23 May 2022
Buddha with Korean characteristics
Visiting Bongeunsa Buddhist temple
Before we get into all things Buddha related, it is time for some unrelated observations.
First of all, Korean TV news in English is very much blaming gay pride festivals for the spreading of the Monkey Pox. I cannot make that up. Specifically the Darklands festival in Belgium. Although the news story I saw then went on to mention that undesirable behaviour at such festival is known to spread all kinds of diseases.
Next up, possibly related, we have the alarming new fashion trend of Korean male thirst traps (who is lost now?). I have seen a number of guys walking around wearing boob tubes. All of them had oiled 6 packs on show. So this will be a thing soon everywhere. I am going to get ahead of the game and start that trend in Melbourne as soon as I return, in the middle of winter.
Finally, before we go to Buddha, while riding the subway, there was a bunch of schoolgirls, roaming along the carriages. This was the type of subway train where every couple of carriages there's a gap with 2 doors you can open to go the next group of carriages. So some girls go through, and the door shuts, a girl following smacks her face on the closed door, and then the door behind her closes. So now she is stuck in that tiny gap that is kind of partially outside apart from the accordion baffle rubber thing, and because she was not watching as she walked into the gap, she did not realise there is one of those Asian sliding door style buttons to open it. Wild panic ensues, with screaming as she tries to rip the door open. After about 10 seconds a guy pressed the button to open the door and she fell out back into my carriage, and a group of girls all raced to fan her with whatever they could find, while simultaneously streaming it all on kakao talk (I presume).
As for Buddha, it is a nice place to visit for an hour or so. Not a huge place, very colourful. Lots of loudspeakers and digital signage and ATM's no one uses anymore everywhere. The best part, no entry fee.
It is hotter today, and still the terrible pollution, no actual cloud, but hard to discern blue. An exciting new development in Seoul is these umbrellas at most pedestrian crossings so you can wait in the shade.
There is always a protest about something. They generally last for months and end in bloodshed. I have no idea what is happening here but it is out the front of the google and salesforce headquarters.
I thought I might have an ice cream, then read further down and changed my mind.
Bleak.
Here is the temple entrance. The plethora of signs is quite strange.
I believe all these lanterns have LED lights in them.
Here is a guy on the scaffolding changing the globes.
There is a nice meditation trail that loops up and around the back of the main temple region, but there is also blasting music.
Nice view through the smog. The buildings here are all part of the main exhibition centre, which was all closed off with pedestrian detours around it. I dont know if Joe Biden was there, they looked to be packing up.
Some more of the temples.
The main attraction. Now as is often the case, I was not sure if its bad etiquette to take a photo here where people are praying, but then I saw a woman set up her mat, and a mini tripod, which she put her phone on, and checked everything was framed right, adjusted her hair, and started praying. Buddha, with Korean characteristics.
There are 3 layers of Buddha, the big main one, surrounded by the medium sized ones in a semi circle, then on the outside, thousands of tiny Buddhas.
Over the road is the enormous COEX mall, which is completely underground. I have been there before, but now it has a 700m running track. Do you think when they installed this they expected a middle aged long haired foreigner possibly carrying monkey pox to run on it like an idiot? Because I did.
There are over 100 places to eat in this mall, including the Hyundai department store basement shown here which is very fancy. It seems if you work in an office in Korea, you go out to a proper sit down lunch, as everywhere was packed. I decided to wander around until places cleared out enough to find somewhere not crowded to eat. Everywhere, even nice looking restaurants, is order and pay by touch screen.
This library is often featured in western media about tourism in Korea. If you want a book from the top shelf, you might die. There is a very similar one in Taipei, I am not sure who did it first.
My lunch is a bulgogi beef fusion salad bowl. Not bad, pretty pricey, but made fresh while I waited. There is rice under the salad. No kimchi was on offer, outrageous.
Back near my hotel, and its another protest. Today started and ended with a protest. This seems to be an anti vax pro Jesus protest. Verichip is an injectable biometric chip linked to Bill Gates. Good to see Korea also enjoys sex trafficking pizza shop conspiracies.