Day #2: Part 2 "Fun Monks at Woljeongsa"

Enjoy my whole amazing tour by start reading from the first post below- Day #0: Before Reaching Korea.

8/6/2012
Day #2: Seoul ➝ Icheon ➝ Pyeongchang

After having the royal meal- Icheon rice, we headed to Pyeongchang for the temple stay program in Woljeongsa.

The scenery there was really beautiful, the air was fresh, the lake was clear, the green trees harmonized the color of Woljeongsa. It made me stopped for awhile, closed my eyes to feel the breathtaking atmosphere.

Ricky's camwhore talent

Just like the name, we're Fun Team! We have fun everywhere, even before entering a gate. Ricky was quite surprise to see the beautiful outcome of this picture, he was like "Wow! Everyone is in the picture, nice!".

We did another introduction shoot in Woljeongsa before starting the main activities. According to the script, we need to close our eyes, open our arms, take a deep breath and enjoy the smell of nature with a calm mind. In this case, we can gain natural "기 (gi)" which means energy and strength. It really works...at least for me.

The Fun Monks

And then, TADAA! We changed to their costumes as a respect to the temple. Dondré was really impressed because the pants actually fits his long legs. "It can actually reach the end of my leg, it's really hard to find pants like this", he said. Just buy one home, Dondré. Kkkk..

Calm and peaceful tea ceremony

Here comes the tea ceremony. The monk in-charged taught us the right way to enjoy the tea. First, we have to be calm, second, we have to be really calm, then we have to calm down. Okay that's the Tim Style joke. >.<

Maybe something like this?

The right way of drinking the tea is, hold up your cup with left hand supporting under the cup. Then, have a look at the color of your tea. Lastly, drink it...... I heard sound of Tiphany and Dondré drinking the tea rapidly before the monk even finished his line. "Drink it...very...slowly...one sip...by another sip...", the monk continued.

I'm not sure about the rest, but 3 of us already finished the tea, in one big sip I guess. We were like, gulp..uh oh. Let's hope he didn't realize. Then Dondré asked me softly,

     "What's the color of your tea? Oh wait, does your tea even have a color?".

     "No, maybe a transparent green?".

Both of us laughed...calmly.

That was the most quiet and calm recording we had. Everyone was so quiet...and calm~ Even the camera crews. That was a really interesting experience.

Heading to the 2nd mission, the highlight of the day, which made us have serious muscle pain for next few days- THE BOW!

108 bows (백팔배- baekpalbae) is a meditative practice that encourages reflection and concentration. It's long tradition whose number is particularly significant for the following:

• 6 bodily pathways that lead to suffering: eyes, ears, skin, nose, tongue, mind.
• 6 objects that lead to suffering: something you see, hear, feel, smell, taste, think about.
• 3 time periods in which you suffer: the past, the present, and the future.

[6x6x3 = 108]

We can thread 1 bead of the rosary after each bow we did. We were told to "focus the things you want to change in yourself" while doing the 108 bows. But at the same time, 3 teams were formed to have a competition of which team can do most bows in 20 minutes! We thought it's supposed to be calm?!

Tiphany and I were in a team. If you read my previous post, you will know that Tiphany and I were the only 2 persons that didn't get Mapae (what is Mapae?) from 1st mission. So, we named our team "Mapae Team" as we really need to get the Mapae! Simple Tim and Erry chose "Blue Team" as their team name as they got a blue handkerchief. Ricky and Dondré named their team "Fantastic 108", yea..a really cool name.

Bow video link ; bow start from 0:35

Dondré and Ricky were very very fast at first, then they were exhausted and Ricky joked around too much. Haha I understand that because he had to host the show. For Blue Team, Erry did most of the bows because Erry as a muslim does more 5 bows everyday, lucky Tim get to rest more. Tiphany and I took turns to do the bow, so our speed was very constant and fast maybe? At last, Blue Team and our Mapae Team were tied, so both teams had the final PK and WE WON! Tiphany and I got our 1st Mapae! Woohoooo! *Mapae dance time*

However, I couldn't feel my legs after the mission, they were wobbling while I walk. And that was how the exciting torture started, we had muscle pain for the next few days. Imagine our funny faces and reaction while getting on and off the bus. That's how I infected the serious disease called "Stairs Phobia".

Walked around Pagoda, leaded by the monk (blocked by our cameraman)

After the exhausting mission, we're back to the calm world. We walked around Pagoda for 3 rounds, and we were asked to think of 3 goals that we want to achieve while walking around Pagoda, in complete silence...and calm~

Special vegetable meal

After the special temple stay program in Woljeongsa, we headed to Sanchon for dinner. It's a special vegetable meal, simple and humble. They prepared various types of veges, I'm really really sorry that I couldn't remember the names.

Deodeok (Codonopsis)

I normally don't eat much veges, but I ate a lot in this meal. They were all so delicious! Especially the fried yam and deodeok! Deodeok tastes a bit like ginseng. Before knowing it's called deodeok, I asked Ricky, 
     "What is this thing? It tastes like ginseng",
     "It's deodeok",
     "What is deodeok?",
     "It's ginseng's friend".
To be honest, I only remember it's ginseng's friend when I'm writing this post. I contacted our Tour Guide eomma Rachel to asked for the actual name. Kkkk..

One of our favourite poses - ^.^V

Fuhh.. It's the end of the hectic schedule! But look at our team, we were still excited! We're the hyper Fun Team!

My room in Alpensia Resort

This was the 2nd hotel we had, Gangwon-do Pyeongchang-gun's Alpensia Resort. It was REALLY WIDE AND HUGE! KTO always prepare best things for us. Including the kids beds in the small room, I had total 3 beds that night! O.O Incredible right?

The pillow service

I found this amazing service! Maybe this is common for you, but it's not for me. I should have changed to a Chrysanthemum or Buckwheat Candy Pillow. Superb!

Finally, that was the end of first day of Fun Tour. It was way more exciting than I expected. They brought us to different places and experience many things in just 1 day! And IT WAS ONLY THE VERY FIRST DAY!! CAN YOU FEEL MY EXCITEMENT? For the whole night, the only thing in my mind was, "WOW~ FUN TOUR IS AMAZING! I'M REALLY GLAD THAT I'M HERE..".

Summary of the exciting activities we had in Day #2:
-Orientation
-Pottery making experience
-1st mission: Choose the right Icheon special rice
-Temple stay
-Tea tasting
-2nd mission: 108 bows

Next: Alpensia Resort- Location for Winter Olympic 2018!