Hiking up to the Buddhist temple after the bridge was pretty much just a lot of stairs. Typical Korea! Straight up from the start! We saw two Buddhist temples. I don't think I had ever been to a Buddhist temple before today. The first temple was pretty small. It was really simple, but really pretty. Outside the temple there were 12 statues of all the Chinese zodiac animals.
The second temple was a little bit bigger and there were more people there. We got to see some of them worshiping which was really cool. I need to learn more about Buddhism and what they believe and how they worship. The temple had a HUUUUUUUGE gong out front...Sophia decided to ring the gong. She definitely wasn't supposed to because some Korean lady came running out with her arms in a giant X in front of her chest yelling, "아니!! 아니!!" That's a no-no apparently.
After we finished at Gamaksan we decided to head over to Soyosan for round 2! It was a little bit of a drive but not too far. Only about 30 minutes. The hike was really really tough. A lot of stairs but none of them were even and it was so so hot and so humid. Spencer and Brian took off with Diamond and Florence. I stayed back with Jessica and Sophia and Giselle. Giselle's only motivation for getting to the top was the ₩5,000 that her mom was bribing her with! We were all pretty miserable. When we finally got to the top we had a really pretty view. It was such a clear day so we could see forever. Directly beneath us was the army base closest to the DMZ, Camp Casey. We were so dead by the time we got to the top. We probably should have taken more water. On the way back down we dunked our heads in the stream to cool off. I have no idea how the water can be so cold when the air around it is sooo hot. I'm not complaining though, it felt like heaven.
After hiking we cleaned off in the bathrooms at the bottom and changed our clothes cause they were soaked through from all the sweating and humidity. It was pretty nasty. We went to an underground shopping place where they have tons of "Engrish" shirts and things. We had a competition to see who could find the best ones. Spencer and I found some real gems. We had a great time looking around. We went to dinner at an all you can eat Korean BBQ place. It was our first time having Korean BBQ. It was so yummy! There's a grill in the middle of the table and you get your own meat and grill it yourself. They also have tons of fried foods to supplement the meat...so not quite an Argentine Asado ;) They had pizza and fries and fried chicken and kimchi etc. It was so yummy. We definitely ate way too much. But we also worked up a huge appetite! I think we deserved it :) We had such a great day with the Simons. It was so nice of them to invite us along for the fun!
