India

With much worries, fears, I went on a journey to India tracing the footsteps of the Buddha.India was a colourful , mysterious place to me.

Nevertheless, I prepared myself physically and mentally before going on the trip, to face whatever circumstances to come .

Everything was fine at the starting point. Our flight departed on schedule and I found myself landed in the chaotic Delhi , Dec 2011 .

The airport gave not too bad a first impression of India. I learned from friend that the airport has improved so much compared to 5 years ago.

Nice interior decoration @ arrival hall ,Delhi Airport .

However, as we moved away from the airport, the surrounding gave a different view . Each day as we moved from town to town, place to place , we found different words to describe her .........

Unmistakably India .........

Snake charmer by the roadside

Fascinating  India ......

Dawn @ Holy Gangga , Varanasi

Incredible India .......

Trishaws outside Mughal Sarai Railway Station

Typically  Indian ........

Shaving service

even disgustingly .........

Indian men urinating everywhere , anytime, even on busy streets.

Before we started on the journey following the Buddha's footprint, we visited the  Taj Mahal &  the Ganges River at Varanasi . However , these places didn't make much impact on us , surprisingly .

Nanyue Tomb Museum

There is one more place of interest in Guangzhou that I wanted to highlight here - Nanyue Tomb Museum.

We went there by metro. There is a metro station right next to the museum.

The museum is in front of the actual excavation ground. Public can visit the excavation site before looking at the exhibits in the museum.

stairway leading to the excavation site .

excavation sites , labeled.

In the museum, it was a surprise to see the amount of articles excavated & exhibited. Of course being a tomb, the most important exhibit was the coffin of the owner of the  tomb. 

Here's the coffin of the master of the tomb ........ 

Tomb owner was buried in this Jade Suit

It was a good place to visit .       

Pearl River Cruise

The most important river in Guangzhou is the Pearl River. Hence the Pearl River Cruise is one of the attraction of Guangzhou.

There are many companies operating the cruise . Most ferries are three-tier  - ground floor &  roof-top passengers were served a cup of Chinese tea & ; fruits, while the first floor passengers are served buffet food. Of course, the tickets are more costly.

The jetty

Look at the other boat

crowds walking out from the boat

Both sides of the river is brightly lit up. The neons on the bridges are colourful , even the roof of highrise buildings are colourfully lit.

beautifully lit river banks

The Guangzhou Tower

The cruise  was  an enjoyable experience.

Xi Guan , Guangzhou

From Shunde, we travelled back to Guangzhou . We have one more place to visit before dinner - Xi Guan .

Xi Guan , a west gate , it was an ancient port of  trading . The rich businessmen stayed here with their families , where the daughters don't have to do anything and the sons have money and power.

Along the river, as we can see , are the shops ( though rebuilt ) selling local snacks, fans, etc.

scenic view

There is this Xi Guan Xiao Wu that is opened to tourists to have an idea of the houses here.

the elaborate design of the house

nice views upstairs

the house plan gives a glimpse to the  interior design  

The house normally is not big in area, but complete in all aspects. Interestingly , our fore fathers' houses here also have quite similar layout . 

Another uniqueness of the XiGuan house is the ceramic garter and the painted glass windows. 

On the exterior wall , lays the garter, top to bottom, all ceramic 

beautiful painted glass window in the house 

Imagine now, in this little house , the daughters dressed up beautifully, sat near the balcony upstairs, merchants sail in boats along the river. 

Those were the days !

Shunde, Guangzhou

It was said that best Guangdong cuisine actually comes from Shunde , even the snacks are excellent .

We visited Shunde , just to visit one private garden - Qinghui Garden which was once the residence of a rich man in Shunde.

The garden was not big in area , but big for a residence with various gardens . Here we were intoduced to the layouts of a typical rich Chinese residence .

One uniqueness is the walls of the house . Rice & wheat were used to blend the soil or clay to make the bricks.

now under the country's heritage protection

see the bricks

one end of the garden

a study room

Here in this residence, many scholars were ' groomed ' .

the scholars' hall

another side of the garden

beautiful fountain in the residence garden

what  a  brilliant designer window in the garden walls

no two windows has the same scenery from the garden behind

And to commemorate Deng Xiao ping's visit to Shunde, they have this built .

Deng's statue seen here with his signature two cats

" Black cat or white cat , as long as it can catch the mice, it is a good cat  ! " - Deng Xiao Ping quoted .

This made Shunde memorable.

Foshan, Guangzhou

Our second day itinerary in Guangzhou started at 8.30am . We travelled an hour to another district called Foshan .
This is Huang Fei Hong memorial hall .

Huang Fei Hong Memorial

Portrait of the one and only REAL Huang Fei Hong

We watched a very commercialized performance of lion dance here by the 'wong fei hoong' trainees .

Frankly, our Malaysian lion dance is better , more youthful & energetic , more lively.

Next, the Ancestral Temple of Guangzhou. It was said that this was the oldest of all temples in Guangzhou. It sat on the center axis too, like most chinese palaces .

the opera stage facing the temple

the fantastic ceramic figurines on the roof tops , so refine .

the second layer is the gold painted wood carvings, awesome 

one of the huge piece of gold painted wood carvings .

devotees left incense in the temple, not burnt

Ip Mun was Bruce Lee's teacher / master

Bruce Lee & Ip Mun

Most surprisngly was the display of Bruce Lee's handwritten letters to his fellow brothers. Very neat cursive handwriting in deed .

look at  the signature

is this familiar ?

There's the Confucious Temple next to it . Many people went make wishes and hang the wishes on this tree.

look at all the wishes printed on red cards

I did too...... I think I have to throw 4 to 5 times to get it done .

must throw hard and get it stayed on the tree

Finally....this piece is mine. Got my wishes on the tree.

So, this was at Foshan suburb.