Ruminations in Korea

Laying in bed and sitting around the house all weekend due to an extremely nasty cold that has given me a fever, head ache, chills, sore throat, dizziness, stiff joints, and other nasty things has afforded me the chance to reflect on a few things.

One thing I thought about as I lay incapacitated on my bed and looking out the window is how beautiful Korea can be. It’s not very big. The mountains are not very high. There is not a lot of wildlife. However, the Korean countryside is some of the most beautiful land that I have ever seen.

Although today would have been an absolutely perfect day for a motorcycle ride around the Pusan area, I was forced to stay home. However, my illness did give me time to revisit a ride I took a couple of weeks ago with some new friends from Pusan and near Kimhae.

I have long marveled that I have so much trouble waking up at 8:00am on a weekday to drag my butt to work, but I have no problem springing out of bed at 5:30am on a weekend to go for a ride on my bike. That is what I did two weekends ago.

I jumped out of bed at 5:30am and hit the road at 6:00am for the one-hour ride to Kimhae where I had arranged to meet my friends and their wives.

As I rolled down the road near my house, I caught sight of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan in the pre-dawn light across the harbor.

I made good time through the relatively quiet streets of Pusan and Kimhae. I arrived at the Kimhae Homeplus shopping center a few minutes after the designated meeting time of 7:00am and about 20 seconds ahead of one friend who had ridden from Haeundae in Pusan. A few minutes later we were joined by the other couple.

We decided to grab a quick breakfast at McDonalds before beginning our ride. The five of us went inside. We were the only ones in the restaurant at that time. Me and one of the couples ordered exactly the same thing, sausage and egg McMuffin with hot chocolate. The little girl behind the counter advised us that, for some mysterious reason, there was no hot chocolate available. So, we switched our drink order to orange juice.

After waiting for nearly 10 minutes for our order, the girl brought out our breakfast. The couple opened their McMuffins and were surprised to see that there was no egg inside their sausage egg McMuffin. I laughed as they debated whether to just eat it or to send it back for the correct order. They sent the food back and insisted on one with egg. My laughter stopped when I opened mine and found that mine was also missing the egg.

I stood up, walked back to the counter and told the cashier girl that my order was also wrong in that it was also lacking an egg. She was very embarrased at that point and said that she could have the cook guy make a new sausage egg McMuffin or I could have the bacon and egg McMuffin that had been sitting on the warmer since before we came into the store. I elected for a new sausage egg McMuffin.

The other two got their correct orders and just as they were finishing their breakfasts, I finally got mine. I opened the wrapper and was absolutely stunned. I had just been handed a piping hot sausage McMuffin again without the egg. Four of the five of us thought that was amusing.

I went back to the counter and explained that I had just been given exactly the same thing that I had sent back. I asked how hard it could possibly be for one cook handling one order in a totally empty restaurant to NOT give me exactly the same thing I had just sent back. The poor little cashier girl was deeply embarassed. I made it clear that it was not her fault and I was not angry at her, but I was upset with the lone cook who was not hiding behind the grill. Upon arriving at my seat, I was reminded by one of the party that McDonalds does not employ rocket scientists to run the grills and handle breakfast orders.

The third time was the charm. I got my sausage and egg McMuffin. After consuming my long overdue breakfast, we went out to or bikes to discuss where we were going to go. Usually, that is something you do long before you show up for the ride, but this was a totally impromptu ride and none of us had any distinct destination in mind. Eventually we decided to head north to Miryang Dam and then ride out west near the little town of Changnyeong.

We mounted up and rode north out of Kimhae and over my favorite bridge in Korea into the little village of Samnangjin.

After a short bank run and bathroom break, we left Samnangjin behind and wound our way up the mountains and headed toward the even smaller village of Jinyang. The switchbacks at the top of the mountain open up to a breathtaking view of the Nakdong River flood basin and farm country.

After coming down out of the mountains and riding through Jinyang without stopping, we turned our bikes toward another set of mountains and Miryang Dam.

We took a brief rest for a drink and a leg stretch, then made the final ascent to Miryang Dam.

Once at the dam, we stood and admired the view for about half an hour.

Across the street from the entrance to the dam was a sign that puzzled us all. None of us had ever seen a sign like it before and none of had any idea what it meant. No burning cars? Cars will be burnt? Don’t drive through fires? I have asked several people since seeing this sign and none of them have a clue as to its meaning.

We hit the road after a quick group photo.

From Miryang Dam, we headed down out of the mountains, and west through the town of Miryang toward Changnyeong. During the approximately one-hour drive from Miryang, we passed maybe five cars the entire trip. However, there were motorcyclists everywhere. The road up the mountains toward the Changnyeong valley is an exquisitely beautiful motorcycle road full of twists and turns as it snakes it way up the mountain side.

At the top of the mountain, we reached the turn-around point of our trip. At the top of the pass, we pulled over at a small shack that served as a restaurant. The smell of cooking seafood pajeon (sort of a seafood and vegetable pancake) was too much to resist. We sat at an outside table on the edge of a huge dropoff overlooking the valley and the road we had just come up. It was the most scenic lunch I have ever had in my life. This picture was taken while sitting in my chair at our table. The mountains rolling off into the distance and the road we had just travelled winding away to the left.

