Charlie, Elena and I went to the zoo and botanical gardens, which are a 5-minute walk from our house, while Tony went to church (he is a priest). You can actually see the zoo in yesterday's photos from the balcony; it's the green tree area toward the bottom of the picture. We didn't see the whole zoo and I didn't take many pictures either, mostly because the chain link fences kind of impede photo quality. We saw some giant tortoises fighting and these orange flamingos. I don't know why they're orange, but according to what I know about flamingos, it probably has to do with their diet. Maybe they eat persimmons too.
While at the zoo, I came to the conclusion that being a buff-cheeked gibbon is fun, even if you live in a cage. Just click on the video image - you may have to do it more than once:
Here's the shot of the International Finance Centre (featured in The Dark Knight) that I promised. It is also referred to as God's Nose Hair Trimmer. If you look at the top of it you can see why.
In the park there was this foot massage path station - basically rounded rocks sticking out of the concrete that you are supposed to walk on for therapeutic purposes. Charlie found it therapeutic, but I just thought it hurt.
After the zoo we met up with Tony and caught the metro to Kowloon to visit the Chi Lin Nunnery and Nan Lian. Here's a link to a map so that you can get an idea of where I'm talking about.
View Larger Map
This was a great outing. I'm mostly just going to bombard you with lovely images from here on out. The Chi Lin Buddhist Nunnery was completed in 1998 and was constructed using technology from the Tang Dynasty (AD 618 – AD 907). There were NO NAILS used in the construction of this complex. Wow!
The serenity of the nunnery courtyard is juxtaposed by the high-rises of the Diamond Hill district of northern Kowloon.
The complex was filled with beautiful penzai (known as "bonsai" everywhere else) such as this one. Turns out this was actually originally a Chinese art.
The Hall of Celestial Kings:
Roof design details:
Lotus pond and white marble "Sutra Pillar":
Through the Hall of Celestial Kings you enter into another courtyard in front of the Main Hall. I love the big lamp in the middle.
A couple other views from around the courtyard:
All around the courtyards inside the halls were beautiful altars with statues of deities, offerings of food and incense burning. Unfortunately, photography was prohibited in these areas, so you'll have to settle for a picture of a picture out of a book we bought at the temple. This one in the Main Hall was the largest and most impressive of them.
The atmosphere of the temple grounds was extremely peaceful. There was a recording of chants being sung that could be heard everywhere. Charlie and I got a little too excited and purchased almost $100 USD worth of incense and accessories. It hurt a little, but what the hell, someone has to pay to maintain this place and I think it's worth it.
Across the street from the temple (or perhaps as an extension of it?) was Nan Lian garden. Tony informed us that the four elements of Chinese gardens are water, plants, rocks and man-made structures. Here are examples of each.
Water:
Plants:
Rocks:
Structures:
The garden also contained a vegetarian restaurant where we had a 4-course lunch that included sweet and sour something (maybe tofu?), some mixed vegetable dish with cauliflower and mushrooms, a vegetable soup with sweet potatoes and carrots, some lotus leaf-wrapped rice/vegetable thing (sorry, I don't remember the names of any of these) and my personal favorite was the gluten with vanilla sauce. When I say gluten, I mean a meat-substitute type hunk of it that has a texture similar to chicken. Way yummy. They wouldn't allow photography here either, but here's the outside of the restaurant. It is UNDER the waterfall.
I was particularly amused by their bathroom sign.
We left the garden around 4:00 and headed back home to get ready to go hear Tony's sermon at St. John's Cathedral. After church we went to a Szechuan restaurant across the street. I didn't take my camera, but borrowed some pictures from elsewhere on the internet to show you what we ate. As many of you know, I am a vegetarian, but I have been trying to keep an open mind about it here so that I have the opportunity to try new things. I have my limits, however.
When we were seated there were little bowls of finger foods on the table. One contained chicken feet, the mere sight of which made me ill, so I crossed that off my list of adventurous things to try right away. Glancing through the menu I noticed a few other things that I knew I would not be able to insert into my mouth: Ox tripe, fish heads, and pig bone. I just decided to put the menu down and let Tony order for us. Two of the dishes we had arrived covered in chili peppers. You're not supposed to eat all the peppers, however, unless you want to burn a hole in your stomach. One was a fish soup and the other was a shrimp/cashew dish. These photos show more or less what they looked like.
They were definitely spicy, but this style of cooking cleverly employs Szechuan peppercorns, a small red-brown peppercorn that has a slightly medicinal flavor (like eucalyptus) and has a numbing effect. Without them, most people probably wouldn't be able to endure the heat of these dishes.
This photo of my leftovers (breakfast!) shows a couple of the other things we enjoyed. Right: what the fish soup looked like under all the chili peppers. The big green thing in the middle of the bowl is a noodle made of taro. The last photo shows a close-up of the fried pig's blood that was also in the dish and which I also refrained from sampling; Top: a variety of spinach that was, as far as I could tell, boiled in some kind of light broth; Left: Silken tofu with a soupy pork/soy bean broth mixture. The name of this dish had something to do with brains, but didn't actually contain any.
Yum and goodnight.
No comments:
Post a Comment
If you comment using the "Anonymous" option, please leave your name so I know who you are!