The Gentleman Friend enjoyed the temple stay more than I did, but largely because I have little affinity to anything meditative or spiritual. We had a small room, unfurnished, with a blanket on the floor to sleep on, and had surprisingly comfortable nights. As seems to be universal in South Korea the shower was spectacularly good. We were there two days, waking up at 4 (in my case) and 4.30 (in his case) to make the morning ceremony at 4.50. I struggled a bit the first day, not because of the early start but because of a Muslim aversion to bowing especially before a graven image. Then got over it by thinking (a) it’s the personal intent that matters (b) as the guide explained, it’s respectful so not necessarily worship. The second morning I settled into it because I was no longer on edge, wondering what was to come. Then sweeping the grounds with the other monks, a cup of tea and some meditation. A free afternoon for walks in the forests and up to temples in the hills, and in the evening ringing the massive gong to send its boom echoing through the forest.
The temple is Baekyangsa and was chosen largely because of the nun Jeong Kwan sunim who is said to be one of the finest cooks in the world. And on one remarkable afternoon she chatted (in Korean) as she prepared a feast of temple food that was truly spectacular in its simplicity and harmony, made of fresh or fermented plants she’d collected herself from the forest surrounding the temple. An intent of Korean temple food is to leave you not wanting more, and strangely, we didn’t want more and didn’t mind that the following day it was back to the usual (also very good) temple food.
The one thing that marred it all was a pair of fellow guests, to be precise, the husband of the pair. They were Canadians who had moved to Israel in middle age and, in common with many of those who make that move, seemed to be settlers. She was quiet and pleasant, he was abrasive and angry and keen to talk politics I thoroughly disagreed with over the temple meals.
UK politics cropped up after the temple stay, fortunately, and has been fascinating. The horrific fire in the last couple of days seems to be another sea change, but we’ll see what happens. Rightfully it should bring down the Tory government, but if an alliance with the DUP loonies after the worst political miscalculation since their Brexit miscalculation couldn’t bring it down, who knows.
Today, back in KL, the GF and I strolled down to one of my favourite restaurants, Limapulo, for lunch where I tried their roti jala with chicken curry. Very tasty, and afterwards we walked around the area for a few minutes, where the gentrification of old shophouses is well underway, but there are many more which still house snooker parlours, gloomy aquarium shops and brothels. It will look very different in a few years.