike that lay ahead of us. He said it was very difficult, and had this worried look on his face and disbelief in his voice. I had finished my breakfast and was caught off guard when the roommate moved a piece of tofu from his plate to mine. “uuuh, kamsamnida...?” okay so not to be rude, I ate the tofu, then there was some potatoes. He didn't have faith in us, or our climbing abilities.
We headed off into the woods at 7 AM, not to return to the temple again until 6:00 PM. The first 4k's brought us to Yeongsiam Temple that is being renovated and a community water pump with bowls that everyone drinks from, rinses, and passes to the next person. Another 2k's and we stopped along the stream to cool down and have a snack. Umma chatted with a group of Korean woman who were very impressed with us foreigners. They shared their snacks of rice bread, plums, and seaweed soup.
We reached the Bongjeongam Temple by 11. The temple is built right into the mountain side, in the main valley of Sauraksan. From there we started climbing up and up and up to the highest points. The view into the valley was stunning. 1600M high, overlooking the world. On the way to the top is a very sacred pagoda that is believed to have a piece of Buddha inside.
Along the trek to the top Malcolm and I surprised a lot of Koreans when they saw our foreign faces. I was coming around one corner when a korean man exclaimed “Whoa!” when he saw me. There was a constant stream of “Hello, how are you?” Mr. Hwang kept saying that many Koreans were giving us praise for climbing the mountain. But then there was also a bit of joking from the 60 year old women who said “when I was 20, I ran up the mountain.”
At 2PM after soaking in the great views we started to head back down the mountain. Mr. Hwang never runs out of energy. He was still springing down the mountain. A man on a mission, I was always 20 paces behind him and I really was running at parts. At one point Mr. Hwang laid down and I was convinced we would be stopping for more that 10 minutes. But sure enough, 3 minutes was enough to restore his energy and he jumped up and was off.
We were about ½ mile to the temple Mr. Hwang ran into a friend who offered the guys cigarettes and they happily accepted. We crashed onto logs and chilled out while Mr. Hwang kept pulling treats from his bag. First some juice, and candy. Then bananas, a cucumber, and then some Soju. His friends face light up. So we sat in the rain, going bite for bite off a cucumber, swig for swig of soju for the men, with cigarette smoke filling the air. What a way to end a 24k hike. Thank goodness it involved sitting.
We bowed goodbye to the monk at the temple and piled back into the car to begin the long drive back to the busy streets of Seoul.
The weekend was the best weekend I have had in Korea. I feel like I really experienced Korean culture and was not living in a knock off America. The scenery was beautiful and the friendliness of the people on the mountain was refreshing. It was hard work getting to the top, but it was worth every painful step to the top, and for the three days after! Next stop, Jirisan National Park to climb the 2nd highest peak in Korea!
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