Gatbawi Buddha

The hike this past Saturday was amazing! Brutal... but amazing. haha. My coworker was right when he said it was the "stair master from hell."

The trip started off around 10am Saturday morning with an hour long bus ride. Their buses are really nice compared to Chicago's! The cherry blossoms have been coming out for the past month as well... so there were some very beautiful parts of the hike.

The entrance of the hike with some beautiful cherry blossom trees!

Right before you start up the trail (and on through the trail at certain points, as I came to find out later), there are piles of rocks. The rocks are wishes or prayers and you have to balance them on top of the other rocks... and you want to balance them on the highest point so your prayers are closer to Heaven. Or Buddha. Not really sure which one.

My prayer balancing on the highest point I could get.

A ways up the hike we came to a temple area. Before you go up to the temple, there's an alter to Buddha. Incense was burning and water was flowing by the statue. People were there lighting candles for prayers, kneeling on the mats to pray, and worshiping Buddha's statue. It actually reminded me of a strange mix of Catholicism and Islam.

They take off their shoes before they step on the mats to pray

Statue of Buddha and alter area

There were a few different temples. One was to the mountain god - usually depicted as a tiger or an old man, and the other is the main temple where the monks pray. This beautiful bridge connected the two temples.

Temple of the mountain god

Pagoda and bell "tower" for the temple

Bell which they ring once a day for the main prayer

Beautiful hand painted artwork was everywhere; this is from the bell "tower"

Everyone tries to get a sip (or fill their water bottles) of temple mountain spring water that's been blessed by Buddha. It flows out of the mouth of the turtle.

Vats of kimchi soaking on the roof of the temple kitchen

These are the hardcore uneven steps that kicked our butts

As we neared the top we started seeing people selling candles, and gifts for Buddha

The view from one of the resting areas maybe halfway up

When we neared the top, we started seeing these beautiful temple lanters!

The lanterns had Buddhas holding lotus' and standing in Buddha positions

The prayer area at the top of the mountain.

The lanters that covered the ceiling had the prayers of people tied to the ends

Me and the huge Buddha with a stone on its head: it's one of the oldest in all Asia!

Once we had finally reach our goal with making it to the Buddha and the temple at the top of the mountain, we had to make our way back down again. That was definitely the most trecherous part of the trip! (At least for the first half of the way down.) We hadn't realized how steep it had been getting... so we were definitely off balance for the way down. Gravity works, let me tell you. What was the most confusing though was that we kept seeing people with dress clothes/shoes and very old people making their way up the mountain! How they did it I will never know...

Making our way slowly back down the mountain

Me with a monk!

We finally reached the end of our hike with much relief. Our legs were definitely shaking! On our way down we passed by the monk that I have a picture with, and he was so friendly! It was funny cause the only two things he knew how to say were "hi" and "I love you..." haha. Our bus ride home felt long, but we felt both tired and accomplish from the day. I can't wait to do more!