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| On Saturday afternoon, a group of us decided to take advantage of the blue sky, clean air, and warm weather to go on an adventure here in the 'jing- to BaDaChu, or Eight Great Temples. |
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| Newbies Keaw, Pete, and Elicia were taken in by all of the flags at the entrance. The park is getting ready for Golden Week. |
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| Lucca and Gary (and Zach) had to try their luck at throwing coins at the bell. Gary, are you a former baseball player?! Quarterback?! He nailed them all! |
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| Newbie Elena has an eye for photography... She loves the stone carvings... |
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| As do I...these were some fancy downspouts on the prayer tower! |
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| Pete was looking like Mr. GQ amidst the beautiful architecture and marble carvings :-) |
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| 2016 is the year of the monkey, and China, in all of it's weirdness, has planted scary life sized monkeys up in the trees. If next year is the year of the rat, they've already got that one covered, in LIVE form. UGH. |
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| Saju and I had a lovely conversation about his wife and children who are back in Thailand. He also introduced the group to some delicious Indian dishes later that evening when the group went to dinner at Ganges. |
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| Happiest girl(s) in China! |
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| The smell of incense was in the air- I like :) |
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| Some monks were just exiting the prayer tower. |
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| The tower is a beautiful structure. |
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| Elena and I walked three laps around in silence, as other worshippers chanted their prayers. |
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| I have started a documentary series on Amazon Prime video about World Religions, narrated by Sir Ben Kingsley. It is fascinating. Sadly, when I took Religions of the World at Anderson University many moons ago, I didn't have the interest, or appreciation as I do now. I encourage you to check it out this documentary series. It is eye-opening. |
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| I don't have to practice Buddhism to appreciate the peacefulness and beautiful setting at BaDaChu. |
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| Occasionally, I light incense, too. |
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| Seeing the golden elephants, I yearn to go back to Thailand. |
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| This lovely and I are doing up Siem Reap, Cambodia for Christmas! |
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| Zach's momma has a beautiful eye for photography, and this kid is getting introduced to so many new and interesting thoughts, ideas, architecture, history, and culture... I hope one day he appreciates getting exposed to a global view. |
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| It's not every day you get to see some monks, just chillin' (they do that well, btw) and having noodles for lunch :) |
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| It is a lovely setting... |
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| This is what remains in ruins from the original ancient prayer tower. So cool. |
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| After we explored several temples, we made our way over to the cable cars- let the fun begin! |
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| We had a gorgeous blue sky day for a ride up the Westerlies. |
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| Meet my new friends, Sophie and Noel :) |
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| The Chinglish cracks me up; every. single. time. |
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| The view from up top was spectacular! I live down there somewhere...in the mass of 23+ million peeps. After a walk through two more temples, and getting fortified on Magnum ice cream bars...we were ready for the luge! |
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| Can you hear me squealing?! Such a kid at <3. |
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| Best 100y spent in the 'jing...for all of $15.00 you get a loooonnnngggg cable car ride up, and an even lonnnnngggeerrrrr luge ride down on the 'sliding car' as they call it. |
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| Wait! What did that sign say as I went whizzing by?! |
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| I captured some of the newbies as they came in for a landing...Sophie and Noel.... |
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| Elena, Keaw, and then Pete... |
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| Ms. Keaw and her hubby Pete.... |
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| Elicia, then I think Ellen and LeeAnne! |
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| It took some doin' getting all of our crew in to cabs and over to the Wudaokou area and Ganges Indian Restaurant for a later dinner, but by Ellen and LeeAnne's expressions, it was totally worth it! |
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| A good time was had by all! |
G'nite, y'all!
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