The vast majority of today was spent going to Golgulsa temple. We started the day by packing everything up and vacating our home base of Ibis Styles Hotel. Honestly, I liked that hotel a lot, but I think it’s mostly because of the bidet and smart toilet. The rooms themselves were mid as they were tiny with not a lot of room for two guys with suitcases. Being on the ninth floor as well was not the best, though we did have a decent lineup on our floor.

We left the hotel and went straight for the KTX bullet train. At Seoul Station, I had McDonalds in Korea, which as I was told, was better than in the States. I ordered the mozzarella sticks and a McMuffin. Dr. Yun did scold me for that though, but it was worth it for my one time. For my first time on a bullet train and having only been on a train a handful times before, I enjoyed the experience. The cabin itself was extremely quiet. I think we might’ve been the loudest people as a group. The train was pretty fast and we happened to be sitting in such a way where we were actually going backwards, which was interesting. I knew the train was fast because my ears did start to feel the pressure, so I had to equalize.

We stopped for lunch before getting to the temple. I had the bibimbap, which I enjoyed. The chili paste is what added most of the flavor (though not enough spice unfortunately) and the various side dishes made the food incredibly filling, especially with all the rice. I do wish there was meat as since breakfast, I haven’t had any meat all day (the McMuffin was also small, so not even that much).

We eventually got to the temple and struggled to figure out where our rooms were for a solid 20 minutes or more. We watched the public performance, which was very impressive. I liked the last performance with the master and also the one with the black clothing as well. There was some rooming mishaps were our traditional Korean room was stolen and we got the bunk beds instead.

We then started the activity of learning some sunmudo. I feel I’ve done very similar things when I was at my temple back home, where we always did Indian style yoga. My favorite part was the kick walking, which were basically active stretches, and learning the one form, which was reminiscent of the K-Pop dancing, which was interesting to me. The 108 Prostrations were also a good experience, though we stopped before 108, maybe like half way through. I definitely messed up my feet and knees doing the prostrations as my form was wrong and I was unable to do the right form as I’m not flexible enough.

We ate dinner, which was also vegetarian, making today mostly veg for everyone. Despite being told to be quiet, everybody was still talking, maybe slightly with slightly less noise than usual, but not quiet enough for sure. We did get to wash our own dishes, which was a welcome reprieve from my college dorm life having no real chores to do (long story). After, we went to watch the special performance. Everything was great and the yoga was really funny to watch.

I then went with a group trying to climb up to the Buddha statue up the trail. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make it due to the risk of wild boars. So we just explored a bit of the trail and took some pics before heading back to the rooms to wind down and hopefully get some sleep before the 5 AM wakeup time tomorrow.

There’s no way I wake up tomorrow considering the mattresses are only a bit better than concrete and we have to wake up at 5 in the morning. At least I’m top bunk. Good night tri-state area

no Hechi this time…