We ate a traditional meal, which was not good...lol. Gross actually, but I still ate it because you're not allowed to waste any food what so ever. You even have to drink the water you clean your bowls with. Ick. Ick Ick Ick! Plus I had to eat seaweed soup, which happens to be my ultimate enemy! That was only the first night.
We had to wake up to pray before a statue of Buddha in the main temple at 4am. This is a little early for me, but since we went to bed at 9 it wasn't too horrible. The part I could have skipped was the one hundred and eight bows with our favorite monk. I would have been down with like 20...lol. I think after 70 I lost count and just kept hoping I didn't fall over. And these weren't little bows, these were all the way down to the ground, knees on the floor, palms to the ground, stand up again bows with no time for a breather in between. So basically I'm out of shape and the monk kicked my ass...lol.
Really though, it was an amazing experience. :)
This was the main temple.
This is where we slept. The floor was heated so I didn't freeze to death. :)
My favorite monk preparing the $300 green tea. The monks make their own tea. I'm not a big tea person, but it was surprisingly really good.
This is where we slept and meditated. We meditated for like 3 hours. No sleeping!
