Touring around

Our last day in Korea...so we toured around. We went to this ancient village and learned about the people who lived there, their art, culture and history. It's amazing to be in a place with 2000 years of recorded history. We went to an active Buddhist monastery and finished the day with shopping...naturally.
The monastery and its grounds were so lush and beautiful.

This is the photo op of the grounds...our guide said we HAD to have our picture taken here, so we did.

Stack the rocks and make a wish - imagine a whole garden of stacked rocks. A lot of wishes...

The protective gods of the entry to the monastery. The one of the left controls the weather so don't make him mad.

The monastery roof needs retiling, so "buy" a tile and everyone writes a wish or desire for the future...this was our group's tile. It's heavier than it looks - maybe we all wanted too much.

Our photographer, Alan, found a fellow shutterbug. They took pictures of each other and then had to see each other's results.

Korea's version of "Sprite" - not much better than the Coke.
Our whole group touching the golden boar for luck and prosperity - not a bad end to the tour.

So, my review of South Korea? The people are warm, kind, intelligent and rightfully proud. The country is clean, modern and lovely. The history is interesting, the food (mostly) is yummy and the shopping is fun. I would recommend it.