May 24, Thursday – Buddha’s Birthday, Munsu Mountain

One of the more important holidays in Korea, Buddha’s Birthday is a happy, busy day when Buddhists visit temples to pray and, at some temples, have lunch. Holly and I had the day off from work so we decided to head to the local mountain, Munsusan, to spend the day climbing. We hopped the bus to the base of the mountain and hiked up to the top. It was a 3km walk that sucked the life out of me, but was a warm up for Holly… Holly has the graceful, efficient stride made for this kind of stuff, I bound and stumble, what can I say? At times I would look up and swear that Bill Kalyn was leading up this mountain (and to my death). Same pace, same posture…same speed! The resemblance was remarkable.
So at the top of the mountain is a temple that was jam packed with people meeting for lunch (bi bim bap – a bowl of rice, veggies, a fried egg, and some spicy pepper paste, all mixed up… delicious). There were hundreds of people up there, and we were the only foreigners, so naturally we were stared at (in a friendly way of course). BUT, the final straw was when the camera men present all stopped photographing the important, ceremonial events, and crowded around us like the paparazzi, with their cameras in our faces, taking pictures of us like we were some washed up movie stars coming out of the police station after a night in detox due to impaired driving. I can handle the stares, but this put me over the top… We quickly left the courtyard and descended to the climbing area, where we enjoyed a beautiful afternoon of climbing. We worked on a climb called ‘Red Sunset’, which is a burly 5.11d that begins steep and finishes on a vertical, cracky face.
On a side note, the colorful balls hung up at the temple were a symbol for the special day, they were hung all around town as well. The one of the main symbols for a Buddhist temple is the backward-looking swastika. It is completely coincidental that the signs are so similar, I think… Or at least that is the assumption I have made seeing as those two groups of people are about the two most opposite in this entire world!