Day trip time again.

These are serving a useful function in taking our minds off all the big and unpleasant stuff that's going on in our lives at the moment. But they were actually planned before we knew about any of it.

First up, back to Siniawan to check out the progress on the waterfront project (still in media res), and tank up for the day with a bucket of Yong Tai's excellent meatball noodles:





Nice though this was, the main objective of the day was the Buddhist Village:



This was created by the Kuching Buddhist Association on a 60-acre site about 20 km from the city. Their aim was to portray "the concept of a pure land on earth", and it's true that a stroll through the airy buildings and lush and tranquil grounds is a real delight.








Today's stairways took us up nine storeys to the top (and note that we COULD have used the lift...).





This pagoda is noted for its 500 statues of the Arhat (these "are disciples of Buddha who have attained nirvana, and gained insight into the existence of being, but have chosen to stay on earth to help others"). Every Arhat is rendered differently.





At the very top, there's some impressive imagery:





The rest of the grounds, with their wooded backdrop, are equally photogenic:









Excellent destination, which turned out to offer way more than we'd anticipated.

On the way home, we called back in at Batu Kawa, whose "Sky Window" opened last November. (This township, by the way, sometimes seems to be spelled Batu Kawa and sometimes Batu Kawah, and we haven't figured out whether this is just inconsistency, or whether there's some nomenclature rule that we're missing.)


Another staircase, of course, but the views were great on this bright, blue, sunny day:







And finally -- ice cream!