Buddha's Birthday?

Having been in Taiwan for three weeks now, I figured it was about time to start doing some sight seeing around Taipei. Since it is my third time here, I have been to most of the major tourist sites, so this time I decided to see a couple of temples that are pretty famous, but I had not managed to visit yet.

Both of the temples that I visited yesterday were Buddhist temples and upon arriving at both locations I was greeted with literally hoards of people. Weekends normally draw crowds of people to the temples to pray for one thing or another, but yesterday exceeded anything that I had ever seen outside of the New Year and any religious holiday. I later found out that it was apparently Buddha's birthday yesterday which explains the crowds. 

The first temple I went to is called Xíngtiāngōng and is one of the most famous temples in Taipei. Here are a couple of pictures I captured at the temple. 

行天宮

A lady giving an offering at the temple

After spending some time in the temple and snapping a few photos, I left to seek out somewhere warm, only to end up in a cafe eating a frozen mango smoothie. 

Nothing beats a cold smoothie on a cold day! lol

The next temple is also pretty famous and is called Lóngshānsì located pretty centrally in Taipei. I didn't realize it until I got there, but I had already visited this temple on my first visit to Taipei, so needless to say, with the crowds the way they were, I didn't stick around for too long. 

龍山寺

What I found more interesting, was the anti-nuclear demonstration that I had good enough timing to stumble upon while exiting the MRT station to get to this temple. Perhaps the organizers wanted to hold the protest in conjunction with the anniversary of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and the nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan. 

One thing I have learned about a large majority of people in Asia over the past six years is that they are very superstitious and they really like getting fortunes told, palms read, and learning about peoples blood types or zodiac signs. Apparently blood types (for Japanese people anyway) can tell you a lot about peoples personalities and of course palm reading can tell you a lot about your own life. 

So, I decided to join the masses and get my palm read. Now, since my Chinese is far from perfect, I was able to find a palm reader who was able to give my reading in Japanese. 

So, I suppose you are wondering what's the outlook on my life? I am told it looks like this:

Emotions: 2012 will be a stressful year, but will get better as the time passes. 

Health: No significant problems, but I shouldn't hold my bladder…..lol…. And I should eat relatively healthy to put less stress on my kidneys. 

Employment: Finance and Investment is a good field for me and rather than working for someone I should think about starting up something on my own. 

Finances: I will see a lot of expenditures in 2012, but 2013 and after should be prosperous. 

Investment:  I should think about buying property in the near future. 

Relationships: 2015 or after is a good time to get married. 

Colours: Gold, black, white, and blue are good colours for me. 

The palm reader stressed several times that 2013, 2014, and 2015 will be good years and things will only get better from there. 

I suppose most of the things that he mentioned could really be thought up by anyone with any type of common sense, but it is always a bit of fun to go and see what a fortune teller will say and what they predict for your future whether you believe it or not. 

-Pins on a Map-