Saying hello to my Mom

Dad and I took a trip to a large temple called Fo Kwan Shan in southern Taiwan near Kaoshiung, over the weekend. We took the newly completed Taiwan High Speed Rail, which can go up to nearly 200 mph. It took about 1.5 hours to get down there, and would have been 6 hours by car, which is roughly the distance from San Francisco to LA. I'm amazed that so much of the line was elevated, and got me thinking of California's own high speed rail project and how long before we see it come to fruition. I got to see a lot of the countryside filled with vegetation, fields planted with fruits and vegetables, and little villages dotted along the way. There are also temples with steep roofs with elaborate and colorful decorations, and lots of mid-rise cookie-cutter "farmhouses" with gleaming metal water tanks mounted on the gable roofs. There is no sense of aesthetics in building design, and no attempt to screen a/c units and water tanks -- in essence, these are honest plain buildings for honest hardworking people. They are different from Taipei's gleaming glass highrises.

Kaoshiung is an industrial powerhouse, but there is not much to see except this river that runs through the city with large golden lion statues. The river used to be very polluted, but there has been a lot of effort in cleaning it in recent years, and it is now transformed into a beautifully landscaped park where people recreate and watch brightly colored dragon boats, or just stroll along the top of the creekbed and admire the changing colors of the flowers and greenery. We were there in the afternoon, when the tired boatkeepers are napping and old people are lounging on the benches, but I'm told this place is packed at night.

At the foot of Fo Kwan Shan temple, there is a little village where Dad and I bought fresh lychees from local farmers who have just picked them this morning. If you have not tried lychees, you are missing out. They are small, juicy berry-like tropical fruits that are very sweet. Be careful not to swallow the black pit in the middle. The flavor is sublime, words cannot do it justice. We take the lychees and put them on two plates, offering one to Buddha, and one to my mom.

We attended an evening lecture with an overview of the Tchau Shan pilgrimage we will be doing early tomorrow morning, which is bowing in prayer after taking three steps, starting from the lower gates of the temple and going up to the main sanctuary. The whole thing takes about an hour and a half, and Dad and I wake up at 5 am to participate. It's a terrible thing for a germophobe because you're kneeling with forearms on the ground, which is composed of either asphalt, concrete, or marble, and then you get up, walk, and bow again. It is hard bowing on the uneven asphalt, especially with all the little asphalt pebbles, but concrete and marble is very level. I'm wearing capris because it is more breathable and it covers my knees, but otherwise does not provide much padding. At 5:30 am it is already warm and humid, and there is already a large group assembled ready to go on the pilgrimage. I eat a piece of hard candy in the morning to give me enough sugar to carry me through the morning. I don't mind the sweat and dirt because afterwards I give my arms a good washing and dream of taking a shower. I don't mind the discomfort of the hard ground because there are ways to keep from hurting your knees by not landing on the boney parts. I am happy to do the prayer because it will help eradicate some of my bad karma. Little old ladies do it, and for some it is their second, third, fifth, tenth time. They give you a canvas napsack with a stamp and a pin, and each time you do it you get a new different stamp and pin. I only have the one stamp and one pin, but I hope to go back and get more.