Athens, Georgia

As the nighttime thrum of crickets rises and falls on Ganghwa, an island in the Yellow Sea 25 miles west of Seoul, I'm summoned by a wooden percussion instrument to peel myself up from my padded mat and prepare for the morning's chants. I clumsily suit up in the cotton "dharma clothes" that have been provided (rough cotton pants, T-shirt, and smock) and wonder if a monk brushes his teeth before chanting. I decide he does. I also decide that 3:40 a.m. is far too early to wake up when one is on vacation. In an effort to learn about an important part of Korean culture, I've signed up to be a monk for a day at Lotus Lantern, a monastery that's home to international monks of Jogye, the main order of Korean Buddhism. An influx of visitors for the 2002 World Cup prompted the South Korean government to ask temples to open their doors--and they've stayed open, thanks to popular demand. Currently, 43 temples welcome overnighters, and five offer translation services in English (templestay.com describes each one). There's a participating temple in Seoul, but Lotus Lantern is the closest one in the countryside; it's an hour's trip from the Seoul subway, which includes a $4 bus and a $5 taxi ride to the grounds. Although the programs differ slightly from temple to temple, most last 24 hours, start in the afternoon, and are designed to introduce visitors to the basic tenets of Buddhism. Following the morning wake-up call, we drag ourselves into the Buddha hall, filled with hundreds of paper lanterns lit by electric bulbs. I kneel with a handful of fellow travelers behind three monks leading a ceremony called yebool, in which they chant a rhythmic chain of devotional sutras, broken by repeated bows. Guests are given a phonetic transcript to join in, but I choose just to listen to the monks as they cycle through a mantra 108 times; it takes about 20 minutes, and I pass the time by awkwardly mimicking their bows. The monks fold their mats and turn off the lights. We return outside to the darkness, underneath a blanket of stars. It's a little past 4 a.m. Perhaps sensing my grogginess, Ok Kyung Chang, the Lotus Lantern's director of temple stays, reminds me why we're up at such an unfortunate hour. "The mind is at its clearest, its most focused," she says. And thus, it's a perfect time for juaseon, or sitting meditation, the next activity. In another hall, we're instructed to sit in the lotus position, facing open windows that look out at the forest. Time passes in silence. I can't claim enlightenment--a determined mosquito blocks my path--but nevertheless I feel at peace. Outside, the dawn sky has brightened over the rice paddies. Then we eat. The three-meal temple diet consists mainly of organic vegetables grown on-site and prepared simply, with soy sauce, sesame oil, and seaweed, and served with kimchi and rice porridge. The quarters are about as austere as the food. Rooms are outfitted with traditional Korean bedding: a yo, a padded mat, and a begae, a firm, husk-filled pillow. In the early afternoon, we're guided through a traditional Korean tea ceremony called da-do; monks believe tea sharpens the mind for meditation. We learn the method of preparing Korean green tea at the correct temperature--slightly warm--and are taught the etiquette of serving and drinking. Each cup is taken in three sips--one each to observe color, fragrance, and taste. And since work is an important part of the monk's day, after having our tea we'll be asked to pitch in with garden chores (today's duty: picking red peppers). Between ceremonies, we can walk around the mountains or meditate in one of the halls. I use the time to talk with the monks and my fellow visitors. While some travelers may find a stay understimulating, Karla Vogelpohl, visiting from Germany with her husband, relished the real-life encounter. "A friend in Korea knew of our interest in Buddhism and suggested we come," she says. "We feel integrated here, like we're not seen as strangers." 011-82/10-8739-3858, lotuslantern.net, $38.

