My apologies for the delay of this post! Blame it all on the recent Christmas and New Year's Eve distractions! (Excuses! Excuses!)
So after visiting Kim Yong Market in the morning, we returned to our hotel for a quick rest before starting our itinerary for the day at noon.
It was still drizzling when we boarded the coach to go for our lunch at a local chinese restaurant during which, the sky seemed to have cleared a little.
After dinner, we did a bit of shopping at a local produce store （土产店）and leather-craft store before setting off for Guan Yin Shan.
Guan Yin = Goddess of Mercy
Shan = Mountain
So now you know how Guan Yin Shan got it's name?
According to the Thai tour guide, the piece of land where Guan Yin Shan was built initially belonged to the Muslims. So, why was a chinese temple built over it then?
The tour guide explained that a Datuk deity （拿督公） appeared in the dreams of the Muslims one night and talked them into giving the land to the chinese to build this temple.
Don't ask me why were the Muslims so obliging but this is what we were told...
Beautiful Lotus
More Lotus
The dragon's mouth which leads to the Laughing Buddha
The Jade Emperor and his dragons
You can buy fire crackers (comes in different length) from the temple and set them off for good luck.
The "tower" where you hang up your firecracker
One slip is all it takes to send me falling to my watery grave below.
The box containing our firecracker
As you can see, those on top were the residue of the newly fired cracker while those below have already been compacted into one big solid slab. There must be at least a couple of years worth of red paper there!
Just as we boarded the coach for our next destination, it started to rain again...
Stay tuned for the next post as we'll be visiting Klonghae Floating Market!
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