among the silent temples

Tongdosa is the big, famous temple in Yangsan.

Peter and I walked there from Fantasia, on a path that took us along a creek surrounded by big, still pine trees. Someone was painting them.


These fellows were not amused.


There are rafter dragons.


And plants growing from the roof


At six, everyone gathered in one part of the temple complex


to watch this monk ring the giant bell.


Outside the walls, there was a skinny bridge


over a stream.

stop at the top of a Ferris wheel

There's an amusement park in Yangsan called Fantasia. Pete and I visited.



There was a FOUR-D dinosaur movie. The fourth dimension was lightning, as expressed by a strobe light.


Pete models his glasses:


The rollercoaster at Fantasia is way better than the one at ME World in Busan. It has two loop-de-loops and a corkscrew.




This track goes around much of the park, and there are pedal-powered cars that you can ride around it.

Here, Pete and I are about to start our journey. It is only beginning to dawn on us how uncomfortable the seats are.


Like the one at Me World, this roller coaster never stops. It's so big that it just goes very slowly and you have to get on and off quickly at the bottom.


Peter and Pan!


And this ride was pretty cool. The lever controls the height of your car, and the wheel the direction. You have to make the "pew pew pew" noises yourself.

Cave of Wonders

The Yangsan Dinosaur Cave museum is... a... science? museum in Yangsan. Pete and I ventured there one Saturday.

Dinosaurs greeted us:


Caves are cool. Dinosaurs are cool. This cave was used during the Korean war for something and looks like it was part of the Dharma Initiative.



Inside there were some fossils of things. There were also some minerals, which can still fit with the "Cave" aspect of the museum's name, if not the "Dinosaur" part.


As we walked further into the cave though, the exhibits stopped making sense. There was a room full of interactive paintings like the ones I posted about here. There were some things in jars.


There was a dead chinese man, pickled and divided into one-inch slices in a questionable knockoff of "Body Worlds."

There were three Santa Clause mannequins, one with a saxophone. There was a 3-D Dinosaur movie!

Yeah, that's a pirate back there with the dinosaurs.


Outside, there were pathetic, angry monkeys in cages. And raccoons. And this:


It's a tunnel that rotates around a catwalk. The inside of the tunnel is splattered with blacklight paint, and as it rotates, you feel like you're falling sideways. It's an amazing illusion and probably the most interesting thing at the Yangsan Dinosaur Cave Museum.

trees

I'm trying to blog, but I don't take very many pictures! This is Yangsan, where I went for a walk one afternoon.


There was a warning not to swim in the foot-deep fountain water because you might drown.