Nov. 1: The Dresden Frauenkirche Destroyed by the British Royal Air Force in World War II, Dresden's historic chapel has finally been rebuilt. (Britain donated the golden cross atop the dome.) Consecration services begin on Sunday, Oct. 30, but the celebrations climax on Tuesday with an All Saints' Day mass at 10 a.m. and unescorted tours from noon to 5:30 p.m. Frauenkirche-dresden.de, free. Nov. 1: Melbourne Cup The annual horse race, held at Melbourne's Flemington Racecourse, is so important to Aussies that teachers have been known to wheel TVs into their classrooms so students can watch. In fact, the day is a holiday in the state of Victoria. The main event begins at 3 p.m., but arrive before noon for Fashions on the Field--a beauty pageant that's nearly as popular as the race itself. Melbournecup.com, $50. Nov. 6: Athens Classic Marathon It's not just any marathon--it's the original marathon. In 490 b.c., a messenger ran the 24 miles from the village of Marathon to Athens, spreading the news of the Greek victory over the Persians. He certainly couldn't have imagined that 2,500 years later, more than 3,500 runners would follow in his footsteps (plus an additional 2.2 miles). 011-30-210/935-1888, athensclassicmarathon.gr, free. Nov. 8-15: Pushkar Camel Fair Every November, the town of Pushkar, India, attracts more than 200,000 people (and over 50,000 camels) for a week of livestock trading, camel races, and festivities, including Rajasthani folk dancing. If you want to see camel trading at its peak, you should arrive a few days early. Rajasthantourism.gov.in, free. Nov. 11--13 Los Angeles International Tamale Festival Carlos "The Tamale Man" Melgoza will try to break the record for the world's longest tamale--the current record is 40 feet, 10 1/2 inches--during the inaugural tamale festival in Los Angeles. Purchase spices and cornhusks in the festival marketplace and experts will teach you how to make your own. 323/223-7469, eastlosangeles.net/tamalefestival, free. Nov. 13: Andy Warhol/Supernova: Stars, Deaths, and Disasters A major exhibition of Warhol's photo-silkscreen paintings--including iconic images of Marilyn, Liz, and Jackie--makes its first stop at the recently expanded Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (through Feb. 26). Also on display will be his "car crashes": news pics of accidents, manipulated on canvas. Next up: Chicago, March 18-June 18; Toronto, July 8-Oct. 1. 612/375-7600, walkerart.org, $8 (free Thursdays 5-9 p.m. and the first Saturday of every month). Nov. 18-19: 36 Hours of Keystone To kick off the ski season, Keystone, Colo., opens its slopes for 36 straight hours, from 8 a.m. Friday to 8 p.m. Saturday. For $36 per person per night, you can stay in a two-room suite at the River Run Village (based upon four-person occupancy) or a double room at the Keystone Inn. 800/468-5004, keystone.snow.com, 36-hour lift ticket $55. --David LaHuta

The backpacker set is nesting in large numbers on the southern coast of Turkey. Amid beautiful beaches and ancient Lycian ruins, the port town of Olympos has several tree-house hostels that find hard-partying travelers lurching up ladders to get to bed. "It's a little bit Robinson Crusoe, a little bit Gilligan's Island," explains 21-year-old Australian Zoe McDonald. The rickety pine affairs, with crooked walls and asymmetrical stairs, cost under $20 a night, including breakfast and dinner. Even in the height of summer there's usually plenty of room for impromptu arrivals. Anyone with designs on a particular hostel, however, should reserve in advance online. Kadir's is the most social, with a raucous nightly bonfire at an open-air bar. Forty shacks, some sleeping as many as 10 guests, are built around trees, and can be up to 40 feet off the ground. (Kadir's also has on-ground cabins and bungalows with bathrooms.) Staff and former visitors have given the tree houses names, such as the Betty Ford Center. With space for 450, Turkmen Tree Houses takes Kadir's overflow. It uses the term "tree house" liberally: The buildings are aboveground next to tall pines or on large trunks--they don't wrap around them. Each sleeps two to six in actual beds, not just on mattresses on the floor. Saban Pension has 12 tree houses with room for only 100--which means a shorter buffet line, if nothing else. It's by far the most mellow: Most guests spend their days playing cards under lean-tos or on the nearby beach. The 25 tree houses at Bayram's, which tower over orange groves, look like log cabins on stilts. A resident DJ spins Turkish rock while guests take the on-site Blotto Bar's name very literally. --Rich Beattie   Kadir's Tree Houses 011-90/242-892-1250, kadirstreehouses.com, from $11   Turkmen Tree Houses 011-90/242-892-1249, olymposturkmentreehouses.com, from $16   Saban Pension 011-90/242-892-1265, sabanpansion.com, from $15   Bayram's 011-90/242-892-1243, bayrams.com, from $15

