Haeinsa

Monday after a great weekend. Saturday morning I woke, far less hungover than I should have been for the amount of soju I drank, to the my phone ringing. Will was asking what time we wanted to get going down to Gaya San. We were rolling within 30 minutes. The first half of the ride was pretty flat, going through Seonju, where all the little yellow melons you see in the street markets come from. Once we hit 59, the hills became dramatic. Gaya is a large block of land, imposing from a distance, protruding angularly out of the surrounding hills. Winding through the passes gave the new bike its first real workout. Traci and I on it are a little heavy and couldn't keep up with Will, who was riding fast. On the tighter turns where I'm used to leaning, the kickstand would scrape scaring Traci. It was her first time on the back on such roads. The roads were so twisting, and lush that I figure we'll ride back if we have the chance. It's close enough.




Inside Haeinsa. Built in 802 in thanks to the monks that cured the queens incurable disease.


Does this road go to Daegu or Gayasan? Putting my new map to use, the only time thus far. You don't really need maps in this country. If you get lost, it's not a big enough place to be really far out of yr way.


There are 80,000 of these blocks housed in Haeinsa, with the Buddhist cannon carved into them. The buildings are designed to allow air to circulate in such a way to preserve these 800 year old printing blocks.

We ran out of gas on the way home. A nice farmer gave us a lot, even when I kept saying it's ok. We only needed enough to get to the next gas station. And we took the long way home by poor judgement on my part. It was quite a nice road, though we missed out on an extra hour of the new all you can eat, all you can drink buffet in town.

I spent Sunday riding around country roads alone. Hot and relaxing.