pagoda me ...
so how’s about a real update? (now that i’ve had some fun!)
saturday was great!! i hired a driver for the day and he took me to all of the major sites on the island.
first were two buddhist temples –one burmese, the other thai. the first was very peaceful and a wonderful start to my day ... beautiful statues everywhere, the sound of monks chanting in the background, and an interesting series of paintings depicting the life of “the” buddha.
the second was kitch ... a huge buddha laying on his side (“the third-largest reclining buddha in the world”, no less!), and places to give monetary ‘offerings’ in return for financial prosperity and sucess ... not what buddhism is about, imho.
after a brief drive around some other sites (an old british fort ... “yeah, we have a few of those too”), we stopped at Snake Temple. now this was interesting: a buddhist temple full of venemous snakes who are kept docile by incense. a bit of a tourist trap, but i got some great pics and a video of five snakes crawling over my body as i laughed nervously ...
the next stop was cool; a kind of zoo where i got to feed 160-year-old giant turtles. i also found a friend in a white parrot that liked to say ‘hello’ and dance for me ... in return for some neck rubs, that is! so cute!!
next was Kek Lok See. now, all week long my class had asked me when i was going to “Kellogg Sea”? ... “Galaxy”?? ... “Quay Looksie”??? ... i just smiled and said “maybe this weekend?” hehe. but it was beautiful! a huge buddhist monastery built on the side of hill, featuring a 120-foot-tall buddha (i prefer my buddha standing, thankyouverymuch!) a large pagoda, and many other beautiful structures.
next we drove to the north of the island. on the way, my driver stopped at the side of the road and as we got out of the car dozens of wild monkeys started walking towards us!! “they know me”, he said as he took out two large bags of peanuts so we could feed them! amazing!! they came right up to us and took the peanuts from our hands, staring into our eyes the entire time to judge our intentions. a few of them had baby monkeys clinging to their undersides aswell ... adorable!!!
a little further on we stopped again at the side of the road. more monkeys! 8(D) these guys were much more wary of humans (the first group lived near the botanical gardens and so were used to the attention.) they prefered bread to peanuts (i have no idea how my driver knew this) so we threw bread-ends to them like frisbees and they showed acrobatics in catching them ...
saturday was great!! i hired a driver for the day and he took me to all of the major sites on the island.
first were two buddhist temples –one burmese, the other thai. the first was very peaceful and a wonderful start to my day ... beautiful statues everywhere, the sound of monks chanting in the background, and an interesting series of paintings depicting the life of “the” buddha.
the second was kitch ... a huge buddha laying on his side (“the third-largest reclining buddha in the world”, no less!), and places to give monetary ‘offerings’ in return for financial prosperity and sucess ... not what buddhism is about, imho.
after a brief drive around some other sites (an old british fort ... “yeah, we have a few of those too”), we stopped at Snake Temple. now this was interesting: a buddhist temple full of venemous snakes who are kept docile by incense. a bit of a tourist trap, but i got some great pics and a video of five snakes crawling over my body as i laughed nervously ...
the next stop was cool; a kind of zoo where i got to feed 160-year-old giant turtles. i also found a friend in a white parrot that liked to say ‘hello’ and dance for me ... in return for some neck rubs, that is! so cute!!
next was Kek Lok See. now, all week long my class had asked me when i was going to “Kellogg Sea”? ... “Galaxy”?? ... “Quay Looksie”??? ... i just smiled and said “maybe this weekend?” hehe. but it was beautiful! a huge buddhist monastery built on the side of hill, featuring a 120-foot-tall buddha (i prefer my buddha standing, thankyouverymuch!) a large pagoda, and many other beautiful structures.
next we drove to the north of the island. on the way, my driver stopped at the side of the road and as we got out of the car dozens of wild monkeys started walking towards us!! “they know me”, he said as he took out two large bags of peanuts so we could feed them! amazing!! they came right up to us and took the peanuts from our hands, staring into our eyes the entire time to judge our intentions. a few of them had baby monkeys clinging to their undersides aswell ... adorable!!!
a little further on we stopped again at the side of the road. more monkeys! 8(D) these guys were much more wary of humans (the first group lived near the botanical gardens and so were used to the attention.) they prefered bread to peanuts (i have no idea how my driver knew this) so we threw bread-ends to them like frisbees and they showed acrobatics in catching them ...
(to be continued ...)
posited by hereis nowhy at 10:05
2 Comments:
It looks like an amazing place.. I would love to go some day..
Cool! Sounds fun. You should see what happens when you rub MY neck...
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