hong kong: king kongin it!

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We arrived on the Asian continent only 24 hours after our wedding. 6:20am Hong Kong local time. We immediately hit the sites and saw some beautiful things right off the bat. First stop was Lantau Island which is about 2 hours drive outside of Hong Kong. What is Lantau Island? It's an island that is famous for the largest outdoor bronze Buddha statue in the world. We had no idea what this entailed until we saw it with our own eyes. When we stepped off the sweaty, stanky bus (a sweaty man kept leaning on Teresa) in Lantau, Teresa was covered in shadow by something above. When she looked up, she yelped as the size of the enormous statue towering over her... "That's a big ass Buddha!" Actually, literally -- it was a BIG ASS. The booty of the Buddha statue (Buddha's buddhy - haha) was right above and it was ginormous. Sorry for the humorous tone...on a serious note - it was truly amazing to see such a beautiful piece of work. The sheer size of the statue shocked us into nirvana. After a moment of awe, I tried to school Teresa with my profound anthropological intellect:

Andrew: "You see, honey, the Chinese were just simply ahead of their time. They were able to construct marvelous sculptures like this over 1000 years ago. Isn't that something?"
Teresa: "Wow, 1000 years ago huh? Is that why the sign says it was made in 1970?"
Andrew: "Ah" (in Austin Powers humbled tone)

So, anyway, after marveling at the gargantuan structure of recent history, we decided to head to the highest point in Hong Kong - Victoria Peak. We took a tram straight up to the top of this mountain to experience a panamoric view of Hong Kong's skyline. The view was nice, but the place was a bit touristy - kind of like a Fisherman's Wharf elevated in the sky. So I guess that would make it a Birdwatcher's Wharf.... or a Birdwatcher's Nest... hmm, that sounds lame - let's stick with 'Victoria Peak'. Anyway, all kinds of commerical shops and restaurants up top. Nevertheless, a beautiful view of the the entire city both at dusk and at night. After we soaked up the view and rested for a couple hours, we took the ferry across the channel back to Kowloon. It was about 96 degrees at 10:00PM! Nassssssssssstttyyy...

The next day in Hong Kong we headed to a recommended Dim Sum spot - Luk Yu Teahouse. The whole way there I kept shouting "Luck You!" at Teresa... kind of fun saying it in a durogatory tone, but how can you get mad when you're wishing someone good luck? At first she laughed, but after the 58th time, she kept looking in the other direction like I didn't exist. Anyway, the Dim Sum was excellent. Since we didn't know the words, we had to resort to pointing at pictures, making animal sounds to describe meats, and pointing at other people's foods. Hey - whatever works, right? We left happy and full.

The next day, we hopped on a plane for Beijing. We spent the next 5 days there. AMAZING... what an awesome city -- full of history and culture.

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