Bank transfers and tea leaves?

One of the most convenient things about Korea that I have noticed is how easy it is to pay for things. Things you buy or sign up for online. On the weekend of November 29th when the US is still recovering from turkey coma, I'll be going on a temple stay at Beomeosa. Beomeosa is a Buddhist temple in Busan. A temple stay is pretty much everything it sounds like. On Saturday at noonish you arrive, change into your provided monk training clothes (I'm serious) and spend till Sunday afternoon living the ways of a Buddhist monk. You'll learn how to properly do the 108 bows, make some prayer beads, eat a vegan meal...all the good stuff. I'm really excited to see how this goes. It'll be a really interesting and unique experience.

The convenient thing about the temple stay is that to pay for it (50,000 won) all you have to do is go to any ATM. Beomeosa's website has its bank and account info listed and when I book the stay, all I do is punch the bank code and account number into an ATM and select how much money I want to transfer. Presto. Paid. Most Korean internet companies allow you to do this. Its so easy.

This saturday a few of us are going to a tea farm. I'm not sure what to expect with this one. From what other people have told me its a HUGE field of hedges. Thats got to look pretty cool at least. I hope we get some samples. Regardless, I'm definitely gonna buy some fresh from the source green tea. This is what I hope it looks like:



Even better news, my winter break plans are more or less finalized. We settled on an rough itinerary and it goes soemthing like this:

• Depart Korea to arrive in Bangkok, Thailand on January 21st. Chill in Bangkok and making our way down to Koh Phangan for the full moon rave on January 28th.
• Travel back up through Thailand, go through Cambodia (Angkor Wat is a major priority).
• Eventually make it to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam by February 17th for a flight to Hong Kong.
• Spend 4 and a half days in Hong Kong then fly back to Korea.

Sounds like a plan to me!