Yongfu Monastery

Peter has been insanely jealous of Jack this week since Jack has been out of school, so we told Peter he could have the day off today, too.  They both wanted to stay home, but no such luck when Adventure Dad has the day off.  It was also nice to have just the boys without Sophie today so that I could give them more attention than they have been used to having.

Today we started at the cablecar which went up the mountain next to the Lingyin Temple area. It started out quite foggy but the sun came out eventually.  Here are my two older rugrats happy to be out of school for the day.

... and here we go, up the mountain for about a 5 minute cable car ride to take in the view of the mountains and the tea fields below. 

 

At the top of the ride was a nice little Buddhist temple that we explored...
 

Here's the Buddha of the temple.  I should have put one of the kids in for scale, but I guess this Buddha is about 25 feet high.

 

Colorful flags decorated the doorway.  An infusion of new with old, a radio tower has been built in the courtyard of the temple! 

 


Even at the top of the mountain, necessities still prevail!


These little creatures decorated the fence posts that surrounded the temple.  The creature had a different pose on each fence post!

 

The boys found a bamboo stick and were practicing caning each other.  They are such good brothers to one another!  Maybe they'll live in Singapore when they grow up!


Along with us, up came a load of coal bricks for fuel on a janitorial cable car.  These men spent several back-breaking minutes unloading all of the coal bricks.  There is so much coal burned here, it's no wonder the air looks like pea soup sometimes.


A charming little village next to some of the tea fields...

We passed through the Lingyin Temple area so that I could show the boys some of the wonderful stone carvings in the side of the mountain.  Of course, rubbing the belly of such a Buddha can bring great luck and prosperity!

Here's Peter, holding up a mammoth piece of rock in this cave.  The strength!  The poise!  He loves posing for these kinds of shots.


We are starting to get some autumn colors here.  It was a gorgeous crisp fall day today that we all enjoyed!


Here is Siddhartha and her two sons all in deep contemplation of all things Universal.  Actually, I think the two sons here are thinking about lunch.

The famous laughing Buddha seen on so many local postcards. 


Next we made our way to the Yongfu Monastery, originating in the Qing dynasty.  Many gorgeous old trees, water features and Buddhists praying.  The boys didn't see anything wrong with yelling and screaming since they were outside, but after a few sideways glances from folks they finally got the message that they were supposed to be quiet.


At the entrance of the colorful Yongfu Monastery.
 

The courtyard inside was fairly deserted except for a couple of worshipers and some monks.
      

 


The last time I tried to get a picture of a monk he chased after me angrily and said "One Dollar!  One Dollar!"  So, I was a little nervous when I asked this monk for his picture with the boys, to which he heartily agreed.  Definitely more monk-like in my book!
 

Some of the decoration around the monastery grounds...


The boys requested Indian food today so we went to our favorite Indian place next to West Lake.  They zeroed in on the pool table as usual while I awaited our order.


And finally our Chicken Tikka Masala arrived with rice and Garlic Naan.  We sat in our favorite comfy booth by the window and had a wonderful lunch.


Next we got in a taxi and headed for home.  Since we had walked so much we were all tired, but home isn't very relaxing now due to all of the noise and construction.  It looks like like a hotel in Beirut right now, and sounds like it too!  I hope they will be done with the demolition phase soon!