Friday, 28 December 2012

Orchards of Flowers - Ta Shee Blooming Oasis









Ta Shee Blooming Oasis- direct translation Big  something something (I forgot I can’t read Chinese) Sorry. It is full of flowers, but just too bad it’s not full spring season. So can’t really see all the beautiful flowers blooming all around us. Just partially. The tiny Pinks. The tiny Reds.  The tiny Yellows. Gosh! Everything is so tiny. I was not excited at all. But there is still some bed of flowers along the way. Coming up was a land of Lavender Bed!! At least there is something better than those tiny little spotted colors earlier when I came in form the entrance.










Up further the farm, there are cottages and stalls. Where there is sweetness of flowers, there are always BEEzZzzZz!! They made a plastic container of Honey Combs for display - Full of Bees in it. Felt a bit of goose bump when I came close to it. Not to worry, you won’t get stung, it’s all in the container. Thanks God. Unless, you disturb them by shaking or knocking the plastic container. I rather not mess with the Bees, not a wise idea. Well if there are bees, there are honey sold. You can purchase a bottle of honey from the stalls if you wish. 




After walking in the Sun through the bed of flowers, we stopped for a snack and some honey herbal drink refreshment. Logically, what comes in your mind now is getting some honey drink as mentioned earlier they have honey sold and maybe a bowl of Taiwan’s famous vermicelli noodle. Am I not right? But something you would never expect at such a sweet and lovely flower farm. OMG. It’s the stinky tofu (bean curb). How in the world can they sell stinky tofu at such a sweet place? It is such a total contradiction.



After the short snack. We took a stroll saw an old water pump system. Since I had never had one and never seen a real one other than in the books, so it’s time to try one. Imagine how tedious it is just to get some water. Guess we are really lucky as our time has passed for this. We should be grateful what can get water anytime out of a twist of the tap. 

 Along the stalls, were some photo souvenir sold. Lastly, on the way out, I spot a busy bee getting some pollen from a lovely pinky flower. I quietly and quickly snap this busy bee solider without disturbing it. So it’s up close and personal here for you. It was a dangerous move as it did not come to my mind that the bee would reacted and feel me intruding and angrily stung me. I totally forgot how deadly this was. I am lucky this time. So please don’t try it.
 






Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Ling Jiou Mountain- Celestial Eye Gate

 Ling Jiou Mountain. This is still in Taiwan at the northeast coast. Ling Jiou Mountain here as quoted "     , the Chinese translation of the Sanskrit Gṛdhrakūṭa "Vulture Peak". Up high in the mountain at 384 meters above sea-level where there is a Wusheng Monastery, a place for Buddhist practice but also open to public. It actually started off with the Fahua Cave and slowly the place monastery expanded to the whole entire mountain.

When I reached, I had no hint it was a monastery because at the entrance, a pair of eyes will be looking at you. lo-ol. Wow! these pair of eyes really did scare me when I first saw it. The first thing that came to my mind was, maybe it’s a place for some extra-terrestrial connection point just like those documentary shows I watch on television on Ancient Aliens. On the pillars of the eyes, it is the totem poles, it was encrypted with some ancient pictorial message


Alright, done with the guessing game. Let us get real about this pair of eyes. There was a stone title below stating about this pair of eyes. This pair of eyes is called the “Celestial Eye Gate”: The Celestial Eye Gate has the ancient totems of several main world religions inscribed on it. They signify all kinds of inquiries into the universal and natural phenomena by human beings..


If you continue to visit, there will be a super huge 12 meters high bronze Goddess of Mercy Sculpture with a dark face facing north. From up the hill you could see a Pagoda Building, Stupa Area which looks like a pagoda but round shapes. You will be able to view a calm scenery of nature, feel the cold breeze of the Pacific Ocean on top of the hill. Not forgetting the never ending sea view and on the left is the Shuangxi River. If you are from a busy buzzing city, this place would be your peace of mind. The Zen.
Temperature was a little chill probably about 20Degrees






 


 The Zen View 

Along the way in the monastery, there was another warrior sculpture, I have no idea what is the name of this sculpture but it was painted super silver. Must be some guardian warrior or something. Even at such a high place, I still had a chance to get a cup of ice cream as a snack. I guess I just can’t get enough on food. Taste was not really sweet for an ice-cream. But it is my Chilling Dessert at the 20Deg weather. Not very creamy, neither fully Sorbet.
 So if you are looking for some breezy Zen and want to learn more about Buddhist, you know where to go now.

The Warrior Sculpture