Saturday July 8, 2006

When I was preparing for this mission trip, I looked at the weather forecast which said that it was supposed to rain all week long. The only day of rain that we had really gotten was about an hour each on Saturday and Sunday and remained sunny the rest of the week. That is, until today.

We began the day with an exciting hike on “Monkey Mountain.” As we began, we met a group of monks and Buddhists who were chanting and bowing on the ground. As we ascended further, we stopped at a monastery for a breather and climbed on. After a few minutes, we ran into a few of the creatures for which the mountain is nicknamed. Wild monkeys are known to be aggressive at times when offering them food, and although these were quite greedy, they took the bananas that we threw and took off to hide. Enter the rain. Half way up the mountain, it began to rain steady and grew harder as we progressed. After all had safely reached the top (including the spunky Jean), we began the trek back down and were relieved to reach the bottom without
anyone “riding” down on their own bottom.

One of Meinong’s famous attractions is handmade umbrellas – and the umbrella shop is where we found ourselves after we had changed into a little drier clothes (I say a little because it poured all day long. There are days where it will rain in feet). A visit to a mini strip-mall type shopping area followed as well as a visit to an art/pottery shop. One of the shops at the shopping area included a man making pottery which was pretty neat.

Rest, packing, and dinner followed our frenzy of a water-logged shopping day – and a visit to McDonalds®. Some had the urge to have ice cream, so we hopped on down to Mickey D’s for a late-night snack. Our way back used an alternate route through the mountains (literally), which was a nice way to travel back to the hotel.