Day 15: The Climb to Cheng Tian

Slept too late last night. See lah... talk to girls until forget to sleep... Woke up this morning and I had difficulties opening my right eye. But I had a lunch appointment with another girl! So I still went for it with half my eyes closed. Its just Christina.. no more new girls... lolz


After lunch, I began my journey to 承天寺 (Cheng Tian Temple). This is the temple of Master Guang Qin - one of the enlightened buddhist masters of the 20th century. Took the train to 永寧 station (NT$40), the last station of Banqiao Line. Little did I know... that was just the beginning... From the station, it was a 15 min walk to the mountain gate. Then from there, a 45 min hike up the mountain before finally arriving at Cheng Tian Monastery. It was a nice hike thou.


Entering the 2nd gate at the top of the mountain into the monastery felt as if I had entered a different world. The scenery was beautiful.


And it so happened the they were holding a 7 day Chan session! So with permission, I managed to enter the inner hall. I entered with the sun still up high in the sky. By the time we finished the meditation, the sun was already setting. Time flies... I caught the last rays of daylight and made my way down the mountain. The wind has become extremely cold. Freezing....


壇外日成夜, 壇內反無變 Outside, day turns to night. The inside has no change.
表外翻如海, 心內如如在 The exterior churns like the sea. The heart thus thus is.
~jozhade


Went back to civilization just in time to meet Richard Tsai and the rest. We went to Shilin. There were hella people there. So we decided to go sing Karaoke instead. And they have buffet in the Karaoke place! Crazy... but most of it is meat =.=. Went to stay and the other Richard's house later and had 麻辣臭豆腐 for supper. It was really 麻辣！So spicy that my tongue went numb immediately. But the weird thing was that you don't sweat that much from this kind of spice. Interesting... FInally went to bed at 4am. Another long long day...

Day 14 - Taipei

Took the bullet train back to Taipei today (NT$185). Managed to catch the off peak ticket and it was only 20 minutes from Hsin Ju to Taipei instead of the normal 1 hour 40 min train ride. The taipei train station schedule board is crazy. I wonder how anyone ever knows what train to take... Checked into the Taipei Hostel. Small place, but pretty cozy. The people there are really fun. Students from all over the world - Japan, Malaysia, Canada, Hong Kong, Sweden, Germany... all doing the same thing like me - seeing the world, traveling about with no fixed plans in mind. Pretty cool. And the ang mohs all know abit of chinese. So it was quite cool conversing to everyone in chinese.


Tried meeting up with Christina but unfortunately she was busy, so I wondered about taipei myself. Walked quite alot today. Hopefully its enough to burn all the weight I've gained over the past few days. Went to the SIA building to extend my ticket, went to the Taipower building, went to Xi Men Ding, walked all the way back to the hostel and basically explored the area around. So on tuesday I 泡泡泡，today I walk walk walk.

Went back to the hostel at about 11pm and just chilled with everyone else. And the malaysia group bully me sia... coz when they tok english i understand, then they talk mandarin I also understand, then the use hokkien i also understand then cantonese, I also understand... then finally they came out with the ultimatum - all malay... I tatau (don't understand)... Lolz, but they were all very fun people! They're actually a group of teachers traveling together to relieve stress from all the si gina (evil kids)... lolz. So I told them then I am gonna go try apply to be a teacher as well! And they all said i'll fit in more as student... =.=....

Everyone is very fun to hang out with thou. And as the night went on, people started retiring to their rooms one by one. I stayed on and chatted with Jia Luan till about 3am. Too bad they're flying off tml le. But this time i got get msn! She's a thai-chinese. Not bad hor... Come taiwan get to know taiwan girls, malaysia girls, thai-chinese girls... lolz... ehem... must set things right... my intention was to see temples one k... the girls... are a bonus. =P

Day 13 - Big Bro

Went wandering about 竹北 this morning, then went to Hsin Ju in the afternoon to walk about. Hsin Ju center is place where all the students in hsin ju hang out after school. Circled the area for almost 4 hours before finally meeting up with Grover and Richard Tsai! Our 大哥！Been years since we met! Had dinner together and 大哥 treated me to milk tea! Lolz... so Kim Vinh, if you're reading this, Richard says the milk tea deal is still on! Running off to taipei on my own tomorrow. Gotta pack!

Day 12 - 泡泡泡

Couldn't really sleep so i woke up early and planned my trip for the day. At 0630am, went down for breakfast and guess what, there was a vegetarian buffet spread for me and me only! Lolz. I feel like a king. Muahahaz. And what's even better is that the cute waitress who served me last night, was the one serving me this morning as well! So I took a picture with her and immediately the Ah Sao who was sweeping the floor said "哇！來到那麼遠為的是來泡妹妹喔！“ (Come so far just to "pao" meimei) Make me so paisei sia...

Unfortunately the taxi came too fast. I forgot to take down her msn! Argh... sad sad sad... I sat the taxi back to 埔里 and from there took 客運 to 廬山 (NT$99). A 1.5 hour journey. And can you believe that that's the bus station? I'd never have recognize it had the taxi driver not told me. It looks just like some other street stall =.=...


So morning I 泡妹妹，afternoon I went to 泡溫泉. So today's theme is 泡泡泡！Lolz. 廬山 is one of the main areas in Taiwan known for Hot Springs. However when I got there, the place was extremely run down and dusty. I later found out that the last typhoon that hit the area basically left devastating effects. Nevertheless, not wanting to waste my 1.5 hour journey, I still found an alright place to try out the hot spring. The public pool was NT$200, and the private pool - NT$500. I decided to go private. Lolz.