After our lunch and a break, we road back down the mountain, fueled up and headed back toward Kimhae where we separated and went our separate ways.

It was a beautiful ride on a gorgeous day. It was also my first major ride since my accident. It was good to finally eat up some road.

I live on Youngdo Island in Pusan Harbor. It’s connected to mainland Pusan by two bridges. One of the bridges is conveniently located across the street from my office.

Inspired by YouTube videographer Mordeth13, I decided to record a part of one of the roads I can take to get off the island. The road runs along the top of the cliffs on the south side of the island overlooking the outer ship anchorage.

I’m still messing around with video quality so it’s not that good. Also, my motorcycle is so loud that it overloads the microphone on the camera, as does the wind when I turn my head. I’m working on these things. I expect things to improve soon.

There are places for which we have a certain afinity. When it comes to visiting Buddhist temples, my basic feeling is that if you have seen one, you have pretty much seen them all. However, for some reason I am constantly drawn to Haeinsa Temple. I have been visiting the place for 18 years. Every time I go there is a different feeling. Even though the scenery and buildings remain largely the same, i see and experience different things. I don’t know why, but Haeinsa is a special place for me.

After arriving at the entrance to Haeinsa Temple near Hapcheon at the foot of Kaya Mountain, it is a one kilometer walk to the temple. The walk begins with with a small stone bridge.

The majority of the walk is under a canopy of majestic trees.

One thing I find interesting about Haeinsa is the serious of gates and doors that you must go through to get into the main courtyard.

The first gate.

After the first gate is a long path leading straight to the main temple entrance.

A series of four more gates leads to the main courtyard.

The final gates leading to the main courtyard.

Haeinsa’s pagoda.

Doors.

Roof tiles.

The main attraction of Haeinsa is the Tripitaka Koreana, the most complete set of Buddhist text. The Tripitaka Koreana consists of 81,258 blocks are the equivalent of 6,791 printed volumes, and contain 52,382,960 Chinese characters…all carved backwards so that they can be printed from the wood blocks to paper.

After seeing the sights of temple, the perfect end to the day before heading back down the mountain is to turn around and look out over the temple rooftops.

Click here to see more pictures of Haeinsa.

If you sit in your airconditioned cage and drive on the expressway while playing chicken with the other cars on the road, you can drive from Pusan to Taegu in about 45 minutes. However, motorcycles are not allowed on the expressways in Korea. Travel is limited to regular highways and local roads. The downside of this is that the drive from Pusan to Taegu takes about 3 hours. The upside of this that you get to see things that you can’t see from the expressway.

The first hour of the trip is spent driving through Pusan city traffic, past the airport, and down the highway to Kimhae. Once you get through Kimhae, the countryside opens up and you are free from the noise, smell and dust of the city and into a state of quietude and the natural smells of water, dirt, dung, and vegetation.

Gone are the block after block of highrise apartments and buildings. They are replaced by paddy after paddy of rice and other crops.

Crowded, tight, asphalt alleys give way to empty, wide open dirt roads.

Five minutes outside of Kimhae and you are utterly alone. Occasionally, you will pass an old man or old woman working the rice paddies in the distance.

Another 15 minutes and the road leads to a one-lane, steel bridge across the river. There should be someone at both ends of the bridge controlling traffic to make sure that the scattered traffic is flowing in only one direction at a time across the bridge. However, this is the contryside, and things don’t always work out that way.

The next quarter of an hour is spent driving through Samnangjin village and up into the mountains. Upon reaching the top of the mountain pass, the gorgeous vista of Miryang valley stretches out below you. (Read on …)

Ladies and Gentlemen!  Boys and Girls!  Children of all ages!  Welcome!  Welcome to the strangest show on Earth!

On Sunday, I took a  150 kilometer (round trip) motorcycle ride to the weirdest place in Korea, the Jasujeong Amethyst Cave near Ulsan, Korea.  It is quite possible that this is the strangest place on Earth.  I have been many places around the world, but so far, I think this amethyst cave is the oddest place I have ever visited.

I left home early Sunday afternoon and headed North out of Pusan.  I sped along highway 35 North through Yangsan and eased off the throttle after escaping the clutches of Pusan and the surrounding area.

Highway 35 continued to run North wedged between the No 1 Expressway to the East and a river to the west.

I turned West at the small village of Samnam and rode past rice paddies

and on toward the mountains.

A few kilometers into the mountains I passed a pond that reminded me a lot of a pond that I used to swim in when I was a kid growing up in Utah.

Another minute or two down the road, I arrived at the weirdest place in Korea, the Jasujeong Amethyst Cave.

Jodi at Asia Pages has written about this cave before, but reading about the cave and actually seeing inside are different animals.  I thought I would take some pictures so that others could see what is inside the cave. (Read on …)

I have two personal traditions.  One tradition is that I stay home on Children’s Day and avoid going anywhere on the crowded roads because nothing is more frustrating than sitting in gridlocked traffic watching carload after carload of parents frustrated at the gridlock and screaming at the gaggle of children in the backseat who are crying and bored of being trapped in a car for hours going somewhere their parents think they want to go.  The other tradition is that on Buddha’s Birthday, I go somewhere that I find interesting.

