We hit out toward the White Horse Temple once I pried my aching body from my bed after my lesson in pain. The White Horse is the oldest Buddhist temple in all of China and held promise of being pretty spectacular. The temple itself was nice enough, the usual gold gilting on everything and monks wandering to and fro. But the bit that really caught my eye were the gardens that led off to the right of the main gate. They led up to a small waterfall and pool and further up to a pagoda with several small shrines dotted around it. Very serene and picturesque.
After that we headed to the Longman Grottos where there are thousands of stone Buddha statues. The are was impressive to say the least. Huge carved chambers with decorations from floor to ceiling and hundreds of smaller enclosures containing carvings of Buddha or other figures. A lot of the statues had been beheaded or completely stolen because of treasure hunters or looters who thought they`d make good paperweights or whatever. It was a shame to see especially after us hauling our asses up all the goddamn stairs to see it!
We wandered by the temple there and then headed down through the gardens to our bus and then it was on to Luyoung. Dinner was the cheapest and best so far and then we simply grabbed some 2 yuan beers (13 pence) and sat in the street outside the cafe drinking.
A couple of kids wandered by and Brett, our group leader, started to play with them. He made funny noises, tickeled them, played rock-scissor-paper and a whole other barrage of nonsense. It was cool to see the kids having so much fun even though they didnt understand the language.
Then it was simply a case of hitting the sack.
