Oh My God!!!! A Rainbow!!!!

That's how polluted our city air has become, so much so that seeing the rainbow over Lake Fewa in Pokhara, Nepal created such a stir of excitement in us. In our excitement over this little 'discovery' we did an overkill on the photo-taking, and ended up with about 30 shots of that same rainbow!

Lake Fewa was truly tranquil and peaceful. For city folks like us, it was a stark contrast to our noisy lifestyle. A really good place to just meditate or reflect!

Seafood Restaurant in Guangzhou, China

In China, everything is built on a grand scale.

We were invited to a seafood restaurant in Guangzhou and it was no different. It is a stand alone double storey building, with at least 20,000 square feet of space per floor. The ground floor is segregated into an open air dining on one side, and live seafood on another side. The upper floor comprises 90+ private dining rooms of various sizes.

And as the saying goes, the Chinese eat anything.....

Crocodiles

Geoduck Clam

Looks like a shark, but I'm not quite sure...

Lobsters

What the....?!

This is the 'something something Cao Dai Holy See' religion. Vietnam is the only place in the world that practices this religion. Can't remember the full name! It's a dying religion anyway, majority of its worshippers comprise the elderly, and I do mean OLD! They worship the great big eye, reminds me of the all seeing eye a-la Egypt. Or the one on the USD - same eye, I think.

The Eye

The only cool thing about this place is that it is so colourful.

The religion began as a way to unite the Vietnamese people during some war (hee hee, sorry lah, but this is a blog of my travels not history!) and basically, they worship all the gods and all the great people of most nations.

The Various Gods

The place of worship is one long hall, where the worshippers will walk in 2 columns - men on one side, women on one side. The senior worshippers are in coloured robes, whilst ordinary members are in plain white robes.

The worshippers

Looking for my shoes!

On The (Chinese) Road

Does this look like it's on some highway somewhere in America? Well, it's not! It's actually somewhere in China! It is along the Silk Road route, and it stretches for miles. Our tour bus stopped for us to take photos of the Red Mountain (or something like that, I think, can't remember) across the road, but this was a better photo shot instead. The only thing I remembered about this day was that it was damn bloody Hot. Can't even remember where we were enroute to.

The Vatican City

The first sight is truly an amazing sight. (Somewhat akin to when I walked through the main doors of the Forbidden City for the first time) It's one of those places that you just cannot explain in words the enormity and space of the place. Unfortunately, I'd not the time to re-read Da Vinci's Code before my trip, so was not able to check out the places that was mentioned in the book.

St. Peter's Square

We went to the Vatican Museum first and were counting our blessings when we'd decided to pay extra by booking the tickets through the internet. We got to enter at 8am, and the general public only at 10am, but the queue had already started when we arrive at 7:30am. And by the time we came out of the museum at about 11am, the line had snaked all the way around the Vatican Walls for as long as.......again, one of those things that just cannot be explained in words! I would say from Park Royal Hotel to Concorde Hotel, or maybe longer....! I'd never been so pleased with myself for pre-booking!

Touching the Vatican Walls :-)

It is no joke that St. Peter's Basilica is the biggest church in the world. The interior is HUGE! Unfortunately my camera's not so good in the dark, so couldn't really take many pictures inside. There must've been easily close to a thousand people inside (and it's not even peak month).

Inside St. Peter's Basilica (Bernini's four column in the background)

To get to the top of Michelangelo's Dome, we had to queue more than 30 minutes, and climbed a few hundred steps. Another personal achievement for me! Towards the top, the stairs became very narrow and steep and it was spiralling, so we had to bend our body sideways and climb with a slight stoop! But I have to say, the view from the top was really worth it ..... after fighting off the other hundred people who got there before us!

View from the top of Michelangelo's Dome

Trevi Fountain

Our 3 nights in Rome seem rather insufficient, and there were quite a lot of sights that were left out. One of the most magnificent sights had to be the Trevi Fountain. Despite its cliche popularity, the first sight of the white figures was really something. Of course, we had to fight through the crowd of people to get to the fountain, and then had to fight for space for a 'perfect' photo opportunity. But it was definitely well worth it!