Last weekend we visited a
place that we had heard about from two different people. Patrick had seen it at AtlasObscura.com and a cousin of Julie’s husband
had visited it many years ago. The place
we spent the afternoon at was Haw Par Villa. And while it sounds like a vacation spot in
Thailand or Bali, it is anything but.
Haw Par Villa, originally
called Tiger Balm Gardens, was built in
1937 by two brothers; Aw
Boon Haw and Aw
Boon Par on their estate. They
were the founders of Tiger
Balm, and built it to show and teach traditional Chinese values. 
The signature display is the Ten
Courts of Hell which reminded me of the old California
Mission exhibit at Knott's Berry Farm when I was a kid growing up. You walk through a dark tunnel and there are dioramas you look at. (Hell is not a nice place, but (spoiler alert)
at the end you can drink tea from a lady and all is forgotten and you will be reincarnated.)
There is really no way to describe what we saw in words or
even pictures. Definitely a place worth spending a couple of hours at.
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