June 23, 2024
Chocoversum Chocolate Tour
This 90 minute Chocolate tour advertised snacks and a take away bar, Sign Us Up!! They weaved you through several rooms and educated you on where and how the pods grow, are harvested, dried and shipped. We got a tasting in the raw dried form and several more tasting, as they got processed into the chocolate bars. They started the tour with a chocolate fountain snack and we finished with our own custom made bars!
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Creating our custom take away bars - I went for dark chocolate while boys went for milk chocolate. I embellished with sail away decorations complete with mini anchors. Hope it's a good omen!
Final shots!
Vihara Avalokiteshvara Graha or Guan Yin Temple is near 500 Lohan, so we also toured the grounds of this large Temple complex. It's dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy and is one the tallest brass statues of her in SE Asia. She is just over 55' tall, coated in 22 carat gold and is surrounded by scenic dragon fruit plantations. The tile work is intricate and textured with great details. The whole place is very tranquil and calming for meditation and prayer.
500 Lohan Temple or Vihara Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva was the most interesting place we visited on Bintan Island . It features 500 hand sculpted, life sized, distinctively expressive statues of Buddhist disciplines (Lohans) surrounding a tranquil courtyard. They are arranged symetrical, in an arc and it's interesting how some pop out, as you look down the rows. The statues were crafted by artist in China from 2010 to 2017 when the temple was inaugurated; no two are alike.
As part of our Global Harmony Mission , eighteen of us, including 7 crew members, went on an excursion into the Mangrove Forest and planted 100 new mangrove trees. It was a fun, informative afternoon and nice to have some of our hard working crew, be our guest and enjoy the time too!