Pagyesa

Today I had the brilliant idea of getting up early and going somewhere interesting. I actually managed to get up fairly early (which, if you know me, you'll know is a success in and of itself), but the weather was dismally dreary: overcast, wet and chilly. I spent the morning cleaning my apartment instead (oh, how exciting). Anyhow, the sun began to peek out from behind the clouds sometime in the early afternoon, so I decided that even though it was getting a little late in the day, I'd try my hand at getting up to Palgong Mountain by bus. The trouble was, while I knew which bus went to where I wanted to go on the mountain, I only knew of one stop where I could catch it - and unfortunately that stop was downtown. That turned out to be like going around your fist to find your thumb... but on the plus side, along the way I did learn exactly where I could catch the bus in a far closer-to-home location.

I rode the bus to the very end of the line, approximately one kilometer down from the Pagye Temple (Pagyesa)... and by down, I do mean down. That 1km hike up to the temple was quite steep. The weather, however, was beautiful at that point, and the colors of the leaves were even more spectacular, so I didn't mind the fact that I was struggling with each step. When I finally reached the temple, I realized something: I'd been there before, with Donna and Tom back in 2004. Not only had I completely forgotten, but I hadn't even included it in my write-up of that trip. Weird. But I recognized the location of the parking lot, and the rather unattractive new addition to the right of the temple. I also remembered the last time I was there, the three of us were worried that our rental car's engine was going to give out on that hill. Yeah, that hill I'd just hoofed it up. Whew.

Talk about some stunning oranges!


I liked the colors in this one.


This picture contains both a Buddha and a cat.
Can you see them? Click to see it large.


Palgong Mountain goes orange.

The temple itself is quite small, although very picturesque, and it didn't take me too long to explore it thoroughly. The following shots were taken inside the temple grounds.

Macro-closeup of the statue in the center of the shrine below.

On my way out of the temple at the same time as a group of middle-aged Korean men with very expensive cameras were on their way in. One of them asked if he could take my picture on the temple stairs... and then next thing I knew, I was being photographed by an entire photography club. They took one shot with my camera, which turned out quite well, although I suspect that most of the shots they got will involve me wearing a deer-in-headlights expression. They took my email address, and said they'll send me the pictures. If I get any, I'll let you know!