Day after Christmas...Hindu Temple, More Kite Surfing and some other stuff

Wednesday morning we walked a few blocks to the Kauai Hindu Monastery. A Temple is being built there that is modeled after this one in the picture. This is the progress after many years. If you want to know more go to http://www.himalayanacademy.com/ssc/hawaii/tour/

The Kauai Hindu Monastery is the only pure stone temple being built anywhere in the world and is scheduled to be done in 2010 or 2011. All stone is quarried in India, hand-carved and shipped to Hawaii. Some stones take 7 years to carve. There are a few Indian carvers here to do the finish work. This is a must see!

You can see some pieces wrapped in coconut fiber waiting to be attached

hard to imagine all of this being carved with a few simple tools

difficult to capture the intricacies of the carvings

Siva...sits by the new Temple

more of the grounds

This is a rare stone carving of Ganesha..it's all one piece...an extremely difficult feat (the umbrella and is usually a separate piece) This statue is carved from granite...

Inside the Meditation Hut...Richard is viewing the burning bowl Looking down at the Meditation Hut

A view from the pathway above the Meditation Hut

I'd like to get lost in here for a few years

The layout of the place is Divine!

Of course there was amazing flora which I can't seem to walk past without snapping it's picture

Yep...more beauty

I see the most incredible flowers everywhere! ;-)

A testimony to our heavy rains lately...looks like

Willy Wonkas Chocolate River...where's a bucket?

Would you be content hanging out here?

It's built amidst amazing lushness

We highly recommend walking through the grounds and enjoying the sheer beauty of it all.

We've been having surf advisories from strong winds so we spent Wednesday afternoon at the beach watching the kite surfing. I'm posting more pics of them 'cause these guys were pretty incredible playing with the winds and doing their "thing" so well.

Richard looking over the scene and "the clan" behind him

A colorful display

This guy was working the back waves

Woo hoo...what a ride

These dudes were racing across the waves...
how do they do this without getting tangled up in their lines?

I think all the boys may enjoy these photos...even Ricardo is tempted to try it! They say if you can fly a 2 line kite you can do this. Of course, you wouldn't do it in these conditions.

Catchin some air...this kid looked to be 16 and weighing 110 soaking wet, definitely the youngest of the bunch and NO fear...

He was a kick to watch. A strong front moved in and we ran for cover...they kept at it.

ALOHA!