Wednesday - Hindu Monestary

Wednesday, we all headed out again. Our first stop was at this Hindu monastery. They were up-to-date considering...they claim they were the first people to network their computers when computers first came out (they put out a newsletter), and Apple came to study them. Hmmm...

Anyways, they are also building a temple; here are a couple pictures of our tour guide and our tour:

Their founder-guy and my sister



This is our tour guide. Now, its weird to actually hear myself say it, but he was young, funny, witty, and not bad looking! An attractive monk??? I feel dirty just thinking of THINKING this!!!!



Supposedly if you eat this leaf from this particular tree, mosquitoes won't be attracted to you. Since my sister went through at least 2-3 bottles of bug spray, we stuck a handful of the leaves in her purse. Don't know if it works...I didn't try it, are you kidding???



Apparently it tasted nasty. My sis stuck to the bug spray.



Part of the temple and its carvings all done by hand.



Demonstration on the carvings & the ONLY tools they used to make the temple (other than a fork lift which they referred to as their elephant).

Oh, and the monk was carrying around a camera. They take pictures every day and upload them onto their site. You can see our day's pictures on their site. I actually was behind a little girl that he took a picture of and posted on their website...just a few more feet up and I could've been immortalized on their website since they have archived forever and will continue to do so forever...


Eli and Brad trying their hand at the stone - no fingers were lost as a result of this picture...



Close-up of Founder of the temple - he was born in Oakland, CA.



Sculptures



Apparently if you hug this tree, all your worries will be absorbed in the sap...something else happens, but I forget. You should've seen all the people seriously getting cozy with the surrounding trees. I didn't take pictures of them, they needed their private moment with the tree.