Beomeosa Temple

Beomosa temple is always regarded as one of the tourist destinations you should visit in Busan. I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to venture up to the North of the city to do it, but after nearly a year and a half I finally did it!

It's a humongous temple up on Geumjeongsan Mountain, which is also where Seokbolsa temple is and the delicious goat meat restaurant. We started to walk from Beomeosa metro station, but it soon became apparent that the 3k walk was not going to be fun in the humidity, nor with me wearing impractical shoes. The number 90 bus runs all the way to the temple gate, so halfway we decided to jump on it.

Once we got there we grabbed a map off this adorable old couple who were all smiles and loved when Nick asked about the infamous Geumjeongsan makeolli. The first thing that we did was take the short walk through the 'prehistoric' forest beside the temple. Apparently in May it is covered with hibiscus flowers, but when we went they had all disappeared. Instead we were followed around by huge, hungry looking insects that looked like they'd been lurking on the planet long enough that they could have given even a T Rex a bite that would have itched for days.

We stopped to take pictures on the way while I grappled with the manual settings on my camera, which I am still trying to learn. We only crossed paths with a couple of people as we walked the route with rickety old bridges and big knarly trees.

We eventually got back to the temple, out of the shade of the forest. Because it was noon it was unbelievably hot in the grounds. We wandered around, trying to avoid the building work that sadly takes up a big chunk of the site at the moment.

I always love the massive figures that stand in the entrance of the temples. Having researched a little I've discovered that they're supposed to represent the tribulations you have to overcome before you can reach nirvana. I don't really know much more than that, but I love the guy who holds a dragon in one hand and a sun in the other. Whatever problem he was facing, it looks like he's dealt with it head on!

After enduring the afternoon heat as much as we could, we passed the other tourists trying to grab a little shade under the huge drum and hopped back onto the welcomed number 90 with lots of aircon. It would be nicer to go in the Autumn when it's a little cooler, and maybe spend the whole day exploring the little restaurants and makeolli huts the line the roads on the way back down into the town.






























Follow me...