I've done it! I have finally visited my 50th and 51st country! Will I continue and try to reach 60 countries before I reach the age of 30? Or try to visit 100 countries in my life? I don't know yet. But I do know that I'm proud of this accomplishment. Below you can find the stories of my recent trip to South Korea and Japan. When I return from this trip, I will post a new post, looking back on all the countries I have visited in my own way.
Staying with the monks in South Korea
I didn't know much about South Korea to start with, other than K-Pop and rumors that Korean food tastes very good. So I went to explore this country and see for myself what life is like over there. In my first few days I did a templestay: I would stay in a temple and live like the monks for 24 hours. This means getting up at 3am for a chanting ceremony and we were also asked to do 108 prostations (kneeling down and bowing for Buddha - my upper legs were hurting for 3 straight days afterwards). At the end of those 24 hours, we had a tea ceremony together with a monk. With the help of a translator I had a very interesting conversation with him about how in his opinion we are basically all nothing important and therefore should try to live a life free of anger, greed and arrogance. In fact, the monk thought I said such wise things related to these topics that I must have studied Buddhist texts in my previous life. I took everything he said with a pinch of salt, but it was an interesting experience nonetheless. Below you can find some pictures of the temple complex and a tea ceremony we had with one of the monks.
An interesting hotel
A stay in South Korea is not complete without a visit to Seoul of course. However, since all good hostels were fully booked I was forced to stay in Cheongju - a city close to the temple I was staying - for one night after the templestay. I had no information about hotels so I walked to the first modern-looking hotel close to the bus station that had pictures of decent-looking rooms in the window. The hotel was neon-lit on the outside, I got a complimentary kit of toiletries and a room with strange purple walls with hearts on it, but I didn't really think about this. Nor did I think anything weird about the fact that when I switched on the tv it was automatically on a channel that was showing Asian porn. Finally, when I heard some Korean girl screaming/squeeking at night I thought back about what my friend Jose had said about how I had to try a "sex hotel" while I was in Asia. All the pieces of the puzzle came together and I realized I was in one right now. And besides those few sounds during the night it was all a very good hotel, so no complaints there.
Finally I also spent some days in Seoul, visiting the palaces and a parade with lanterns. Below you can find some more pictures.
Stories and pictures about the Japanese part of this trip will follow soon. I promise that they will be even more beautiful than the pictures in this post!
Staying with the monks in South Korea
I didn't know much about South Korea to start with, other than K-Pop and rumors that Korean food tastes very good. So I went to explore this country and see for myself what life is like over there. In my first few days I did a templestay: I would stay in a temple and live like the monks for 24 hours. This means getting up at 3am for a chanting ceremony and we were also asked to do 108 prostations (kneeling down and bowing for Buddha - my upper legs were hurting for 3 straight days afterwards). At the end of those 24 hours, we had a tea ceremony together with a monk. With the help of a translator I had a very interesting conversation with him about how in his opinion we are basically all nothing important and therefore should try to live a life free of anger, greed and arrogance. In fact, the monk thought I said such wise things related to these topics that I must have studied Buddhist texts in my previous life. I took everything he said with a pinch of salt, but it was an interesting experience nonetheless. Below you can find some pictures of the temple complex and a tea ceremony we had with one of the monks.
An interesting hotel
A stay in South Korea is not complete without a visit to Seoul of course. However, since all good hostels were fully booked I was forced to stay in Cheongju - a city close to the temple I was staying - for one night after the templestay. I had no information about hotels so I walked to the first modern-looking hotel close to the bus station that had pictures of decent-looking rooms in the window. The hotel was neon-lit on the outside, I got a complimentary kit of toiletries and a room with strange purple walls with hearts on it, but I didn't really think about this. Nor did I think anything weird about the fact that when I switched on the tv it was automatically on a channel that was showing Asian porn. Finally, when I heard some Korean girl screaming/squeeking at night I thought back about what my friend Jose had said about how I had to try a "sex hotel" while I was in Asia. All the pieces of the puzzle came together and I realized I was in one right now. And besides those few sounds during the night it was all a very good hotel, so no complaints there.
Finally I also spent some days in Seoul, visiting the palaces and a parade with lanterns. Below you can find some more pictures.
Stories and pictures about the Japanese part of this trip will follow soon. I promise that they will be even more beautiful than the pictures in this post!
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