Silleuksa

Our final adventure last weekend was to Silleuksa. Its about a forty minute walk from our house but we took a cab (to save our legs for exploring). Silleuksa is home to a famous Buddhist Temple. It is rare because it overlooks a river. Most temples were built high in the mountains to avoid noise and trouble. This is, supposedly, the only temple in Korea that overlooks a river!


This is Shawna standing in front of a tree. Everyone else was having their picture took there so we figured we better do it, too.

We'll come back when the trees are in full bloom. These pagodas sitting in the forest are still pretty amazing.

There were some really beautiful, golden statues of Buddha inside the buildings. The doors were open so I was able to snap a few photos of these glowing monuments. There was incense burning in the temple and sights and smells mixed for a really magical experience.

We were able to drink some fresh spring water from this fountain. Very nice!!!









After exploring the grounds of Silleuksa Temple, we went off to check out the little gift shop. When we got there a gang of bikers came in. (You can see one of them in the backgound of this shot.) They were a bit scary looking and smelled like booze but the guy in this photo bought Shawna some ice cream so she was happy. He had said that he'd been to Toronto so we had a little chat and some ice cream with them. We would have taken more photos with them but they were "outlaws" (therefore, did not want to be photographed).



Later, when the bikers had left and the ice cream was gone, we went down to check out the river. The Namhangang river divides Ohak (where we live) from Yeoju (downtown).






Shawna was very excited to see these swan paddle boats so we wandered down and went for a ride.

We had a beautiful day at Silleuksa and took home some incense and a couple of $1.oo clay pots to spruce up our apartment.