South Korea Trip #3-6: Temple in Daegu, Palgongsan Mountain, and last day with the family. 

July 5th was our last full day in Busan, and the agenda for the day was:

• 10:30am pickup at the hotel by Meghann’s birth family
• Head north to Daegu to visit the temple containing Meghann’s birth father’s urn
• Lunch at a beef restaurant
• Visit Palgongsan Mountain and ride a chairlift to the top
• Car ride back to hotel
• Crazy epic final evening out in Busan

Starting from the top! The entire family met us at the hotel at 10:30 so we could depart together to Daegu, a ~2 hour drive. Halfway through the drive, we stopped at the same rest stop we had stopped at in 2012, which didn’t look much different. Her birth family was all very helpful – I went with Jinsoon to pick-up iced coffees for the group, while Hwang bought some candy for the girls to eat. They sat with Hyung-Nim (their uncle) who seems thrilled every time he’s around them.

After a 20 minute break at the rest stop, we resumed towards Daegu. On the way in to Daegu, there were many Buddhist temples and tombs concentrated together. Once all vehicles arrived at the temple, we headed inside. The first room was large and filled with many urns stored behind glass. Each urn contained photos and other items representing that person. A substantial number of urns had cigarettes, some had things like sunglasses, and all had photos of loved ones. After the first room, we headed to a second prayer room where you could make donations to the temple and pay respects to the deceased.

Everyone seemed in good spirits after visiting the temple, and it was time to head to lunch! This was another traditional Korean restaurant, although the first one we visited where you would cook your own meat at the table. While there was no raw fish or octopus this time around, we instead had a few favorites return which you’ll see in photos below below. Sage was a huge fan of the beef and kept her cousin busy by eating it as fast as he could cook and cut it!

Lunch was great, I think Sage ate two entire cows. After lunch, we headed towards our last stop as a group, Palgongsan Mountain. On the way, Hwang told me this was considered a spiritual mountain, and Jinsoon frequently would visit and hike/climb the mountain to pray. We drove about halfway up, and then took a cable car the rest of the way. The top of the mountain had beautiful views and a wishing rock where wishes could be made.

After we finished sightseeing at Palgongsan Mountain, we rode the cablecar back down and Jinsoon bought Meghann a gift from the store, ”Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil” and said we should put it in front of our television. After that, the mood grew solemn as it was time for goodbyes. While hugging is common in American culture, it’s not nearly as much in Korean culture. Still, they humored us with goodbye hugs as we left.

It was up to just Hyung-Nim to drive the four of us back to Busan. It was his first time with the four of us sans translator. His english was as good as most of the family’s, which means at best we could find a few common words or short phrases to communicate. I didn’t want him to feel excluded during the drive so I decided to give my built-in iPhone translator a go. It worked reasonably well, although conversing back and forth is difficult so mostly it was me using it to translate into Korean and he would respond briefly. We learned he liked baseball – the LA Dodgers, but also the Busan Giants. He showed us the town he grew up in when we passed it and said he liked to water ski on the river. Also saw a few driving ranges (he confirmed, ”golf!”) and told him some things about our family and the girls, such as their interests and sports. He is also a fan of the movie Top Gun and has watched it many times.

We arrived at the hotel and had to say our final goodbyes with Hyung-Nim. Upon arrival to the hotel, it was time to begin…

THE CRAZY FINAL EVENING OUT IN BUSAN.

Upon arriving to our hotel room a little after 6pm, we kicked off our shoes and Meghann and I decided to relax on the bed for a few moments before planning out dinner and our final evening. The next thing we knew, it was 9:30pm and we had both fallen asleep for three hours. The end.

More to come in the next post, covering Meghann’s 40th birthday as we spend our final morning in Busan and take the KTX rail up to Seoul.