Prayers, Rivers, and Firefly's

Alex's mom praying to Big Buddha
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Today marks the last day of celebrations for the Chinese New Year Festival. Alex and his mom invited us to temple to  join in the tradition.  There was a lot of energy, and shoes!  I was lucky to retrieve mine from the pile! We were treated to a traditional lion dance. It was a gold lion at that, so this year will be most auspicious! We rubbed him from head to toe, absorbing some of his good energy for the year ahead. Thereafter we said some prayers,and made a few wishes.  The Wish Lady asked the gods to send me a husband. Ha!  How did she know?? We had our fortunes read, by shaking a can of 50 sticks. Eventually, one will pop up, and this is specifically meant for you. I'll have to bring mine home for mom to interpret. It's all in Chinese!  Then, the monks began to chant, and we stood for a good 30 minutes, with our hands clasped as if we were praying (i was praying we could sit down soon!).  We were led around the temple in a line, passing by big Buddha, down the stairs, into the basement, winding around 15 rows, and back up the basement, another session of standing . This is believed to confuse the bad spirits, and "change your luck".  After 3 hours, we had a vegetarian mean (called "gai") hosted by the temple. It was quite a unique and personal experience for me.

Hot Muslims,,, (literally)
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In the afternoon, we were hosted by Thomas and Sue Yon, great couple! They took us around the city, including the Grand Palace, and the National Mosque. Yes, I was Muslim for 15 minutes! In order to enter the mosque, we were required to dawn the mumu and head scarf.  As soon as I put it on, I felt repressed!  Bad enough this heat is scorching, and then to have to add another layer of sheets? If I were naked underneath, I guess it would be okay, but that's not the case for these women.  It was an uncomfortable feeling, but I'm glad I had the chance to get a taste of it.  I'm glad this is not part of my culture. I'd much prefer the foot-binding practices of China. 

Seafood Village, at Selangor - riverside
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We had an afternoon snack at Uncle Lim's snack house, next to IKEA. They are best known for toast with butter and coconut jam, Simple enough, and oh so tastY!

We headed 1 hour north to Selangor to watch the firefly's in the evening. The countryside is lined with palm trees, coconut trees! Very lush! This is the only place, besides the Amazon River, to be host to a colony of Fireflys. It must be mating time! First, though, we had dinner at a riverside restaurant. Again, a delicious Seafood meal....that is until, we saw the girls sweeping the garbage...straight into the RIVER! What the???? I'm talking about bones, leftovers, napkins, cups, you name it, they sweeped it!!! Stunned I tell ya. Stunned. Apparently, this is best practices on this side of town! Cuz, the guy next door did the same damn thing with his garbage can!! Didn't know whethe to laugh or smack some sense into them!

Time to go to see firefly's!  Sitting in the boat, we floated slowly down the other river (I hope), and alas, the tree's are lit up like it's Christmas! Thousands of fly's looking for their mate! It's like March of the Penguins! It was also kind of creepy, as I couldn't help but imagine Swamp Thing jump out, or the rebels emerging from the bushes! Beside scaring myself, it was good times on the river, next to the empty water bottle floating next to us.

We got back to KL at 11 pm, and the day was still not over! Our hosts took us up to vista point to catch the skyline, and drove onto the freeway to get the best look at Petronas Towers (second tallest building in the world 452 meters). He stopped the car in the middle of the freeway, so that I could jump out and take a few shots!  How's that for hospitality!

Wow, what a day. I'm exhausted!