At the entrance of the temple, got some (念过经的泉水) spring water where they allow people to consume it. There are three eggs displayed representing good wills/blessings from phoneix (Country Bird of Korea) - touching them will bring you good luck. At the right corner, one would observe a high-platform whereby a drum, a fish, a small metal banner-lookalike, and bell are placed inside. Actually they represent animals (drum), fishes (a fish), birds (small metal banner lookalike) and humans (bell). For a complete praying session, the monks/nuns have to dedicated their praying/blessings through these 4 things, in the event of allow animals, fishes, birds and humans to learn and absorb the prayers.
After taking a view at the entrance, we walked further up to the outside of the temple, where the big Buddha statue is being placed. The tour guide told us to take a look at below of Buddha's arm (see a dark patch under the Buddha's left arm, the one holding a ball?) and asked us to guess what it is. Some said a bag and others took quite a long while to look. Only I came up with the answer....bird nest! And I was correct! yeah! Under Buddhism, 放生 is very common belief/action. That's also the very reason why they didn't remove the patch (although it may does affect the Buddha statue look a bit), as they know that the birds and their eggs need to be protect/not disturbed by.
After the temple, we went to Jung Angro Street for shopping. Actually I got nothing much to talk about shopping coz in general their structure is like 4- 5 times of Bugis street/Bugis village. Or either is a bit like Orchard Road (but much cramper). Also in general, their standard of living is pretty high, so their goods are not that cheap as you imagined, and you cannot any-o-how go and slashed price (that you can do in China).
I just feel some of their winter clothings and accessories are not too bad la. haha. Faceshop is the one I truly recommend you to ask your colleagues/friends to buy from if they do go to Korea. It can be as cheap as 60% of our local price or even lesser than that. And definitely much more variety as well (that only available in Korea). You see even their students can afford them (that shows how affordable the stuffs are) and that day we went to the shop which happens to have some promotion going on...you see the queue you really got the urge to buy a lot more. The ladies in my tour group went crazy over the face masks. lol. Faceshop is also famous coz they use natural resources (fruits/vegetables) to make the products, so it is safer and neutral to asian skin texture.
After giving us about an hour of shopping time, we set off to Spa Valley (AQUA World - 温泉水世界) for rejuvenating oneslef and enjoy a fun-filled time at its water park. Very advance looker system they had - by using magnetic and coding watch to tap on the destinated locker that the particular watch is allocated to. They still got shoe locker and clothes locker separately.
Imagine soaking in hot spring water at the different kinds of bade pools, spa facilities and sanuas...Shuangness ar! hoho. We also tried the Doctor Fish Spa (a thermal spring filled with tiny fishes that thrive in hot water and it is said to be therapetic for those with skin aliments). Heard one time Doctor Fish Spa is about S$25 for 30mins, so it is not that cheap if it isn't a tour package. Quite unique experience, initially a bit ticklish, but after about a min or two get used to it. Quite a lot of fishes came to my side, and my mom joked that I got too much dead skin at my foot la. muahaha! Also there is an outdoor spa, but hor, no one in the right mind will go there la...coz super cold leh. Althought outdoor spa also got hot/warm water (about 40 degree celscius and above) but the distance you walk from inside to outside will make you feel the cold air rushing in, cold till you shiver type. lol.
The soaking in spa itself is quite cool, except the process of changing and taking off one's swimwear "unbelieavable". We were quite shocked to see that the ladies are very open...in the sense, they practically stripped in the changing room, x-posed throughout leh (without undies as well la). -_-'''. To them in a very very common practice/habit so they gave us weird expression when they saw us still quite dressed. *alamak*. And their 'free' towel is at most enough to cover the face la. hoho! So we all did halving lor - meaning quick but part by part undressing: upper half undressed (bottom half still dressed) and vice versa next. We also only rinse briefing and hope to get back to the hotel as soon as possible to bathe throughly. :P Why we only rinse briefing is because their shower room does not have those door-locked type, just those pull-away curtain lining lor, so people can just barged in as they like. -_-'''
After the interesting spa experience, we head to a dinner meal - Ginseng Chicken Soup (with rice/noodles) and then to Daegu Iner-Burgo Hotel for a good night rest. The ginseng chicken soup is pretty filling (coz they put in a small-sized full chicken into each bowl for per person consumption) and quite tasty, also able to keep one warm and the tonics benefit the body. The ginseng they used are neutral to body, regardless if you are hot/cold body constitute. More about Korean ginseng info will be mentioned in my next post.
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