January 11, day 1

So I guess the browser I used won't support copying and pasting, as evidenced by my last post being blank. :-P

January 11th, 2009

After visiting Man Mo and having my first impression of Buddhist temples, I’m in love. They combine everything that I adore: color, incense, and flowers. It was really interesting to learn about the significance of incense as food for ancestors. I definitely got a lot of inspiration from visiting the temple for my own spiritual studies. I keep finding myself drawn towards Asian philosophies of religion, and experiencing it first hand brought things to a deeper level.
Hong Kong park was interesting in that you have this little tropical oasis in the middle of a huge city. Palm trees and skyscrapers, what a weird combination. But I like it. ☺

I have to make a comment on the traditional dinner we had. It seemed like it would have been a nice restaurant, and it surely was packed with natives, but I was disappointed in our meal.
I was at the vegetarian table and I was looking forward to eating lots of vegetables, but the first thing they brought out was tofu in the shape (and flavor) of a pig. The meal continued to be this over and over again, only with other various animal forms and hardly any vegetables. I was trying to be polite and try everything, but it’s so counter intuitive to why so many people are vegetarian. We just don’t like the idea of killing and eating animals, and here’s a piece of tofu that looks like a little piggy dead and splayed out before me! Oh no, what am I in for?! Sad to say, but by the end I lost my appetite and couldn’t even pretend to eat. I guess I was an ugly American tourist for the night. But the cookies were good!

Tamara