A late afternoon tour in a classic open air Jeep was the ideal way to experience this incredible, bustling, chaotic city. Flower markets, overflowing city sidewalk street restaurants and the mesmerizing choreography of scooters and motorbikes in a rush hour ballet left us in awe.
A visit to the Jade Pagoda, a combined shrine and place of worship for Taoist and Buddhist faithful was a highlight of this afternoon adventure. Here, believers pray to ancestors and to the Buddha for prosperity, health and happiness. A small shrine adorned with flowers was filled with young couples praying earnestly for a child.
In every corner of the world, people look beyond themselves with hope, praying to unseen gods for the things they can only imagine, believing their prayers, carried to the heavens by the rising incense or on the wings of sparrows, will be heard by their god and answered with compassion.