Tried looking for lunch later and guess what they offered? The menu writes - flying squirrel's meat, wild boar's meat, wild rabbit's meat... erm... not very appetizing to me... So I ended up having mochi for lunch. Took the 客運 back to 埔里(NT$99), and then another one from 埔里 to 台中(NT$150). Finally from there, took the train back to 新竹 (NT$198). A total of 3.5 hours of traveling. Hungry and tired...

Day 11 - Chung Tai Monastery

So I ran away. Lolz. Took the morning 自強 train from 新竹 to 台中 (NT$198). From there, I took the 客運 bus no. 999 to 埔里 (NT$150). Then from 埔里，took the taxi to 中台禪寺 (NT$200). A total of 3 hours spend on transportation, and a whole lot of money too. But it was worth visiting at least once. Chung Tai Monastery is huge! And I was lucky enough to attach myself to a group of high ranking guests from China, and thus got the opportunity to visit the inner chambers. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed in those areas. One of them stored the entire Tripitika set carved on woodblock under the directions on Emperor Qian Long. Pretty crazy.


There were giant statues of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Dharma Protectors every where. Check out that statue of one of the 4 heavenly kings! Its about 12 meters tall! And the statue of Weitou (center). In the old days, if the Weitou Bodhisattva statues hold the vajra sword horizontal, it means that you can stay in the temple. Those that hold it to the ground means there is no temple lodging.


There were lots of stairs to climb... And lots of Arhat statues as well. I got to go all the way up to the 38th level. The wall of the top few levels is all made of glass and the glass is made to be able to withstand extreme winds during typhoon season, and earthquakes up to 7.8 on the scale.

The architecture of Chung Tai Monastery is indeed impressive. But despite all its grandeur, there is something that I feel is missing from the piece. Cttb on the other hand is no where comparable in such decor, but it has that missing something, the something that makes me always want to go back... the feeling of family. I miss cttb...


After the tour, one of the nuns helped me to reserve a place at the nearby hotel. It cost NT$1680!!! Freaking expensive. And not only is there nothing else to do around there, there was also no one else in the hotel but me! So i guess NT$1680 to book an entire hotel is not that bad. Lolz. Had dinner alone as well and because there was almost no one else, I kind of had my personal waitress. Not bad not bad. The only thing is that... I was given a room on the 5th floor, and knowing that there is no living soul other than me on the entire level, and in fact, the entire hotel except the reception counter on the first floor does make it kind of scary....

Day 10 - Whole day of nothing...

Was supposed to meet Rich Tsai today, but unfortunately, he caught a cold and has to stay in bed. And my son's sick too! Why's everyone falling sick? Sigh... so our plans were all cancelled and I ended up going to Grover's school to watch him work on his props for their Graduation skit. Ended up inhaling lots of paint fumes... And so the entire weekend disappeared... =.=... Tml... I'm going to run away. 遠走高飛！

Went to the 新竹 night market at night. Nothing much. Later we just hang out at some cafe till almost 3am! Becoz Grover and his friend drank alcohol, so I had to drive instead just in case we were pulled over or something. Yesh! Muahahz... Till date, I have driven in 4 countries - Singapore, USA, Australia and Taiwan! Fortunately there were little cars. Taiwan traffic in the day is crazie...

Day 9 - Cttb's food

1st day that I got to sleep in. Time to catch up on all the past week's lack of sleep! Went to Grover's home for lunch. Sat on his motorcycle - the way majority of Taiwanese travel. And check out that helmet! Its not even a proper helmet. More like a bicycle helmet, and that was what I wore on the highway. Scary... Food was good thou! Grover's mom used to cook in Cttb and so I got to have the good ole cttb food again! 家常便飯還是最好的！


Had dinner with Grover & his friend, and once again, Grover shuns the camera =.=... We went to 義民寺 after that. Heard this was the temple where the early villagers used to hold an annual pig slaughtering event. It was neither a buddhist nor a taoist temple, but more a village shrine. There was a long draw bridge which we crossed and when we were over at the other side, it felt really eerie and we felt as if we were floating. So we ran back across the bridge to the main temple hall. In the incense burner, there was 1 stick left. Correspondingly, it was just an hour to midnight. So I said, lets better get out of the temple grounds before the last stick burns finish.

Day 8 - The start of my journey

My dad went back to 龍山寺 in the morning to buy some clothes for the guan yin statue at home. Then we went for a good simple breakfast of soya milk with youtiao! Forgoing the exquisite but boring hotel breakfast. We went for some self-tours around the Chiang Kai Shek memorial and the Grand Hotel. Then at 3:30pm, I was dropped off at 圓山捷運 station while the rest proceeded to the airport. And thus began my solo journey...

Well, it wasn't that solo after all. Turns out my friend Christina and her husband had to make a trip down to Hsin Ju for a meeting. So i hitched a ride with them and met up with Grover outside his school – Chunghwa University. We were joined by his friend Kacy, and some other friends – Olive and Brenaldo (All pet names so that I can remember. Lolz)

Day 7 - 500 Arhats & lots of alcohol...

Went to Tian Xuan Gong. Beautiful thing about this temple is that they have life-size statues of all 500 Arhats! Pretty impressive. But because it is still a taoist temple, the lunch was topped with lots of hard liquor. They have a saying, with no wine, there is no sincerity (無酒無誠意）. So everyone got really drunk. And some came over to the vegetarian table for a break from the drinking – their sanctuary.


At night, we went to 龍山寺. Another beautiful temple with Buddhist-Taoist combination. Then spent the night looking at shops selling statues of various gods, and walking down Hualien street – the street famous for their snake restaurants.