So today I headed up to Shatin to see the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery. It was pretty cool, definitely worth the time to go see it. But, Pai Tau, the village next to the monastery was worth much more time. It sits right outside the MTR station, so I couldn't help but wander through (for hours).
As I was wondering, following vaguely in the direction of the temple, I saw a sign for a bee farm! I got some fresh honey (and comb with it for about 6 USD).
Here's the entrance to the little area where the bee lady lives. There is a sign over her house in Chinese announcing the bee farm and when I hoped up her front steps she ushered me inside the tiny shack to show me the honey. I asked if there were bees and she took me to her back yard.
There her husband happily (and very, very slowly) lifted the bees from their wooden hives, allowing me to take pictures, and even to hold them!
After the accidental bee farm I decided to head over to the temple. It is famous for the rough 500 steps to the top, but turns out if you go through the village it is less than 1/4 of that. It really does pay to go off the beaten track, silly tourists. They were doing lots of construction and so there was rubble in front of some of the figures. This woman didn't seem to mind terribly:
Each of the 10,000 Buddhas is different.
On all the paths and stairs leading to the temple there are figures. Mostly in gold or red, but these ones all had a blue theme:
Butterfly offering?
I was walking up the stairs happily, camera in one hand, fresh honeycomb in a bag in the other when I stumbled into this!
He stole the fruit right off the alter. Foolish animal. Natural selection should wipe you out.
I kind of broke into a temple that was undergoing construction to find this. They've seen better days.
A random fire was burning on the side of this building, but no one seemed to mind too much:
It was nice but I was ready to head back. I took the front stairs (the long way) back down and was frightened to see a monkey swing from the trees down to approach me and some other, less concerned pedestrians. The man asked "Do you have food in that bag?" Upon my affirmative answer he offered to help shield me as I made my way past. But when the monkey swung onto the railing he told me "RUN!" I did and looked back to see him and his wife run for cover as well. I ran the whole way down, looking in the trees for the beasts. I'm sure everyone thought I was crazy, but at least I made it safely down.
Each of the 10,000 Buddhas is different.
On all the paths and stairs leading to the temple there are figures. Mostly in gold or red, but these ones all had a blue theme:
Butterfly offering?
I was walking up the stairs happily, camera in one hand, fresh honeycomb in a bag in the other when I stumbled into this!
He stole the fruit right off the alter. Foolish animal. Natural selection should wipe you out.
I kind of broke into a temple that was undergoing construction to find this. They've seen better days.
A random fire was burning on the side of this building, but no one seemed to mind too much:
It was nice but I was ready to head back. I took the front stairs (the long way) back down and was frightened to see a monkey swing from the trees down to approach me and some other, less concerned pedestrians. The man asked "Do you have food in that bag?" Upon my affirmative answer he offered to help shield me as I made my way past. But when the monkey swung onto the railing he told me "RUN!" I did and looked back to see him and his wife run for cover as well. I ran the whole way down, looking in the trees for the beasts. I'm sure everyone thought I was crazy, but at least I made it safely down. I went back to the village to grab lunch/dinner. The hosts were impressed with my Cantonese.
