Lantau Island - Big Buddha is watching you...

---

Jo and Kath moved to the Silvermine Hotel on Lantau yesterday so we made today our explore Lantau day. Met them at the ferry port at Mui Wo in the morning and it was chucking it down so we bought some cool old style english gentleman umbrellas that we're now going to have to carry round the world - they are ace but far too big!
We caught the bus up to the Ngung Ping monastery to see the Tian Tan Buddha. The island's beautiful - covered in forest and hills and little sandy bays. The 30m high Buddha sits on top of a hill and in the pouring rain, with the mist rolling around it, looked very spiritual and atmospheric. It wasn't really worth the HK$60 to go inside unless you're Buddhist - you feel a bit of a fraud because what we didn't realise was that inside are two relics that people worship. These are 2 of about 32,000 small coloured crystals which are meant to be what remained when Buddha was cremated. It does also tell you how it was built inside though. It was only built in '93 and is the largest outdoor, sitting, bronze Buddha and was built using a framework of I-beams - very clever. We wandered around some of the monastery - trying to catch glimpses of some of the beautiful statues without disturbing the people who were genuinely praying. I now realise that all the incense sticks that I've seen stuck in every bit of soil and tree is a buddhist thing too - they have huge pots of soil that people take handfuls of incense to. The HK$60 also payed for a meal at the monastery's vegetarian restaurant - this also wasn't bad but not all that unless you're a big fan of mushrooms and tofu.
The rain cleared up in perfect time for us to go for a swin and a sunbather at the Silvermine Hotel - very nice indeed. Never ventured onto the beach though it did look very nice and there were lots of cocklepickers out. There was also a dragon boat which was more like a sixteen than an eight! Nearly all the restaurants were seafood and we had dave with us so we went to the China Bear and had fantastic steak sandwiches. frozen margharitas and butterscotch and baileys smoothies. Gnom. Beautiful view of the sunset over the delta as well.
Caught the ferry back and had a fantastic view of the Tsing Ma bridge (possibly world's longest suspension bridge) all lit up and Hong Kong's skyscrapers lit up too.

---