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Published: June 26th 2017
Well this is it. Going home time. Our mum's are calling us for our tea. The final chapter. No more sarcastic observations. It was a blast while it lasted. Hey but the flight isn't until 23:30 tonight. There is still stuff to do…
Chris and Roisin checked out of the hotel at 12-noon.
They had managed to fill the 3rd suitcase they had bought the other day. Not sure how. The hotel was happy to store the luggage in their strong room until Chris and Roisin were ready to depart for the airport. This gave Chris and Roisin one last 'samba' around the dance floor of new experiences known as the Big Buddha.
The big Buddha lies on Lantau Island and the best way to reach this is by cable car, glass bottom optional.
Chris and Roisin walked to the cable car terminus. The steepness of the initial ascent gave reason for Roisin to turn to Chris and say ‘
Er, I don't think so!' Chris did not try to reason with her. After her resilience at ‘the Peak' one would think she was up for it. Little did Roisin know that Chris was relieved she had chosen
the safe option to travel to the Buddha by bus. Ever since an incident on a skiing holiday in Bulgaria in 1984 when the cable car ground to a halt and left him suspended over a ravine swaying helplessly in the wind for 20 minutes....
The bus to the big Buddha took 45 minutes and took Chris and Roisin over some of the Hong Kong countryside. The bus traversed over rolling hills that swept down to meet the sandy covered bays. One of the fishing villages gave the appearance of Port Merion with its small peninsular jutting out into a tightly rounded bay surrounded by a vast sandy expanse.
The bus arrived at the gates of the Po Lin Monastery. Everything has been built on a large scale. Incense burners were dotted around the grounds with appropriate signs warning the public that these are hot. Chris noticed that some of the locals had huge cap visors. They looked more appropriately dressed to do a bit of spot welding!! Either that or the incense burners were extremely hot and the only way to approach them without burning the skin from your face is to wear the correct attire!!
The big Buddha, or to give it its correct name the
tian tan Buddha is one of the five large Buddha statues in China. The Buddha statue sits on a lotus throne on top of a three-platform altar. It is surrounded by six smaller bronze statues known as
"The Offering of the Six Devas" who are posed offering flowers, incense, lamp, ointment, fruit, and music to the Buddha. These offerings symbolize charity, morality, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom, all of which are necessary to enter into nirvana.
The Buddha is 112 ft tall, weighs 280 tons. There are 276 steps to the top of the Buddha. Despite seeing the Buddha from Mars, the monks feel that it is necessary to have a sign pointing to the way!!! ‘
Go to Big Buddha' the sign says above a large red arrow, pointing in the direction. Who would one expect to meet at the top? Davina McCall??!! The Buddha's left hand is flat, palm up in a becconing stance and the right hand is raised in a sort of stop gesture. This signifies that you can come in, but you can't stay. No, I don't know what it means either!!!
As Chris and Roisin walked through the Po Lin monastery, Chris couldn't resist muttering those immortal words, ‘
Day 41 in the Big Buddha house…' The only refreshments available were in the Monastery restaurant. Not so much a restaurant as a takeaway kiosk!! It only served vegetarian food so Chris and Roisin followed the example of the locals and both had a bowl of noodles. This was the cheapest meal they had eaten since leaving the ship. It cost $HK10 a bowl (about 80p)!!
Not far from the Monastery is a Bodhi Wishing Shrine. This was the tree under which Siddhartha meditated "
Who am I and why am I here?", eventually attaining Enlightenment and becoming Buddha. There is a legend saying that wishes made at the
"Bodhi Wishing Shrine" under the Bodhi Tree will come true. We'll see!!!??
So that's it. Back to the hotel to pick up the bags and off to the airport. At check-in the bags were weighed. 23kg is the limit. Luckily Chris and Roisin were travelling back to the UK in Premium Economy so entitled to 2 check-in bags each. The first bag weighed in at 23.8kg; the 2nd – 24kg and the
3rd – 22.4kg. How is that possible? Somewhere along the line, Chris and Roisin have gained over 20 kilos in baggage weight. The plan was to spread the weight from their 2 existing cases by buying a third ‘overspill' case. They managed to fill this case to capacity!!
The flight to Heathrow London takes, according to the Captain a ‘
depressing' 13 and a half hours. The route takes the plane over China, the Russian Federation and into Poland. In the Captains opening spiel, he introduced the co-pilot Wilhelm van der Berg who will be taking the plane in. If we are late – blame him!!!
The flight was perfect arriving bang on time at 4:40am. Chris and Roisin had finally come full circle. Circumnavigating the globe, travelling a total of 27,088 miles. They visited 8 countries in the process.
During their trip they have had just over 2000 hits to their blog from far away places such as USA, Sweden, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.
They left the UK in late Summer, departed from the USA on the first day of Autumn, arrived in Australia during Spring and arrived back in to the UK in Winter.
4 seasons. 1 adventure.
Chris and Roisin would like to thank relatives, friends and colleagues who posted comments during the writing of this blog. It certainly gave them a few laughs and realised how lucky they are.
They have done some amazing things during the last 6 weeks. Their highlights were many. The vibrance of San Francisco. The idyllic South Pacific Islands. The openness and rugged beauty of New Zealand. They have met some interesting and fascinating people who have lived life to the full and made some new friends in to the bargain. They had even managed to solve some deep mysteries such as ‘
Who is Dr Bob and Bill W?' As it turns out this is the code of an AA meeting. One assumes the ‘
alcohol' AA and not the vehicle rescue service. Mysteries that remain unsolved is why were Dr Bob and Bill W always advertised next to the ‘cocktail of the day' in the Princess Patter?!! Or why were the meetings always held in bars??!!
The disappointments such as missing Pearl Harbour or bypassing the scenic cruising of the Fjordland National park did not stop Chris and Roisin from savouring every minute. Would
they do it again? They are already planning their next mega trip…but don't tell their bosses!!
Would they recommend this to anyone? Let me leave you with one last thought:
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bow-lines, sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover….
…Somewhere on your journey don't forget to turn around and enjoy the view - it will be incredible!!!!
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Helen
non-member comment
Welcome home you two. Glad you got back safely. We've all really enjoyed catching up with your blog and sharing your trip. The narrative and photos have been fantastic. What will we do now without it?! Hope your plans come to fruition for y
our next adventure. See you in work on Wednesday ;0)