Last Friday, those traditions came into direct conflict.  Due to a lunar/solar calendar collision, yesterday was both Children’s Day and Buddha’s Birthday.  I was torn between two traditions.  After much pondering, I decided that the best way to deal with the conflict was to go somewhere far out into the countryside away from the nightmare traffic in the cities and expressways and to get far away from the places where families congregate with their children.

Early Friday morning, I got up, threw on my jeans, leather, gloves, and helmet.  I grabbed my brother, threw him on the back of my bike and fired up the big V-twin engine and roared off under greying skies into the Korean hinterland.

The road led through Gupo in the northwestern part of Busan and on to Hopo on the very outskirts of the city.

One left turn and two minutes later, the noisy, crowded, polluted, stinking city gave way to quietude.  Highrise apartments became greenhouses. telephone poles become trees.  The noise of cars became the chirping of birds and the hum of insects. 

The restrained growl of the 1,500cc engine cutting a line through the scenery was the only unnatural sound to be heard. Yet the rhythmic thrumming of the bike’s power plant was, in some arcane way, in harmony with Natures’ symphony. (Read on …)

Today was a goreous day.  Warm and sunny.  You couldn’t ask for a better spring day.

I decided to enjoy the day by getting out of Pusan.  I went North to Miryang.  Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s I went to Miryang quite often.  It was a quaint little town back then.  Although it has grown much larger, Miryang still retains a lot of that quaint small-town feeling.

One of my favorite places to go has always been the Arang Pavillion and Youngnamru.

The Arang Pavillion sits on the edge of the Miryang River.  Back in the day, it was in the middle of a bamboo grove, but the grove has largely been cleared away to allow greater access.

Arang is the heroine of the Legend of Arang.  During the reign of King Myeongjong (1545-1567), Arang’s father was a deputy delegate of the Miryang region.  One night, she went to Youngnamru Pavilion to look at the moon with her nurse.  However, the nurse had conspired with one of the governor’s servants.  While Arang viewed the moon, the nurse left the pavillion and and the servant approached and attempted to rape Arang .

She chose to die rather than lose her virginity.  After his unsuccessful attempt at raping Arang, the servant murdered her and disposed of her body into the bamboo forest.

The nurse claimed that Arang had been kidnapped.  Arang’s father expended a great deal of effort to find his daughter, but was unsuccessful.  Heartbroken, he resigned his post and returned to Seoul, his hometown.

The deputy delegate sent to replace Arang’s father died immediately after he took office in Miryang.  Each subsequent replacement also died within a day of taking office.  Eventually, the deputy delegate’s position was left unfilled.

One day, a civil servant took a nap at Youngnamru. While sleeping he dreamed of a beautiful woman dressed in white.  “At long last,” the woman said, “I have met an adult who can avenge me of my enemy.”

Surprise and shaken, yet able to control himself, the civil servant said, “Tell me. Are you a ghost or a living person?”

The woman replied, “I am the daughter of the the former deputy delegate of this area.  I was lured to this place by my nurse and was murdered by one of the governor’s servants.  He hid my body in the bamboo.  In order to capture my murder and punish him, I appeared before each new deputy delegate to tell my tale.  However, each one of them died of fright upon seeing me.  Today, I have meet a good man.  Please help me.”

“Who is your murderer,” demanded the civil servant.

Arang did not answer. She stepped backward, waving a red flag in her hand and vanished.

The civil servant concluded that he must become the deputy delegate of that area.  As the position was empty and no one wanted to take the job, it was easy for the civil servant to be appointed deputy delegate.

He arrived at his post and spent the first night there.  When he awoke the next morning, he was surpised to see that the staff was preparing for his funeral.  They had assumed that he had died that first night just as all the other deputy delegates before him.

Being very much alive, his first order was that he should be given a list of the names of everyone on the staff, including the servants.  As he reviewed the list of names, he came across the name Ju Ki (주기- 朱旗). The name Ju Ki means “red flag”. Remembering the red flag waved by Arang, he demanded that the nurse and the servant, Ju Ki, be brought before him.

The nurse and the servant eventually confessed.  The servant led the new deputy delegate into the bamboo grove to where he had hid Arang’s body.  Arang’s body lay with the knife still in her breast. They were startled to see that the body had not decayed and was still in perfect condition.  The deputy delegate removed the knife and the body immediately decomposed until only the bones were left.  The bones were then taken and given a proper burial.

The Arang Pavilion (Arangkak) was erected on the site as a shrine to Arang and her sacrifice to protect her virtue.  Every year on the 16th day of the 4th month of the lunar calendar, a young girl chosen for her example and chastity is selected to perform the rituals at the Arang Pavilion to honoring Arang.

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Here are a few of the pictures I took at Youngnamru.  Click here to see more pictures of the area.

Sunset at Youngnamru

A Building at Youngnamru

Springtime at Youngnamru