Love foreign supermarkets as much as we do? Now you can prove it. Send your supermarket souvenir photo and caption to Letters@BudgetTravel.com with the subject line "Supermarket Souvenir," and we'll consider your photo for our slide show. Each spring, Cambodian farmers hold their breath as trays of food are set before a pair of oxen. The specific dishes the beasts choose to eat predict the bounty of the next harvest. The maker of this jerky has given the bovine an even greater ability—the power to fly. —Naomi Lindt In Mexico, cleaning your clothes is a sultry affair thanks to Tango soap ($2). A dancer seduces you with her bare shoulders (is her bra in the dryer?), while the product promises to "express passion." Added bonus: clean undies. —Andrea Sachs In Italy, cool design pops up just about everywhere, even on packages of $1 snack food. Each bag of Virtual chips features a lone corn chip, lit as if it were on display in the Uffizi Gallery. At a mere 154 calories per bag, it also leaves you feeling virtually no guilt. —Sean O'Neill There really is something in the bottled water sold in the tiny Middle Eastern nation of Bahrain. Not only is Al Kamel's cardamom water ($1) used as a flavoring for milk and coffee, but its label claims that if you drink the water three times a day it will function as a "digestive inducer, sexual stimulator, tranquilizer, and tonic for the heart." —Summar Ghias In Colombia, the health benefits of soy can't be oversold. Not only do packets of Leche de Soya, a powdered soy milk ($2), sport a spokesman who looks a bit like Richard Simmons, but the instructions include illustrations of sports that are ideal for soy-milk drinkers—bodybuilding, rollerblading, desk jockeying.... —Liz Ozaist These Gluco-Max tea biscuits look like they should be from Japan, but they're actually from Uganda. Munch on enough of them and you might end up sumo-size, too. (18¢) --Laura MacNeil Here's one way to stand out in a market flooded with bottled water: Replace the streams and mountains usually found on labels with a snarky sense of humor. Another Bloody Water is about $1.75 in Australian groceries. --Celeste Moure Swing Ernie is a curvaceous, heart-stamped sponge that seems to be romantically involved with a hedgehog. In commercials, the two dance and roll around on a countertop to Paul Anka's "Put Your Head On My Shoulder." Why use sex to sell a sponge? "It's very French," laughs Spontex's marketing manager. Sold for $4 or so across France. --Ellise Pierce Bottled in St. Kitts, the honey-based (and nonalcoholic) Giant Malt is sold at island supermarkets for around a dollar. But what's with the buff bod on the label? "Giant Malt makes you strong," claims Mark Wilkin, Carib Brewery's managing director. --Amy Chen This makes twist-off caps look traditional: Iron Wine sells malbec cabernet and chenin blanc in aluminum cans. The 12-ounce cans ("When a bottle is too much but a glass is too little!" says ironwine.com) are available at upscale shops and bars in Argentina for $2 to $6. --Celeste Moure There's nothing minor about a candy bar that combines the rich cocoa goodness of Swiss chocolate with chopped, roasted hazelnuts. It comes in various shapes and sizes--including this 46-gram bar made solely for rest stops and kiosks ($1.20). Yes, in Switzerland, even the snacks sold at gas stations are fancy. --Mike Iveson In Greece, people tend to eat dinner at 10 p.m. or later, which explains the large number of light mezes (small plates) on most taverna menus. Thessaloníki-based Zanae has been canning traditional appetizers--such as grape leaves stuffed with rice, and giant butter beans or meatballs in tomato sauce--for nearly 70 years ($2). --Laurie Kuntz