Sightseeing in the rain ...

The Six Banyan Pagoda

The children being blessed

An artist at the Chen Academy ... fingerpainting!

Noodle Restaurant - you can see the noodle flying through the air ...

Today's adventure was a very soggy one ... stay tuned ... pics and story on their way!

So, we set out for a great day of sightseeing ... We began our journey at the Six Banyan Temple where we saw a huge pagoda and many monks. Here is where the Chinese children were blessed in a ceremony performed by the monks of this temple. There were quite a few people there praying at each of the Buddhas and also having various things blessed. We managed to dodge the rain at this first stop, just a few sprinkles here and there. The sky was looking might angry ...

Next, we headed out to the Chen Family Academy. At one this was one of the residences of the Chen family. It is now a museum that contains family artifacts and works of art. As we were standing outside of the buildings, the sky turned a pea green and got very dark. Then it opened up and poured. Fortunately, we were inside enjoying all there was to see. Just as it was time to go, the sky opened up again and it poured buckets as we were heading back to the bus. It was about a block walk back to where we had parked. We all were soaked from head to toe by the time we got on. Of course the driver had the air blasting and we were freezing!

After our tour we went to a really cool noodle restaurant where they made the noodles and cooked them right in front of you. It is a good thing we always have our guide with us ... not many of these eating establishments have an English speaking wait staff!