April 16th, 2011~
Alarm sounds. I drag myself out of bed. Start the coffee. Turn on the computer. Talk on Facebook for an hour. Wake the kids. Wake the husband. I pack necessities for today's planned trip. We are going to a Buddhist Temple and a Korean king's grave today.
Everyone is dragging. Yes, it's a Saturday. One should not have to be up at 6:00am on a weekend, but we had to be at Osan Air Force Base by 8:30am or we'd miss our bus. The husband decides to urk me at the last minute and makes a side trip to his office to check something or get something or God knows what else. Then as we are heading out the USAG Humphrey's Main Gate, and on our way, my husband decides to drive like Grandma Moses.
And why is every freakin' Korean up on a Saturday morning? There was traffic everywhere. Then it hits me....duh!...Korean kids still have school...on a Saturday. So every middle and high school kid is waiting at bus stops for there ride.
So the faster I wanted to get to Osan, the slower it became. Of course, Murphey's Law kicked in and we hit every damn red light on our way there.....when every other time we've ever driven to Osan, the lights always stayed green. Ugh!
We arrive but ended up parking farther than expected because, as our life always has unexplained happenings, Osan had construction and blocked off the street we needed to take. Grr!
We head to the bus that is awaiting us. Of course, we are one of the last to arrive. Lauren and I got front row seats that were reserved for the guides, but since I had a 5 year old, they were kind to keep us seated together. My husband and two other children had to sit wherever there was available seating. We are off.....
I buckle Lauren and myself in. Dig out my iPod and put those on. Sit back...relax...and.....
All of sudden there is a commotion. Not even 5 minutes out of the Osan gate towards our destination....than none other than a tide of bile runs toward the front of the bus. What?!! "Oh, God! Don't tell me Lauren threw up," I thought. I'm still plugged into my iPod and can't hear what is being said but hands are flailing, mouths are covered, and the tour guide is yelling at the driver. We pull over.
I take out my earphones. I ask Lauren if she threw up as I didn't see the incident occur. She tells me, "Uh-uh. The man did it." As there are more men than women on the bus, I have no clue who the culprit is. Everyone is moaning and groaning, some giggling, some gagging. I finally narrow in on the suspect. A grown black man sitting with his buddy. His buddy laughing hysterically while holding a video camera that took evidence of the "accident." Poor guy was embarrassed beyond belief.
The next 10 minutes of our temporary stop was of the poor Korean bus driver mopping up puke and sputtering Korean curses at the sick culprit. And the poor Korean tour guide trying to calm the bus driver down. Our day couldn't have started off more perfectly......
Again, we start off. We made our way through Osan, Suwon, and Seoul.....and then Yangpyeong.
We finally arrive to Yongmunsa (or Yongmun Temple).
As all of us were Christian, none of us went inside the temples. Not to offend anyone, most of us decided to take pictures from outside.
The day was quite perfect with the exception of the morning adventures. The air was cool and the sun was warm. Not a single cloud in the sky. And the mountains sparkled.....
This was our first trip to a temple. We've never seen one except in movies and dramas. I have to say it was quite serene with the exception of all the visitor traffic. Weekends are a tourist dead-end. Also, an unexpected thing occurred at the temples. I shouldn't say thing, per-se, but there is this wonderful smell that animates itself out of the prayer temples. Those wonderful sticks of wonderful scent. Incense! You will drown in the smells.
We finally make our way back down the mountain. Now there is something that was weird that we didn't take pictures of....was the amusement park at the bottom. I died laughing. The pictures we have of Buddhist Temples in our heads does not include a water slide, rollercoaster, and/or ferris wheel. But hey, they gotta make money some how, right?
Since we are a tour, our guides already had our restaurant chosen and how much we'd spend as a whole. 10,000 won for a bowl of bulgogi, banchan (side dishes), and soda. Easy enough. Except...I'm not big on bulgogi. Yeah, I'm a weird one. Most people who are not Korean love this stuff. I'm the exception to that rule. It was good as it was.....the side dishes were the ace for me.
The Yongmunsa tour finally came to an end. Our next destination....King Sejong's Tomb.
