A Visit to Lord Shiva

I'm feeling the trip slip towards it's middle and it's making me restless. I want to see and experience more than working and sleeping here. So, today I got up and took a took-took to see Lord Shiva.
I had seen the pictures on the giant statue to the god and pictured it out on a mountainside. When we got there, I figured the driver had made a mistake. It was a mostly non-descript storefront near a McDonalds and a KFC. I asked him if this was the place and he gestured that it was, saying "Under, under". So I went down the red steps under a phallic stalagtite and headed into the temple. It was a weekday morning and the temple shops were just brewing up.
Like Iskon, the Shiva temple is sandwhiched between long, snaking shopping markets. I bought tickets in, tickets for my camera, offerings to Ganesh and Shiva, offerings to two other gods whose names I forgot, a donation to sick children, a pass for the woman to hold my shoes, an extra ticket for the weird side-trip corridor with the creepy animatronic Shiva and bull heads, another donation to charity, a lucky coin that I can throw in the well and a donation to the monk who did my puja. Oh, and after that I bought some prayer beads too.
Anyway, you go through and the first thing you see is giant Ganesh; probably 20 feet tall. I was wishing I brought the wide angle instead of the zoom. I was thinking mountainside, this was an urban, cramped open-air area behind the street.
Around Ganesh was a tree filled with prayer wishes. I'll post on flickr. But after you passed that, you could see a pretty good view of the 60' Shiva. But first there was the puja.
Now, I don't really understand it, but pretty much you give to the god and he gives back to you. You put stuff out there, the universe sends it back. I got some bananas. Lord Shiva can apparently also be worshipped in one of the perviest rituals I've ever seen.
I give the monk my offerings and tell him my name. He chants and sorts over this thing:

I'm not sure how well you can see it, I didn't want to take pictures during the blessing. You basically have sculpture that looks literally like a union of male and female parts. At the end of the puja you pour thin milk over the top of it. There is no mistaking it as this sculpture had specific items on one side. I'm not entirely sure how I felt about it.

Next there's Lord Shiva himself. This will give you a sense of scale:

I paid for a wishing coin as well. You chant the prayer seven times and throw it in to get a wish. I considered keeping the coin because it was pretty cool looking, but I figured I could use a wish.

I'm glad I went when I did. It was uncrowded, easy to get around in (unlike Iskon which was a madhouse) and actually a peaceful place to hang out. I liked spending a little time with Shiva and it gave me some perspective about the tough week we're having at work.

Oh- and my wish?

To see more monkeys.