Thursday, October 30, 2008

Belugas

Aquariums are real great places to visit with lots of fun. I have found two aquariums which provide lots of information about the habitants and with great informative websites.

My first encounter of the aquarium is in Atlanta, Georgia. The belugas and rays are my favourite here. The oceanarium is huge and you can swim with the gigantic sharks as they seems to be gentle. You just have to trust the sharks at least for once... and recently they brought in a Manta ray...great animal that swims gracefully.

My second encounter of the aquarium is in Chicago - Shedd Aquarium. (see picture) This aquarium has been opened very long ago. As you can see Miki, the beluga calf is so cute and it's lots of fun seeing Miki swim with its mom. Miki just turn one this year. It's really nice to know about aquariums and all the animals there...like sea turtles, arapaima, jelly fish, eels, tropical fishes etc...





Kathina at Wat Chanhorm

- SUNDAY, 27TH OCTOBER 2008

This temple is located at Sik, Kedah.

From Kathina - Wat Chanhorm

We started our journey from Malaysian Buddhist Meditation Centre (MBMC) at 6.00 am with breakfast of soupy fried noodles in the bus. We reached Wat Chanhorm for Kathina at about 8.00 am. First thing we did was paid respect to Reverance Uttara at his loadging (on the right from the back entrance).

Since we arrived quite early in the morning, we went to the hall for another breakfast where they offered us porridge and some local delicacies - wajib, lepat and black/white glutinous rice in folded triangle shape.

From Kathina - Wat Chanhorm


After breakfast, we walked around the places as they have set up stalls selling items from locals Thai like poster, dresses etc. There are also stalls set up selling food and fruits.

I bought this fruit here - it's called "salak" tasted sweet and sour with a mild smell.
From Kathina - Wat Chanhorm



Since it's a hot sunny day, it was real bright and so we decided to helped out in the kitchen to serve the cakes and fruits

Then we proceed to the main hall where I have taken some snaps of the main shrine and the beautiful drawings on the walls next to the roof.

From Kathina - Wat Chanhorm

The locals here were busy with money tree for Kathina.

From Kathina - Wat Chanhorm


From Kathina - Wat Chanhorm


From Kathina - Wat Chanhorm

The ceremony started at 1.00pm with chantting and offering of Kathina robe, robes and flowers over the rounds. The weathers was terribly hot and most of us were bare footed for the rounds.
From Kathina - Wat Chanhorm


From Kathina - Wat Chanhorm

We offered bouquet of flowers which cost RM10 per bouquet. Since some of the devotees were not present to offer their kathina robes, we helped them to offer to the monks.
From Kathina - Wat Chanhorm


The process of offering ended with transfer of merit at 3.00pm and we traveled back to Penang. Everyone seems to be rather tired as the bus pull off smooth and sound. We reached MBMC at 5.15pm.

It's a nice trip and a big sahdu to the organiser of MBMC for this arrangement.