View of Lantau Island from the cable car
In the cable car with Jason's Austrian friends
Big Buddha!
One of the statues at the base of the lotus flower at Big Buddha
Night view from Victoria Peak
Saturday was a really fun day. Jason and I stopped by the convention
center in the morning to look at the last exhibit hall and get the
sponsorship stamp (he gets 3 free nights at the hotel for attending 3
days of the convention). Then we met up with Russell and took the
metro to catch the cable car to Big Buddha. The cable car structure
was there 2 years ago but it wasn't open yet – it's a bit Disneyfied
but it's clean and set up well. The cable car takes 25 minutes to get
to Ngong Ping 360, a fake village with tourist shops (including a
Starbucks). Just a short walk into the Po Lin Monastery grounds and we
were all set for our vegetarian feast! This was definitely our
favorite part of last time we were here since we didn't have a chance
to make the hike up 271 steps to see the Big Buddha up close. There
are larger Buddhas in the world, larger outdoor Buddhas, larger seated
Buddhas, and larger bronze Buddhas but none that are all combined – so
this one at Po Lin Monastery is technically the world's largest
outdoor seated bronze Buddha. It opened 15 years ago but the monastery has been there since 1924.
We hit the outlet mall on the way back to the MTR (metro system) where
there's a really fantastic grocery store in the bottom. Last time we
were there it had just opened and we got some amazing fresh squeezed
juice so we just had to go back for more. We cruised through the gross
section and I got some pics of hanging chicken and ducks, ugly fish
(which you just point to which one you want and *chop* it's yours),
TOADS, a breathing fish head (this is a short video so hopefully it
will load), and eels. Yummy!
For dinner we met back up with Russell after getting adequately lost
at the Peak. The dinner was fantastic but the area was so crowded with
people we got turned around and couldn't find it for a few minutes. I
got a few pics of the Peak at night which looked great on my camera
but looks shaky on the computer. So, just pretend they're clear and
pretty. The sky was cloudy but not nearly as mischievous as it looks
in the pictures.
***Click on the "click here for pictures" link on the right side of
the page to see more pics from the day.
