Giant Buddha

So on Sunday we decided to take a drive to go see the giant Buddha statue on the far north end of the peninsula. And when I say giant, I reeeeaaalllyyy mean giant, probably about 2/3 the size of the Statue of Liberty, maybe? Here are some photos:

Here's the view from the road as we are traveling up there. The road is a little scary as it has corners, and we all know corners are just a place for taxis or buses to pass motorbikes, right? Everything went just fine though and the view was wonderful. 

Here's a view of Da Nang on the way up. 

These are the steps up to the pagoda where the monks live and the people come and worship. They were really weird to climb as they were slanted downward for the first half of the way. 

The dragon sculptures guarding the gates were really cool. 

Here's Michael at the gates looking touristy and sexy, gotta love my Mormon boy in his 

Sunday white shirt :) 

 The trees they have all over here are so amazing, we seriously have probably a dozen photos just of cool trees. They are so well taken care of and so intricate in the ways they grow. We even saw one that could be the inspiration for the sacred tree of the classic enviromentalist movie Ferngully.

This is the main pagoda on the site where people go to pray and light incense. It was a very solemn place and very quiet inside. 

Here is a view from right outside the giant Buddha - that's Michael at the very bottom to the left of the door. There is another temple inside the doors at the bottom of the statue, it is a bit small but also serene though it feels very weighty to have all of that statue above your head. 

 The view from the temple grounds outside the Buddha.

Here is another Buddha statue on site. You can see the little bunny statues on the left, they were neat. 

The ponds around were full of what I believe to be lotus blossoms, and the leaves were so awesome. This is a photo of either rainwater or dew that had collected in the leaf - they were about a foot across - and if you tilted the leaf the water would just roll around. The texture of the leaf was so smooth that the water wouldn't even leave a trace. 

Here's one of the beautiful flowers growing around in the ponds, there were many beautiful flowers everywhere. All in all it was a beautiful trip and a "a Sabbath to remember" according to Michael.

Love you all!