Luoyang, China Day 4 (Part 2, Luoyang to Xi'an)

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh!

May Allah have mercy upon us the sinners and may patience be with those flood victims all around Malaysia who were facing great musibah currently.

In my previous post Luoyang, China Day 4 (Part 1 - Longmen Grottoes), I already shared my wonderful experience in one of the three famous treasure houses of stone sculpture in China therefore I shall now continue with more awesome journey! Read through!

I showed some of the things sold at the Pedestrians Street and here some more!

Beautiful bracelets and necklaces made from jade.
All these are genuine and yet cheap.

Varies types of street foods to try.
All these were non-Halal but tomorrow (Day 5) at Xi'an's Muslim street nothing but Halal.
Good things come to those who waits!

I don't know what were these but I imagined that they are crispy and sweet, can I do that, imagine the taste? Haha layankan je la ea

Actually there were more handcrafts and beautiful embroidery stuffs but I was too busy shopping so no pictures, sorry hihi!

Anyway, after all the shopping we finally went to a Halal restaurant situated about 30 minutes from the Longmen Grottoes.

Yes, that the sign of Halal. Name of this restaurant? Read it if you can cause I can't, sorry.

This was how the restaurant looks like from inside. Pretty decent just excuse the washroom part.
We (Muslim) performed our prayers here as the restaurant was kind enough to close one VIP dining room for us to pray. 

And so this was how our trip in Luoyang ended. I believe there are many more wonderful places to visit here in Luoyang but our trip was short thus we only had limited time to see it all. But one fine day I wish to return here and finish where I stopped, InshaAllah.

About 1.30 pm we finally leaved Luoyang and headed back to Xi'an by bus. I was so sad, no! I was devastated to leave Mr Leo. Its okay to leave this magnificent city but that adorable tour guide, haish..kidding! Hahaha! But it was...

The journey back to Xi'an supposed to take about 5 to 6 hours but we got lost and it took us 9 hours! It was such a waste of time and because of that we missed our Musical Fountain Square at Grand Big Wild Goose Pagoda.

I am not quite sure how did we got lost but perhaps it was because the bus driver was originated from Luoyang and when he was asked to drive to Xi'an, 'incident' happened. Didn't he owned a GPS? Yes he did, hmm.. But anyway, good experience (good but I wish it will never ever ever happen ever again). Heh.

Taking highway route gave us the opportunity to see this scenery.

Ron 93 and 95 available at the gas station.

Fall asleep and got up and suddenly its almost dawn. And yet, still far away to go.

We stopped by at one of the R&R (Rest and relax) pit stop along the way.

Restaurant available there.

And also mini mart to get some snacks.

To get Halal snacks, you gotta read at the back carefully and find the China's Halal symbol.

The R&R provided not only washroom, restaurant and mini mart but also one narrow alley with many ceramics based stuffs. Many were Chinese's tea pots with lovely design and size, vases with beautiful hand-painted arts (which I regretted I didn't buy it for my mother because I thought it will be available in Xi'an's Muslim street and which obviously it didn't. So if you like it, just buy it!) and of course Jades and many other things.

At about 6 pm we continued the long journey..

Police car, like those in the Chinese movie!

Toll plaza that looks like the front 'head' of a mini train. 

And finally at about 10.30 pm we safely arrived at Xi'an, Alhamdulillah and we were starving! I ate biscuits along the way that once arrived my face already looks like one gaaaahhh! But no worries, I'll let you know how to avoid this 'incident' in my future post in tips to travel in China (tips that I learnt the hard way..sob)

This is where we had our late dinner that night. I supposed it can be called as supper.
And thank god no one died due to starving but believe me, many where diagnosed with high blood pressure that night!
Just thinking of it back still able to make me frustrated, Astaghfirullahal a'zim..

The foods were tasty unfortunately we were too tired to open our mouths, except for that akak in the middle who seems to enjoyed her cup of tea.

After dinner we checked in to the same hotel as in Day 1 we arrived in Xi'an, the MengFei Hotel or also known as Flying Dragon Hotel. 

8821, the heaven I slept in after a long wasted tiring day Zzz 

I will continue with our final day in China in my next post. Many places to share in my last day there and this is because, our guide in Xi'an cramp everything in the final day.

Til then, Assalamualaikum w.b.t!
Have a barakah day and be grateful always!

Luoyang, China Day 4 (Part 1 - Longmen Grottoes)

Assalamualaikum w.b.t!

Alhamdulillah for yet another day.

Previously we went to see the Shaolin Temple and Forest of Pagoda as in my last post Dengfeng, China Day 3 Part 1 and Part 2. 

Today I am continuing with our visit to Longmen Grottoes, one of the three famous treasure houses of stone sculpture in China. It ranks first in number among all other grottoes in China, built over a period of 400 years, storing more than 2000 sculptures.

