So I need to finish this up...bet you all thought I took a trip to Xi'an and all I did was climb a mountain! Nope. No sirree.
So here's the rest of the photos, for your viewing pleasure and enjoyment.
Or you can close your eyes.
But that would be silly.
I went to this temple.
It was unlike any temple Ive ever been to, anywhere, ever.
It was HUGE. And excessively gold. And ostentatious.
There were (of course) twelve hundred million people there, but it was so big you could hardly tell.
The entrance. Complete with costumed dancing girls throwing flowers. (to the left of the picture)
Most of it wasn't actually 'temple'. Most of it was this massive paved avenue lined with huge gold things and giant other stuff. Like this really really big bell. The thing to ring it was the size of a large tree.
These massive gold statues lined the walk, different incarnations of the Buddha (I think that's what they were) in pairs every fifty feet or so.
If a seventy foot tall gold guy riding a dragon was coming after me, I'd be Buddhist too.
The square/avenue/interstate highway was leading you up to this massive stone building topped with this huge gold thing. (seen reflected here)
Have I communicated sufficiently how big everything was?
Troughs of incense. About the same amount of smoke as a California summer wildfire.
You join the giant line passing the incense trough and snake your way inside.
Eeeeeek! Mommy! There's another one!
So there's a reason this place is so big and grand.
They have a relic of the Buddha, given to them forever ago by one of the kings of India.
Its a finger.
More specifically, its a finger bone.
Of the Buddha.
See the giant gold Buddha? (man, was he big!)
See the shiny gold...thingy...in front of him?
Inside the gold thingy is a gold stand, on top of which is a crystal coffin, which contains a tiny little hollow finger joint segment.
If you're really special and legit, you can pray on these squishy yellow cookies.
(see close up of giant doors below)
The doors to this place.
That's me.
I could barely reach the doorknob.
I actually really like this picture.
The thing I want to know is...if this huge crazy place was built for his finger bone, wheres the rest of him?
Moving on...
there was also an old temple on the grounds. Probably the original temple.
To get there, you had to walk the gauntlet of people trying to sell you stuff from outside the gate.
Mainly incense.
They had a lovely pagoda.
I love monks.
Eeeeeek! They're getting the pot ready!
I told you they cook you in these if you're bad!
I pretty much want to dress like this all the time.
Detail from a giant incense burner.
This begged to be in black and white.
We left that madness and went to someone's tomb.
My legs were killing me (from our trip up and down the mountain the day before), so I went a little way up the hill there and then came down.
There were headless statues everywhere.
Ahhhhh! One of them is mutating!
And it bears an uncanny resemblance to Papa Rae!
End of that day.
Next day we went to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda, which I think is cooler than the pictures of the Big WGP. I don't have a pic of the actual pagoda, cause I was too busy taking photos of this dude.
Practicing with a big sponge on a stick.
The grounds were full of these guys.
All different.
Sorry I edited this..but I kinda like it.
There were a couple drum troupes just randomly there.
They were pretty good.
So I don't have a pic of the pagoda, but this is from the top of it.
Ni hao, Xi'an!
My lunch.
I know I have too many pictures of noodle bowls, but they're ridiculously fabulous.
This one was spicy enough to blow the roof of your mouth.
I have glands (or something) in my mouth that will never be the same.
Girls who made my lunch.
They were super shy, but I got them to take a photo.
They were pretty stoked to have us eat there.
End of that day. Pop goes back to Dalian.
M and I and a friend of M's stay on.
We went to a temple market.
I know I shouldn't have.
But I bought an antique pocket watch.
Its actually antique. Its silver. Its awesome.
What am I going to do with it? Beats me.
Back down at the old Muslim market to buy art
(not me, cause I just bought that dumb/awesome watch.)
I found this to be an odd offer.
This guy does beautiful woodcuts.
I love woodcuts.
Damn you, watch!
Roasting chestnuts.
It was raining.
I liked the market in the rain, all the umbrellas made it really neat.
Xi'an was a blast. I wasn't geeked to go with a group, but whatevs. That mountain was definitely one of the best things Ive ever done. Things are real slow around here after that...
Lately Ive been obsessing over photoshop, cowboys (I think I need to go to a rodeo), and my excessively strange dreams. In the last few days Ive dreamed about pumpkin headed creepers attacking me with forks, border collies, and baking a sheet cake. I kid you not...it had fruit on top and blue frosting. It was very stressful because it wasn't smooth, so I ate some cake to smooth it out, then there wasn't enough cake! Fortunately, my alarm woke me up before I had to come up with a solution.
But its been bothering me all day.
What does it mean?
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