Guidebooks say that in Portugal, food without wine is a snack, not a meal. But carrying a bottle for lunch isn't always practical. The solution: a single-serving box of white or red wine from the Estremadura region in western Portugal, available for 80 cents each. --Tom Berger When the competition sports names like Rockstar and Monster, why link your energy drink with unwanted e-mail and a potted-meat product? Because that's living on the edge. Spam Energy Drink, $1, throughout Belgium, Finland, and the Netherlands. --Mike Iveson Caviar for breakfast? It sounds like something out of a Jackie Collins novel, but there it was at the hotel buffet in Stockholm: creamed cod roe cut with potato flakes and tomato paste. Toothpaste-size tubes are sold at supermarkets for $1.40. Evidently, it's a popular after-school snack (on bread) in Sweden. Somehow we don't think Skippy has much to worry about. --Erik Torkells In Myanmar, née Burma, people love tea so much they eat it--pickled, no less. Ah Yee Taung (which means "big aunt basket") steams and ferments green tea leaves, then pairs them with roasted sesame seeds and fried beans. "Pungent" is the kindest way to describe the concoction, which can be bought throughout the country ($5). --Laura MacNeil It's only a .78-ounce bag of crispy puffed kernels, but if the peppy hiker on the package is any indication, Quinua Pop is all the fuel you'll need to trek across the Andes. Called the mother grain by the Inca, quinoa is heavy on protein, iron and vitamin B. Four-packs of the breakfast cereal are sold for 75 cents at Metro and other grocery stores in Peru. --Laura MacNeil Despite the packaging, Leverpostei is actually not a puree of a small blond boy. Rather, it's a Norwegian pork liver pate best paired with salty crackers. It's sold in seven-ounce tins--some are decorated with girls, but contain the same tasty contents--for $1.70. --Litty Mathew With these animal crackers, there's no question who sits atop the food chain: kids. Wildlife Cookie Company makes foxes, bears, and mountain lions (available at Yosemite and other national parks, $1.75), while Oahu-based Diamond Bakery opts for bite-sized Hawaiian sea creatures such as humpback whales, octopi, and dolphins ($1). --Brad Tuttle Made with Scotch bonnet peppers, a Caribbean favorite, Hell Sauce, is named for the Cayman town of Hell. (According to the label, nearby rocks resemble "the smouldering remains of a Hell Fire.") The sauce is a kick, even if Hell is a tourist trap, just as one always suspected. It costs $4 for a five-ounce bottle at Foster's Food Fair on Grand Cayman Island. New Zealand has four million residents, and about as many dairy cows. So it's small wonder that milk shows up everywhere, including the candy aisle. Heards Milk Chews ($2 for a seven-ounce bag at Foodtowns across the country) taste like milkshake-flavored Tootsie Rolls. Sweet. --Paul Brady Slow-cooked, marinated quail eggs are considered fertility boosters in Taiwan, where they're sold as pang ti neng (in Taiwanese) or xiang tie dan (in Mandarin). Both translate as fragrant iron eggs--not that you can smell a thing through the serious vacuum packing. (Come to think of it, that's just fine.) They cost $6.50 at supermarkets and convenience stores. --Christine Y. Chen Kranky and Crunky aren't just descriptions of hip-hop star Lil Jon after a long night. In Mexico, Kranky is a brand of chocolate-covered cornflakes; and in Japan, Crunky is a Nestle Crunch-like bar. Each brings attitude adjustment for under $1. A mix of Indian spices and German sausage, Curry-Wurst is popular with munich clubgoers looking to line--and test?--their stomachs. A sliced pork sausage is doused in tomato sauce; toothpicks and a curry packet are tucked underneath. Plke holes in the lid, microwave, and sprinkle on the spice. It's sold refrigerated in grocery stores, including the MiniMal chain ($1.80).--Marilyn Holstein With Toreras (female bullfighters), cocktail onion company Kimbo combines two Spanish signatures--bullfighting and tapas--in one neat tin. On the inside, toothpicks skewer stacks of olives, pearl onions, and hot peppers. On the outside, saucy chicas in matador pants play coyly with spears. Olé! Available across Spain at El Corte Inglés Carrefour, and Eroski supermarkets. 1.50 (about $2). --Lisa Abend