Pohang Trip

Hello everyone! This is my first weekend in Korea. I was asked by my friend Kaitlyn and her finance Ace to go on a bizarrely timed beach trip to Pohang. We went with her Korean friend Rosemary and we left last night at 10:30. After were arrived in Pohang it was a last minute search for a hotel. Korea has hotels called "love hotels" which are cleaner then hostels and cheaper than regular. Love hotels are exactly what they sound like a place for the youth of Korea to escape their conservative relatives and have a rendezvous. Unlike American hotels they are super clean. Not that made it any less awkward for Rosemary and I to share a bed with a spotlight over it (I accidentally erased that picture on my camera so i'll leave it up to your imagination) ...also...what the heck was this cup doing in the bathroom?

To be honest I have no idea why we had to spend the night for a short day trip in the first place. However I would have said yes to any idea just so I didn't have to spend my first weekend alone.

We woke up in Pohang which is steel producing capital of Asia (The Excitement!). The beach was cold, industrial and windy. As you may imagine my swimsuit stayed in my bag. Then we had a traditional Korean breakfast which is shrimp stew...Yeah...

These are the fish tanks outside of were we ate breakfast.

After breakfast we walked on the beach and we were accosted by a group of high school girls that wanted pictures with us (and by us I mean Ace). After our short walk we headed up to Bogyeog-sa. Bogyeog-sa is a Buddhist temple built in 1023 and surrounded by waterfalls.

Buddhist temples are made up of multiple buildings and shrines. My favorite in Bogyeog-sa was the one dedicated to success for recent graduates. Maybe I should have place my photo among the Bodhisattvas.

After the temple we took a short hike to the first out of eleven waterfalls in the general area. I wanted to hike out to more but I learned quickly not to mess with a Korean woman with a travel plan! The Korean forests are beautiful lush and surprisingly dry. The local legend surrounding Bogyeog-sa is that Monks traveled from China bringing with them two mirrors. The two mirrors traveled their separate ways, one arriving in Pohang where it was thrown into the lake creating a place were Buddhism was destined to flourish.


Or maybe just a rad place to cliff jump!

After this we turned around and drove back to Daegu. We were back by five making this one of the strangest and most un-necessary overnight trips I have ever taken.