After work, I walked home and decided to explore around the Dakkari (sp?) neighbourhood of Masan. I have been around there, but never actually in that neighbourhood...I saw that the two buses that go from my house to that area were on their way (according to the screen at the bus stop, they were a few minutes away), so I went home, ditched my work bag and grabbed my camera. I missed the buses, but I figured I'd just catch the next one. Since the next one wasn't on the screen yet (more than 20 minutes away), I figured I'd start walking in that direction and catch it when they're close...except they never came. So, I decided to keep walking on the road I was on and see where it leads to. I went past Samgye and Naeseo, and kept walking.
Soon, the apartments gave way to little houses, which were followed by farms. The sound of traffic and music was replaced by song of birds and the trickling of water in the canal beside me. I kept going. Scary drivers were replaced by a herd of goats crossing the road. It started getting dark. I kept going. One by one, the houses disappeared off the horizon and were replaced by nothing but lush hills. I kept going.
One of the last houses:
And looking back at the little village below:
I kept going, up, up and up until there were no more houses in sight, just the road, the wind and the sound of a trickling stream. Eventually, I found the stream (sorry for the yellow tint, not much I can do about that, thanks to the sulfur-filled street lights):
But still, the road kept going up. So I followed it until I started suspecting I'd find this:
Yup...a Buddhist monastery hidden in the hills. It was simply sublime.
I bumped into a couple of monks, who were nice, but only smiled and gave me the thumbs-up when I showed them the pictures I had taken (I wasn't sure if I was allowed to be there). I'm pretty sure they had sworn a vow of silence!
I apologize for the crappy quality of the pictures, most of them were taken at ISO 6400, f2.8 and nearly 1 second handheld (didn't have a tripod with me)...pretty much the perfect settings for getting the worst possible performance out of a camera. I'm definitely going to go back there with a tripod and redo these pictures!
After taking the above picture, I walked across the courtyard and sat down at the base of the stairs and just enjoyed the peace and solitude. It was simply the best random walk I have taken since I got here. It was so serene and perfect up there, just the sound of the wind blowing through the forest and the stream running over the rocks. To make things even better, the sky was relatively dark and the air was warm, I really didn't want to leave.
I took a few more pictures while enjoying the peace:
In the dark, I thought the black thing in the middle of the courtyard was a rock or a piece of garbage...then I went closer and realized it was a bunny. I mean, come on...how perfect is that? :) He came up to me, sniffed my hand and let me pet him. It was awesome.
And...my favourite picture of the night...the entrance (I think they were meditating in the rooms on either side) with the Big Dipper above it!
I'm definitely going back to this monastery on another warm, clear night...I think I might be able to do some star trails in a quiet corner of it as well. It's roughly 10 km from my house, so it's a bit of an all-night commitment (with having to walk uphill all the way there, it's probably a good 3.5 to 4 hour walk to and from my house), but well worth it!
I got home around 10, made dinner and watched a bit more of The Office...I'm not one to care about entertainment news, but I just heard that Steve Carell has announced that he's leaving the show, though...sad.
Anyhoo...today is another day of warming my desk! I think I'll go edit some pictures, download some music and maybe, just maybe, make up a lesson plan or two.
Have a superb day, everyone!
T
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