As of the 16 of April, my parents arrived in Korea, after a month in Thailand. They got in late on the Friday, so after the bus ride to Daejeon with a million bags, we got to their hotel, and talked for a while before calling it a night. But we were back at it fairly early the next morning with a trip to the travel agent to get things sorted out for our trip to China the following week, before meeting Mrs. Kwon and her husband (who's name I now know, Mr. Bay) to look at Donghaksa and go for lunch.
After the travel agent's, we went back to my swinging bachelor's pad to await Mrs. Kwon. Apparently they tell me, my apartment looks much smaller in person than it does over the web-cam, so all of you home viewers out there now know, take what you see, and imagine smaller!
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The first thing we did when we got to Donghaksa was to grab lunch. Mrs. Kwon ordered a traditional lunch for us, which my parents weren't the biggest fans of. They tried almost everything, but weren't big fans. They said in Thailand, they would have started without Italian food and pizza.
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This is the mushroom restaurant near the parking lot. I see it every time I go to Gyeryongsan, but have never taken a picture of it, although I've thought about it a lot. So now, here it is, finally for all of you. I've never actually read the menu or anything of that nature, but I'm just assuming its specialty is mushrooms...or at least I hope it is, otherwise they should fire the builders. A really neat building.
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Sue and Paul with Mrs. Kwon and her husband. Mrs. Kwon meet my parents when she took a trip to Canada a couple months ago. I find the outfits strange here, although I didn't notice it on the day. Tops match one way for men and women and pants match the other way, but only really 4 colours amongst the 4 people.
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Sue and I along the path. We didn't climb Gyeryongsan at all. We just walked from the parking lot to Donghaksa and back.
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This was the first time I actually say the hills around Donghaksa as green not brown. Since I arrived in October, everything has looked either dead or dying for the winter. It is nice to finally see a change, and have green leaves popping up all around, and see things such as flowers again. Small things, big changes.
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Me...walk...exciting. I am a sexy bitch.
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My parents in amongst the buildings of Donghaksa. Paul's pouch is a lot like my backpack, he doesn't seems to go anywhere without it. I like the backpack, but for me, the fanny pack has always been a fashion no-no.
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The stream is back to its meandering self after the brief rush it had after the rain and snow fall, but is now shadowed by green trees and tiny flowers that give it a much more serene and tranquil feeling.
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We had a brief stop at the far side of the temple to sit in the shade and relax. It was a very hot and sunny day. The water I always carried with me was welcomed by everyone.
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