10-07-2005

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Yet another gloomy grey Morning. If I could see the shore clearly I’d bet it is interesting. This river is incredibly dirty and muddy, makes the Mississippi look clean. Finally found my first kitty. He was not interested in taking the chance of becoming lunch and would not let me get very near. Listened to a lecture on Buddhism, still not real clear except you are not supposed to eat your ancestors. Well, that isn't exactly right - it depends on what level you are and how many days a week you are practicing. The man giving the lecture sounded like he had to subscribe to 13 of the 55 rules and only a couple days a week. Buddha is not God, but it doesn’t hurt to pray to him and his pals just the same. Do I sound confused? It’s a long bus ride up to Mt. Jiuhau, one of 4 most holy Buddhist locations in China. Supposedly 99 (9 is a very lucky number) turns and switchbacks many of which our large bus took the racing line causing a bit of excitement for oncoming traffic. There are lots of statues of Buddha in various poses along with many of his supporting crew who also merit prayers and offerings. There is one group of supporting characters that seem to show up at every temple we’ve ever seen. It consists of several very mean looking guys with weapons and one jovial one playing a guitar. Perhaps the happy one tricks you into coming in and other ones lay on their whoop-ass. You can photograph all but the big fancy Buddha statues. Of course I took this as a challenge and in spite of close scrutiny from the ‘photo Nazi monk’ I managed a couple illicit shots. If it isn't already a done deal I'll probably burn in hell for this. The photo Nazi was cute. When asked if you could take his photo (done with pointing and gestures since his knowledge of English was even less than mine of Chinese) he made all sorts of contorted faces and worked his prayer beads extra hard – it seemed the answer was no. When I snuck a photo of him he went into all sorts of gyrations and ran away. It was like I had stolen his soul. He seemed to recover OK and when I saw him later in the day his soul appeared to be intact. The other monks didn't seem to object, so I'm not sure what the issue was. We came to another temple which was brand new construction. There a monk was posing quite willingly. I thought this is nice, this holy man is letting us take his photos. He then encouraged a member of our troupe to join him for a photo… I began to smell a rat and sure enough after the photos the monk had his hand out for a ‘donation’. On the bus ride home we encountered an old farmer with a water buffalo on a rope attached to the inside of his nose. I never saw how it was attached, but it certainly seemed to command the animal’s attention. The driver stopped the bus and many of us got out for photos. Light was bad since it was late in the day and of course overcast, but I managed what I hope are a few good shots. Towards the end of the journey to the boat a strange glow began to emit from the sky, we were not certain but thought it may in fact be the sun. Dinner tonight was traditional Chinese and they decked out the room with lanterns and red sashes on the chairs. As I type I can see a handful of stars in the sky which holds promise that tomorrow may be at least partly clear.