Longmen Grottoes is (other than Shaolin monastery) most suitable place to visit for those who interested to know more on Buddhism. Here, you will be able to witness the Buddhist sculptures craved by monks who devoted their lives for this religion hundreds of years ago. Therefore, I didn't take much photos of the Buddha's sculptures and focus more on the scenery there.

24th Oct 2014 (Day 4)

As always at 8.30 am after we had our breakfast, we begin the tour to the grottoes and it took us 30 - 40 minutes to get there from our hotel. From parking lot to main entrance is about 5 - 10 minutes walked while the whole tour was estimated around 2 hours. Did I mentioned Chinese here love walking? Yup I did. Well anyway, along the path to main entrance you can snap pictures of colorful flowers by the river and the bridge across Yi River.

Begin from here and further ahead to the entrance.  

Loving the view!

The main entrance to the Longmen Grottoes, about time the maple leaves changing colors.
Loving the autumn!

The grottoes were along the Yi River where grottoes on the right and river on the left. This was really nice especially in the morning with such a nice weather to walk. 

The first caves of sculptures seen on right and as further we went, the caves increased and the largest sculptures were at the center. Walk til you seen it all!

These sculptures used to be in colors but over the time colors on these lime stone sculptures diminished due to weather factor. Other than that, most of the sculptures are head-less because the head were destroyed by those who opposed Buddhism.

Most of it were at higher level so stairs were built later for convenient of visitors.
Imagine how did the monks went so up high and craved all that! 

Lots of caves to see and stairs to climb!

We gave up from the start, no climbing except for the largest sculptures and the stairs were like those in Batu Caves, Malaysia. (I'll put up the photos of these stairs later)

Not sure what it says but at this store is where we redeemed a postcard jut by showing our entrance ticket.
Only one postcard per ticket and need to claimed it ourselves. 

If you decided not to climb, just stay by the river and chill out.

After almost an hour and a half about 11.20 am, we moved to the other side by crossing the Yi River. Not using the earlier bridge but the second one and some of us did it by cycling, bicycle rental provided there, while others and that was me, just walked and enjoyed it. 

The bicycles were either 2 or 3 people.
And oh ya! This is Steven, agency's tour guide, and me. I kept on talking about Mr Leo that I forgot about Steven lol. He was very nice and helpful! Most of the time he became our translator and did most of the bargains!
And I needed the bicycle for posing purpose only haha  

Can you see a bridge there? Hardly isn't it.
That was where main entrance situated, and yup, we did walk thaaaat far!

From across the river, you'll be able to see the entire view of the grottoes.

Some guide on Yi River.

To get back to the main entrance was either turned back to the same path we took earlier (same view, what a waste! Don't do that) or crossed the second bridge and make a big u-turn back (with wonderful view awaited!) but not to worry as there was buggy ride waited for us there.

The buggy ride we took was not part of the package but it cost only 10 Yuan.

The ride brought us to the Pedestrians Street - Street for shopping, yeay!

Most of the things here were the crafts like key-chain, embroidery clothes, scarfs. 

And as always, there were fruits and nuts.

As well as pearls!  

In 1970, china started producing freshwater pearls in mussels, and today 99% of freshwater pearls come from China. Cultured pearl is grown by inserting a small piece of oyster tissue into the mollusk. The shell returned to the water, turned regularly and harvested. Oyster produce one pearl, while mussel can produce as many as 60 pearls of different shapes and colours.

Most of the shop dealers here were very nice and we did bargained for the goods but if you want to do so and really get a good bargain, buy more and keep insisting!

So that is it for now.
I'll continue on next post!
Till then, Assalamualaikum!

Dengfeng, China Day 3 (Part 2 - Forest of Pagoda)

Assalamualaikum w.b.t dear believers!

Salam saiyidul ayyam and happy barakah Jumuah. 

All praise is to Allah s.w.t and may peace be upon our dearest prophet Muhammad s.a.w and his companions.

Yesterday, I shared my tour in the Shaolin Temple see Luoyang, China Day 3 (Part 1 - Shaolin Temple) and today will be on the Forest of Pagoda. Forest of Pagoda is the buried place for the master of Shaolin temple, juga bermaksud kami melihat kubur sami Buddha..err.. We weren't aware of this until Mr Leo ehem.. told us about it and so as Muslim I look at it as an opportunity to see other religions custom. This actually strengthened my faith even more and I see that Islam is indeed such beautiful religion that touches on every aspect of our life here and the hereafter.

The last place we visited was the temple and from there we again walked for 10 minutes to the pagoda. We kept complaining how tiring it was walking in not suitable shoes and climbing stairs and you know what did Mr Leo said? We are NOT healthy. Just a lil walk and complaints a lot. Wait whaaat?? It was not lil, each places were so far away from one place to another and... fine. No wonder Chinese there are so healthy, wherever they go they'll walk or cycle. Jealous! 

