Haedong Yonggungsa Temple (Busan)
Our main goal for coming to Busan was to enjoy the beach and go diving in the aquarium. With the limited time that we had, as well as the very last minute trip here, we really didn’t have much in the way of plans for things to do. So we decided to pick some place popular for the area to go which happened to be the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple (해동 용궁사). The Temple was built in 1376 and is still beautiful!
There was a show on Korean TV of a monk repaint the temples with paint made from flowers. One thing that you will notice when you go to the temples and palaces here, are the bright reds and greens painted everywhere! The show I was watching mentioned that the monks keep very strict records of when they paint/retouch these buildings because they redo any area that needs it every 50 to 100 years! It is amazing to me that paint made from the barest amount of materials can be that bright or that it can retain that color for such a long period of time! The temple was free to encourage people to come by, and to help the local economy dependent upon tourists.
The Journey to the Temple
The temple is not too far by taxi from our hotel. I tried to survive the trip there by not getting car sick, with the winding roads and the speedy way the cab driver drove. It was hard. Thankfully, the air was fresh and brisk at our destination, so I felt better not long after leaving the cab. We were dropped off at the top of a hill with mini shops selling clothes, souvenirs, delicious smelling food etc. We by passed all of this to proceed to our destination which is the beautiful temple by the sea. Before we finally did get to the temple, we first passed by the Chinese animal zodiac statues, which were created to guard the path to the temple. We of course had to stop and take a pic with our animals.
The final path leading to the temple was over large stone steps that go down pretty steeply. There were A LOT of steps. The Haedong Yonggungsa Temple was amazing to look upon where it sat by the sea! There were two paths to follow. One going left and one going straight. The one on the left took us to a place of worship a little bit away from the temple. The other path led us over a small bridge to the center of the temple, where we could see a massive golden Buddha above us. The small bridge we crossed had a ‘wishing bowl’ below which of course the kids wanted to throw coins in. So we all had to try! None of us were very good at throwing a coin into the bowl, but I would say we didn’t need it. We wished for a happy day with the family and we sure got it!
The Hotel
The biggest issue that we had while we were over here was finding an affordable hotel close to where we wanted to go. The hotel we stayed in was called the Agoda hotel and looks better in the picture than it really does in real life. For one thing it isn’t as big as it was being made out to be. The bed was like a rock, and the sheets felt incredibly dirty. There is really no place to sit in this hotel for more than 2 people other than on the bed. The best feature of this place was probably the bath tub though, which looked like it could fit 3 or more adults. Otherwise, this is not someplace we would go back to. This hotel did not look or feel very family friendly. This is definitely not someplace we would recommend staying.
The whole time we were on this trip, Mary was also trying to work on her MBA classes which she tried to squeeze in anytime she could and not take away from the family time. Thank goodness the Starbucks was a 3-minute walk away!
If ever you come to South Korea, we highly recommend that you visit this temple!!!
