Suddenly a car drove up the hill and a nice lady asked me something in Chinese. Then she saw my puzzled face and switched into excellent English. She asked whether I wanted to do a hike or go to the temple.
I was unsettled about it and she said that they were going to pay a visit to respect the monks. They also prepared some food to offer to the monks. As we arrived there, some other people brought several homemade dishes as well as bread rolls.
I had eaten a rich late breakfast in Ayer Itam and wasn't particularly hungry. The only things I could offer were some roast pork and sweet potato coconut milk fritters bought in Ayer Itam and fresh fruits from Balik Pulau market.
We set the table and prepared the small individual tables for the monks. Meanwhile they told me that the monks were not vegetarian except of one young monk from Germany. I was looking for my fruits and he pointed to them on the table.
The monks entered the room and said a prayer, the people kneeled and prayed with them. After this they sat at the table and had their lunch. We either tidied up or sat aside because we were not supposed to walk around when they go to the huge table to bring the food to their individual small tables.
The monks still spent some time and I could ask them questions about their teachings. Their lifestyle is fairly worldly and meat allowed because Buddha was a meat eater they said.
They spoke several languages and the German monk needed to leave Malaysia every 3 months for visa purposes. He was fluent in both English and German. However I wondered why Malays were not allowed to visit whilst they had monks and visitors from the whole world coming for studies or retreat including Indonesia.
After the monks left we had lunch alltogether and washed up afterwards. The ladies told me you could easily get lost on the trails and one lady offered to go with me. I didnt have much time left until my departure and decided to do the hike alone on the weekend.
I didn't get lost while hiking to the peak of the trail on the hill but suddenly there was a massive downpour. A middle-aged man on a motorbike stopped and invited me to his house for lunch. He told me he was a PR of New Zealand and still had a house at the foot of the hill. I stayed in his house with him and his son chatting our time away and had a tasty lunch until the rain stopped.
The experience was a quite unexpected surprise and I didn't have a phone and a camera to take photos of our memories. But who knows that the reason why people were so kind to me was because they didn't see a camera on me. Apparently I had a local appearance more than a tourist.
This experience made it clear to me that I will always remain Roman Catholic despite the church's little flaws. However I am open-minded enough to visit other religions and have an exchange.
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