Wauwoo Jhinsa

It was another summer morning in Korea. As usual, we (me and Sachin, my roomie in the Guest House) planned to go for an outing. It was decided that we would be visiting WauwooJhinsa, a Buddhist monastery.

We started off little late, had a good breakfast and then headed towards the Suwon Metro Station. We collected relevant information from the Tourists' Information Center, situated near the Suwon Metro Station. We had to take one bus to YongIn and change for WauwooJhinsa there. The frequency of the buses to YongIn was very less, had to wait for almost an hour to get the bus. From Suwon Metro Station, it was an hour's journey to YongIn Bus Terminal. YongIn is not as developed as Suwon. It is more like a small town, away from the city. This was the first time during our stay in Korea that we were outside city limit. The experience was a mixture of adventure and confusion. We were really very excited to see the common man's Korea, but at the same time, sensed helplessness with the thought that hardly anyone understood English there. It took us almost 30 minutes to figure out bus number. With all these troubles, we reached WauwooJhinsa at around 4:15pm, a good three and a half hour after we left the guest house.

WauwooJhinsa, the land of Buddha (not translated), is quite a sight. It is surrounded by thick forest in all the directions. The entrance was marked by a big 'head-only' statue of Lord Buddha. I don't have exact figures, but it must be around 20 ft tall. Between the entrance and the statue was a small pond with colored fished swimming freely. Few meters ahead, we saw a small pond with a good number of lazy turtles. We got to see a Sleeping Buddha temple. Though I don't have much knowledge about Buddhism, I felt a sense of calmness when I saw His face. It was definitely one of the best moments in Korea. There were also a few more temples in the vicinity. The view from the highest point of the monastery was very beautiful, a temple in the midst of a thick jungle. There is also a museum with Buddha statues and old books. One more thing I would like to share is the way Indians were treated there. People were very happy to see us there, as if someone from God's land has visited that place.

The return journey was less troubling than its counterpart. We met a nice couple who were generous enough to provide us a lift unto YongIn bus station. Luckily, we found a bus bound to Suwon blowing its horn. In the bus, we realized that we had last taken food during breakfast that morning. I had got some biscuits in my bag, which vanished as soon as it was noticed. We dropped down at Carrefour and took a cab to the guest house.