The Motorcycle diary day trip

A tale of temples, traditional living and snake charming (hurling).

Due to the magic of Korea’s education system, I found myself with a day off a few weeks ago. With winter approaching fast, I made the most of those last few warm days (which as I sit in my desk in my suit, jumper and coat seem to be a lost and distant memory) and took the bike out for a little day trip.

I’d seen signs for a temple a few weeks back, so followed them up into the mountains. The place was stunning, as expected, and bountiful photo opportunities ensued. I walked around, all the while being followed by these two beautiful dogs (which looked more like bears) who kept barking and howling. I’d clearly invaded their space, and they certainly weren’t too happy about it, but yogi and boo-boo certainly weren’t going to scare me off my adventure!

“Hey you, this is my temple!”

“You asked for it!”

“I’m serious man, you’re going to have to back up!”

Then all of a sudden a monk wandered out of the woodwork (he quite literally appeared from between two buildings), bowed, introduced himself, and offered me a persimmon to eat. He (let’s refer to him as Brian from now on) spoke some words to his dogs, which seemed to make them relax, and they sat down, looking grumpy that they hadn’t been given more of a chance to maul a waygookin (foreigner). Brian and I sat with them, ate our fruit, and laughed as we attempted conversation.

“Fine! I’ll just pee on your bike”

Eventually it came to its’ natural end, and he smiled, and drove off in his car, signalling that I could stay as long as I wanted and make myself at home.

Now prepare yourselves, because now comes the really strange part. He stopped just short of the exit, and jumped out of the car laughing and brandishing what looked like a snake. Low and behold, he continued to swing the creature around and smile whilst I sprinted down the mountain to get a prized photo of the snake charming Buddhist monk. I couldn’t work out whether it had been hiding in the car or slithering in front of it, but it was about to get stranger…

He swung it by its tail at me, and let go. So imagine this – I’m standing there looking through this lens, and am very quickly realizing that a snake is hurtling towards me (I should probably add that I’m absolutely terrified of snakes), with a distinctly angry looking face. The thing is I wasn’t scared, because a hysterical monk was the culprit. I chuckled briefly, in humour and dis-belief, and Brian then whispered to it before releasing it into the undergrowth.

Pre-release, if only I could have caught it’s evil little face on camera!

Anyhow, scenario averted, he smiled and got back into his car to drive off. I walked back up to the temple, and sat down to contemplate the previous events – It still crosses my mind occasionally.

The temple itself was stunning, with it’s rustic feel,

and the colours were beautiful, as usual.

Riding onwards, the next stop was the valleys down from the mountain, and the rest of the day was spent exploring towns which refused to serve me lunch, whilst walking through such beautiful traditional houses as this one, which is said to be a pavilion where Confucian scholars could think and study.

The times, they were a changing

My final motorcycle diary trip of 2013 was a pleasant reminder of how lucky we are to live in such a stunning area. I do love our visits to the big cities, but sometimes I find them a bit claustrophobic too. I hope you enjoyed catching up on my antics and I’ll be back soon to tell you all about our upcoming trip to Geoje the week after next.

Much love