Be Fearless, Travel Solo

I am soon woken up with the ringing of a wooden Buddhist bell, rung by one of the monks as he walked the balcony waking us temple-stayers. We grumble out of bed and walk out in the cold outside. It was 4:00 am and still dark out. We walk up the hill on the trail that leads to where we eat our meals and past the monks quarters and up a steep hill. We soon arrive at a small temple, half dug out of the hill, but painted in brightly colored patterns with fuchsia lotus lanterns coving the entire ceiling. I could appreciate its beauty even in my sleep deprived state. We performed three bows on a mat and then sat crossed legged and heard a group of monks, and to my enjoyment, the 5 young monks, chant their Buddhist hymns. The chanting was powerful and calm at the sametime. I was almost lulled asleep by it. Every now and then we would stand up and perform more bows. After about an hour of chanting and bowing we meditated for half an hour. We were told to clear our mind and think of nothing...

The Accidental Adventure Continues (To see part 1 of this story, scroll down) After lunch was walked to an outdoor museum that had these huge mounds about 5 stories high that were the burial mounds of Ancient Shilla Kings. We followed a trail that winded between a dozen of them. Then we came to an old brick structure built in the year 647 AD, which was an old astronomy tower used in the Shilla dynasty. We passed some more burial grounds and got back on the bus to drive to the first of many Buddhist temples. This first one was called Bulguksa, the Temple of the Land of Buddha, and is located mid-slope on Mt. Tohamsan. It had acres of brightly painted Buddhist structures, pagodas, and gardens. At the entrance of the temple grounds we had to walk through a covered entrance way that had four enormous painted wood statues of men holding dragons, weapons, and/or musical instruments with grins on their faces. They were the guardians of the temple grounds, also called the statues of the fo...