Puyo

 


Our trip in Puyo started with a boat ride on the Baengmagang river.
We were on our way to see Nakhwaam Rock, but the river boat captain made sure we saw a few other structures along the way.
We were told this was an old temple. I kinda wish we had gotten to see what it looked like.
We passed a few buildings along the river.

I thought this building was interesting because of that rock base that kinda looks like a tunnel.
Finally we arrived at Busosanseong where Nakhwaam rock is.
This is Goransa Temple.
The Goran Mineral Spring is located here behind the temple. Our tour guide told us that they say if you drink one cup of the water you'll live a year longer.

It was pretty much just a hole in the ground full of water with a small pavilion built over it. They had ladels in the pavilion for you to use.
So, some of us braver souls decided to drink from the spring. It tasted ... well ... like water with minerals in it. Now we'll have to see how long I live. When I die, we'll subtract one year and say that was the extra year I got from downing this water.
I just love how decorative Buddhist temples are on the outside and inside. This is a painting on the outside of Goransa temple near the mineral spring.
More temple decorations.

I kinda wish this came out brighter so you could see the paintings on the beams. But I guess you can't have everything. I like the lantern, it seems a bit unusual.
I really like the carved lotus flowers on the beams.
Here is the entrance to the temple.
The path up the mountain to Nakhwaam Rock was very steep. It was a lot of stairs too and they weren't even. I think it had a bit of a hand rail, which is more than some places. I was told by an Australian woman that in Austrailia they don't even have that most of the time.

This really was a longish climb. And I think some people decided not to even try.
Ths plaque explains how the Baekji kingdom court ladies threw themsleves off this rock when their kingdom fell.
So recently they decided to build a pavilion in their honor.
A close up of the pavilion.

The pavilion was very decorative too. It was kind of crowded with all these people here.
Some more pavilion decorations.
Here's a view of Baengmagang river from the pavilion.
This tree is kinda neat.

A clearer view of the river.
A slightly different view.
After some of the people left I got some better pictures of the interior paintings of the pavilion. I just love how they decorate EVERYTHING.
This is what the ceiling looks like.

One more view of the river.
A little further up the mountain was Sajalu pavilion. This plaque explains it.
There is Sajalu pavilion.
This was was neat because the stairs were under it, like a little tower.

I wish this was a little less blurry, but I really liked the dragon that made up part of the beams in the roof.
Some writing inside the pavilion.
Another shot of the pavilion beams.
Another picture of the dragon, this one doesn't seem to be much better. I was under the impression that there were more structures on the mountain, but our tour guide was yelling at us to come back after I saw this pavilion. It was a long walk back.

We saw a few museums on this trip too. But you can't take pictures in those. These are models of the Tombs of the Baekjek kings.
Here is a close up of one of the tomb models.
Here I am in front of it.
This was a second model tomb. The entrance was bigger for this one.

They built these models because the real ones have paintings in them.
So, here is a reproduction of one of the paintings.
This plaque talks about the paintings.
Here are the real tombs.

There were more tombs in this giant field. In Korea, if you look up on hillsides, you often see these burial mounds. now, these are TOMBS, not really burial mounds. I've been told that in the regular burial mounds, the person is still buried under ground, they just heap a bunch of dirt on top as a sort of grave marker.
I thought it was neat that the moon was out above the tombs.
Here's an entrance to a real tomb. They sealed it off inside though.
Here's the outside of the same tomb.

We also went to the Independence Hall of Korea. Which is like a giant museum of Korean history. Some of it was disturbing, like the section on Japanese torture when they occupied Korea - particularly during World War II. It sure explains a lot about why they don't get along, though.
This was a big statue outside the Grand hall of the Nation.
Here is another view of the statue.
Waaaaaay out there, there is another monument, but I really didn't have time to walk out there to find out what it was. The statue is pointing toward it.