jalan-jalan on a hot day

joined a trip to see the famous chinese new year lights at fo guang shan dong zen temple in jenjarom yesterday. brought mom along as both of us are curious to see the real thing after seeing it on papers and news.

had a detour to putrajaya to throw away a few hours before that...and gosh, those few hours should have been prolonged by making another detour to the not-so-far alamanda mall. we had too much time in precint 1 and much much more time at the temple.

let me share some photos of putrajaya.

we went on a cruise on the lake. rm17 per person for 30 mins. just have to find some place to dump the time. it was ok lah.

yeah, the nation is celebrating everything related to space now. the rukunegara is engraved on the body of the rocket.
this should be the space auditorium still under construction now.

this pink robe is what you need to put on if you are appropriately dressed. only if you want to have a look inside the mosque. someone was told that he could not enter because he is not a muslim. there is not such thing right? i think the guard there was just prejudiced and discriminating towards a juvenile chinese.
mom posing in front of the majestic administrative building. such a cloudless day that all pictures turned out bright and clear. but that means everyone had their sunglasses on.

we headed to jenjarom after lunch in the food court at putrajaya. should have suggested going to alamanda waaaaay earlier before they planned everything. the time was not even 3 when we reached the temple on this hot day.


replica of famous places which is related to buddha. there are 4 of them. i remember one is lumbini because i heard of it during the trip to nepal. i dunno what this is.
the prayer hall. fully air-conditioned and they conducted prayers here the whole day. some people took the opportunity to sit by the sides of the hall (inside) and took forty-winks.
they had a charity vegetarian banquet planned for the night. so a group of taiwanese teens were practising for their spectacular show when we came. they were here on a goodwill mission.

the exhibition hall. they had a book fair and dunhuang art exihibition...bringing you into cave-like rooms to see the 'paintings' on cave walls in dunhuang.




this lantern and the flowers are the major attractions here besides praying and learning about buddhism lah. as i am not a devotee, it was a killer to spend more than 5 hours (!!!!) on the temple ground! trust me, i am not the only one complaining but i was just putting up a serene appearance since we are in a holy place. and they really cut your throat here by raising the prices of all things in the name of charity donation.


see the bowls on the steps? they are for your to throw coins in. each bowl is labelled with wishes, for work, for family, for health, for wealth, and of course for fate. someone threw five coins and din even touched any. i threw one (only planned to do it once) aiming at oh-my-destiny and it got in...but jumped out again. so fated lah it was not mine.

wishing tree...rm5 for one piece please. everything also money here! leech!
the banquet started at six plus. only for those with tickets lah. the opening. all balloons were released simultaneously. then the performances of the taiwanese teens started. excellent! so much energy, and so syncronised. brilliant! one after another non-stop for 30 minutes. the painful legs refused to budge from the spot.


chinese top. dunno what u call them.

one of the 12 zodiac animals lanterns.

buddhism scripture writing hall. this place is really quiet, cool and tranquil. you are not allowed to make any noise. they have a piece of scripture on the table where you just have to follow the lines and write out the words you see on the paper using an pre-filled ink brush pen. since i had sooo much time to spare, i went in and spent 30 mins writing scripture! yes, many jaws dropped when it was known that i was inside doing that. and hey, although i could not understand what i was writing, my effort was not bad rite? and you were supposed to recite some prayers before and after writing. they wrote it on another piece of paper on the table with sounds romanized. but i could not make head and tails of it...so just simply rushed through the recitation. not sincere hor...but this was a cool refuge from the heat outside. haha.
my masterpiece.

no more pictures. will i go again? i dun think so. i think the lightings do not change much every year...and go there slightly early to avoid the jam...but not as early as what we did. 5pm is sufficient. do i come back holier? haha...funny. still not one.