Hi everyone,
I realize how quickly time passes when you are traveling, It has already been more of a week since I last wrote.
We are in Thailand now. Our travels in Korea were mixed. Unfortuately both Peter and I caught a cold.. constant sniffing, sore throat, low energy, etc (a quick as Peter calls them "Body Update"). Nothing big luckily.. but enough to tamper our energy and enjoyment of roaming. So we did a little less sightseeing than usual.
We spent half of our time in Tea Houses in Seoul, S. Korea - reading, chatting, drawing, and generally hanging out watching people. VERY NICE. You can order coffee and tea (they had an excellent ginger and cinamon concoction that was both tasty and felt great on sore throats), and sit for hours. They were typically very cozy with stuffed chairs and couches, candles, mood lighting, and plants. Peter and I discussed that if after a year or two I can not find work, maybe I'll open one in Europe. The ginger tea would of course be on the menu.
However, we were both struck by how much more "chatty" people were in South Korea. We read they tend to have different boundaries and ask lots of personal questions, however, we were not sure how this would manifest itself. As we saw few white tourists, we appeared to be quite the novelty. This led to lots of giggling when passing school kids (and there appeared to be a lot of them). The youngest seemed to be dressed in uniforms (predominantly yellow - very cute). They would chorus "Hi"..Hi..Hi" amd wave at us as we walked by. On the subway at one point I had several kids around me, while one asked questions "what's your name? Where are you from? How old are you?" followed by demonstrations of their english, mixed with picking on others...pointing at a girl saying she is...(fill in with Korean word) punctuated by giggles from the group. Another time I came from buying breakfast to find Peter surrounded by several girls having his picture taken :). I and the servers in the cafe had a good laugh. (he was in a good mood for quite some time afterwards).
We also saw a museum of traditional Korean houses, and stumbled upon a festival. We were befriended by a Korean businessman who was there supporting an artist friend of his displaying her art in the show. He pulled us into the opening festivities explaining the free food, and his friend explained the paper making process.
Our other highlight was staying at a Buddhist temple north of Inchon. It was a medium sized temple. And when we arrived we found a festival in progress. Highly entertaining. Peter and I were suprised to find a (all Korean) Salsa and Mereinge (sp?) performing, and they were good. Other shows included more traditional music (drumming -excellent), dancing (crane dance), tea ceremony, tightrope walker, performance art (not so great - it also involved an ancient instrument from France that Peter dubbed the torture instrument). Also the temple grounds were strung with lit lanterns, and next two the main hall/temple four large paper sculptures (lit up at night) of the four Guardians of Buddha (North, South East and West). Very beautiful. We had a dharma teacher as our guide.. very smilie guy, who managed to drag me on stage during the drumming performance had me dance with him. His twirling under my finger aparently caused much delight in the all Korean crowd. He was not there the next day (not being a full monk he did not live there) so we came under the care of a monk in training. A very nice young man who himself had backpacked the world for three years prior to entering into monk training. We slept in one of the houses on mats and pillows on the floor, which was actually quite comfortable. They have floor heating which is quite luxurious. We rose at 4:00 and joined in the morning prayer/ritual in the main buddhist hall, which occurred again at 6:15. Very impresssionable (not for the inflexible, a lot of bending, bowing and prostrating involved) luckily we had been given a quick tutorial the night before, and approximately knew what to do. It helped that there were only about five monks, and two monks in training, with two or three laity who work at the temple. After the evening ritual, we were asked to meditate with one of the head monks (we did not know his status until afterwards). Since we were the only people doing the temple stay it was just the two of us, him and the monk in training acting as a translator. through stories and tales the two of the described the tenants of Buddhist teaching as they believe them, and we also did a brief sitting meditation. The overall approach was very relaxed and based on a dialogue that was both welcoming, and educational. One of my favorite experiences in South Korea. The next morning we followed the same process.. early rise, ritual, meditation with the monk (now discussion, longer sitting meditation, and walking meditation, as the sun was rising (we had the temple doors open and were facing out). Although it was overcast and drizzly so we still did not see the colorful display of natures colors. But could hear the praying and chanting of other monks in the background, birds waking, and the slow lightening of the outside. We also did other things (like nap not being used to getting up at 4), read about Buddhism, hike the surrounding hills, see Buddhist art, and learned about the tea ceremony process at the beautiful tea house on the temple grounds (also very interesting!). We only tired of having rice and green vegetables an turnips, with green soup every meal. I would highly recommend it to anyone. It was a wonderful way to learn about one understanding of Buddhism.. something I have felt there are a lot of myths about. Click here to see their official web page.
We arrived in Thailand last night, and are going to stay in Bangkok a few days, to let ourselves recover from our colds fully. We are feeling significantly better. The temperature change is dramatic... from layers of fleece we strip down to t-shirts. We are staying in a guesthouse just outside of Banglampur. Our room is stunning.. all dark wood, three walls of which are screened windows overlooking trees in a small courtyard. We have an old metal four-poster bed, and an old wooden armoir as aour closet, complimented with old wooden chairs and a desk. No A/C, but the ceiling fans and cross breeze suffice. It felt quite decadent waking up this morning... all for under $10 - amazing! We doo hear the traffic of the busy street, but being down a side alley tempers the sound. The shared bathroom leaves a bit (okay a lot) to be desired - needless to say shower flippers are a requirement. Otherwise we wandered around a bit last night had excellent food last night in an artsy cafe.. I was ready to have green curry after nine meals of rice, and bitter turnips and greens. There are many more tourists here, which is a bit strange to see. After being the only "white folks" for a while. Also the noise and pollution level is higher, but I am very curious to explore the city further, before we head north and south.
Hope all of you are well! Take Care,
Trish and Peter