9/1/06 ~ Cheuk Lam Sim Yuen

On the Rio: Johnny Cash ~ Ring of Fire

I'm going to rant a bit...It is impossible to go out for Chinese food alone. I tried again tonight, and it will be my last time (well, until next week anyway). :)
First, everything is served to be shared, so the portions are huge. I hate wasting the food.
Second, even when I order something I think I know, it ends up being different in some way, and I don't know how to eat it.

Tonight I ordered deep fried shrimp. They were served as peel-and-eat baby shrimps, no breading. Of course they were delicious, but it was so hard to peel them, and I didn't know if I was supposed to use my fingers...I got all paranoid that other patrons were staring at me.
I also ordered the most delicious corn & chicken soup. The problem, it's served in a tureen to serve about 6 people.
There was also a special on desserts, so I ordered the fried banana stuffed with mashed red beans, sprinkled with powdered sugar. This was served breaded, deep-fried. Wow, I would order that again! But I was served 8 of them, and I ate 2.

Ok, back to Hong Kong.

After breakfast, PR and I only a couple hours before she had to get to the airport, so we asked the concierge how to find the Cheuk Lam Sim Yuen monestary. It was very close by taxi. This is a monestary originally built from bamboo matsheds. But we didn't see anything to suggest this. Here is the entrance pond. The details are just incredible, and the second picture tries to show one section of the foreground.

This monestary is home to three of the largest Buddha statues to be found in Hong Kong. What appears to be a light in the cones on either side of the Buddhas actually are miniature buddhas. That could be one of those games: Guess the Number of Buddhas in the Cone (like guess the number of jelly beans in the jar).

Here is an example of "drums" that have been spotten at numerous temples, but I have not yet heard them played. They come in different sizes, and these were the first red ones I'd seen, as usually they have been brown. They are hollow, and you can see the round drum stick resting in the larger drum.

I'm glad I'm not the next Buddha! I don't know why he has to sit inside the bell. What a headache.

We were very lucky before we left to witness a genuine offering ceremony by a family. We did not take pictures, but we smiled at each to other, so we didn't feel as if we were intruding too much. It was times like these I wish I had a guide to explain the protocol and the intimacies of the rituals. Offerings were made around the following shrine.

There were 3 people making the offering. In the silver plates they first offered bananas, then peanuts, then wrapped candies. They also poured oil into the corner lamps, and burnt bunches of incense on all four sides, as there are four faces to the figurine. They also purchased gold leaf paper that were given to the keeper to paste on a smaller buddha in the front.

Here is a close up photo.