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Tian Tan Buddha
Big Buddha surveying his land Lantau is one of the Outlying Islands which used to be accessible by ferry only; now they have the new airport there and a Disneyland theme park and a new bridge to connect both islands. Lantau lies 7.5km away from HK Island, it’s twice as big and its peak is double the height of Victoria Peak on HK Island. Another reason for visiting Lantau is to see the Tian Tan Buddha - a massive bronze representation of Lord Gautama; he sits on a hill overlooking the monastery at Po Lin in the village of Ngong Ping. His head disappears into the clouds most days but we were very lucky to get clear sunny skies. The Tian Tan Buddha is the biggest seated outdoor bronze Buddha in the world (apparently), he weighs 202 tonnes. We’ve seen loads of Buddha’s on our travels in Sri Lanka and Thailand but we have to admit that this guy was very impressive!!!, the location helped. We did the climb to reach the Buddha, 260 steps in total - worth every step. The views from the top are lovely and the Buddha is even better close up, he’s a happy chap - no surprise as he’s surrounded
Offerings to Lord Gautama
No wonder he's got a cheeky look in his eye!! by 6 statues of beautiful ladies each with a different offering for him. The ladies are called bodhisattvas and they weigh 2 tonnes each!!! For $23 you get a ticket for the museum and a meal at the vegetarian café at the monastery, we ate noodles and spring rolls before having a look around the temple which is probably the nicest that we’ve seen whilst in HK and the cool courtyard was a nice place to escape the heat (see pics for Barry's sunburnt face, he, he).
After such a chilled day of sobriety we decided to go for a massive blow out of alcohol and fine food that night, well that was the plan; we actually went way over the top on the alcohol and decided to forego the fine food and had a Big Mac instead!!! We started off at Felix in the Peninsular Hotel - a nice bar with great views but it lacked the atmosphere we were looking for. We had a couple of drinks and decided to head next door to a new hotel called One Peking, they have a bar on the 28th floor harbour side called Aquaspirit……WOW!!!, what a place, this was
It's a long way up
Will we still be smiling after 260 steps? more like it. They have a minimum spend rule of $130 per head (think we’ll do the same at Shooters next season). It was easy to spend - the cocktails were lovely, Barry said the Beer was to his satisfaction and the music and atmosphere were brilliant, Bollywood was the theme of the night when we were there so we felt very at home and didn’t want to leave. It’s the kind of place where you have to leave your credit card with the barman to keep your tab open and they insist on a minimum spend of $1000 if you want to sit in one of the four private booths overlooking the city. Needless to say we stayed ‘til late, spent $600 and the only place open for food when we left was McD’s.
Nursing hangovers the size of the Big Buddha the following day we opted for a lie in then a leisurely stroll around Kowloon at the bird market and tropical fish market in Mong Kok. The birds were noisy as hell, not what you need after a night on the tiles but still very amusing and very, very cute. The locals bring their pet birds
"More Tea Vicar"
"I think you are confused with your religions my dear....I'm not a vicar" here for a day out in the fresh air, they walk around with their feathered friends perched proudly on their shoulders or carry them in bamboo cages and buy live food for them as a special treat. The fish market was spread over a massive area close by and some of the fish on display would have been better suited to the Barrier Reef instead of a plastic bucket in Kowloon. Some of the fish were kept in tiny plastic bags with hardly enough water to keep them alive, they were hung on racks out on the main street for people to prod and poke….a bit of a sad sight!!
We’ve loved every minute of our time here, people said we would be bored with the place after 3 days but when you get to 40 as I am, every day you wake up is a blessing, and you never get bored of breathing !!! Bev will find out just what I’m talking about in 4 years 9 months !!! This is not a city or province where you can get bored easily, there is something to stare at and wonder at on just about every corner, I thought
Po Lin Temple
Bright, Bold and Beautiful I’d seen all I could from a city but this place knocks spots off all of them put together. It has fast become my favourite place with pavements in the whole world.
If I could have been granted a 40th birthday wish and was assured it would come true the only thing I would have changed would have been for all of our family and friends to join us for a few days during the last 11, The rest of it we could not have planned better…… I am writing this with memories flooding back and bringing a big smile to my face despite the blisters on the soles of my feet from 11 days of pounding the pavements of Hong Kong.
We are now preparing for our last day in HK before returning to Mumbai to catch another plane HOME!!! Hope we haven’t bored you all too much, you can rest assured that this is the last Blog until our next adventure and if we don’t get jobs as soon as we get back we’ll be passing round the begging bowl (all currencies accepted)!!!
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Eggs on Legs
Al, Shaz & Beth
like your blog!
Hi there - we arrived in HK last night and I wanted to say that I've enjoyed checking your blog out for good tips before we got here. Aquaspirit looks interesting - might need to investigate that place later....... Safe travels, Shaz.