More places to visit to but I don't think you can finish it in just one day.
Somewhere on that mountain is where it used to be the monk's meditation cave, the cave is still there though.

Not sure whether they are Shaolin or just workers who dressed up like one.
They were actually selling things, Calligraphy perhaps. Sorry, don't understand Mandarin.   

Some local people selling Buddhist prayer beads by the pathway.
And that hand not to say Hi to me but more to "No picture please!" and obviously I ignored them, oopss!

Pagoda Forest here we come!
There's cable car too but we didn't get a chance to ride one and I bet it'll definitely be awesome!

There were also some souvenir shops

After complaining and mumbling and of course enjoying the breath taking scenery, we finally arrived at these pagodas, pwheeh!

Each pagoda vary in heights, the height indicates the monk's ranking level. What level? I don't know.
But I was told that the higher the pagoda means the 'religious' the monk is during his lifetime.
9 is the highest level if I'm not mistaken.

Lots more in there as these were from 791 AD during the Tang Dynasty through the Song Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, and Qing Dynasty.

One of the interesting facts was that if you observe very carefully at the lowest part of the pagoda, you will be able to see some shapes carved on the stone. There was one pagoda for the late monk who took care of this monastery and his pagoda was carved with shapes like laptop, bullet train and few other things that I can't remember. These carving are symbolize possessions for him to bring along in his life after death. 

In other word would be, now (since he already passed-away), he have laptop as well as bullet train to be used in his hereafter life. So I was thinking, monks were not supposed to have any desire towards materialism including wife, new clothe and sometimes even the desire to talk! But after death he can finally gets it all. Even the bullet train. Wow.

You can actually go further up and explore this huge monastery and spend at least days to finish touring but unfortunately for us, there ain't enough time. But the good news was no more walking! Yeay!

Remember Aru? He became so popular after that Kung Fu show.
The man second from right is one of local people who wish to take photo with us.
Not sure whose the tourist here, haha. 

We thought that we were supposed to go back the way we came and we gonna die along the way! But miracles happened, time for buggy ride (about 5 minutes ride). Ya Allah sujud syukur! So no worries, no injuries or death taken part in the making of this story lol. Anyway, the ticket for the Kung Fu show, temple entry and this buggy ride is inclusive in our package.

The ride of miracle! Haha!

While queuing for buggy, I saw these lovely ladies.
It was like watching Mandarin series when I was at secondary school, simply authentic!  

The final view in the monastery.
Mountains on your left and right making it such a soothing scenery.
Souvenirs shops waiting outside for you to grab on.

Around 2 pm we finished touring and went to a vegetarian restaurant for lunch. The restaurant is about 20 - 30 minutes from that monastery and I don't know the name of that restaurant sorry. Actually once you got out from the Shaolin temple,you can see a lot of places to eat along the road including Halal and vegetarian restaurants.

This restaurant makes me felt as if I'm in another era of Chinese's Dynasty, mesmerizing! 

You can choose to dine indoor or outdoor and enjoy the peaceful ambiance.

There were few other cuisines served to us but since I didn't eat any of them, including this one (because although it was vegetarian, I still do not have faith it is Halal so I ate Mamee cup) so I just took this one picture of the food.
This is bun or pau in Malay that is served with a bowl of spicy sauce (sambal)  

Somewhere near that restaurant there were few hawkers selling nuts and fruits so we bought some from them and it was really cheap!

This uncle selling varies of nuts like almonds, walnuts and peanuts as well as fresh tamarinds.

And this uncle selling fresh fruits but to me their mandarin orange and pomegranates were a bit sour.
Love the persimmons though! Sweet and juicy like tomatoes! 

Around 3.30 pm we went back to Luoyang town and reached at 7.00 pm, about time for dinner. So we went back to yesterday's Halal restaurant but this time the foods were so much better because we said what we would like to eat and Mr Leo ordered it.

Grateful faces as we did starved for the whole day and only instant noodles.
The polite guy next to me is.. you know who.. lalala

Look for that writing above us for Halal restaurant!
Now he became masculine, haha! Enough Ain enough.

And so after that we end our night by going to the underground shops, I mean these shops have license of course but were built underground to preserve the cleanliness and tidiness of Laoyang town. It used to be above the ground but China's government had moved them not so long ago.

Luoyang was such a nice place to go where local there were friendly and I noticed that they were very fashionable, love it! Foods were delicious, just make sure you choose the right one and no problem in finding Halal food.  Other than that, stuffs like clothes and bags here were cheaper than in Xi'an but one small tiny problem either its Xi'an or Luoyang, their shops and shopping malls closed as early as 9.30 pm. I wish they had a downtown like in Malaysia where you can shop at 3 am in the morning!

Anyway, with this it is the end of day 3 and up next is day 4. We visited the first in number among all other grottoes in China. 

Until then, Assalamualaikum!

Happy weekend!