Tian Tan Boeddha

So things I've learnt about the apartment we're staying in. It's somewhere in the vicinity of a late night karaoke establishment. And that this plus the time zone change does not lend itself to the best night's sleep. That being said we still made it out by 9am to get the MTR to Lantau Island and catch the bus to the Big Buddha (via Starbucks. Standard.) It was an interesting up and down through the mountains bus ride on seats ill designed for a 6 foot brick house but we made it in one piece and early enough to beat the big crowds which came later.

When they say Big Buddha they're not exaggerating - - though I very much enjoy the large list of qualification adjectives to give it the title of 'largest outdoor sitting bronze Buddha'. It's 34 metres tall and sitting on a stone building/altar which is sitting on top of a hill. There were a lot of stairs. 268 stairs a lot. Despite the necessary exercise it's one of my favourite HK tourist spots though and interesting to learn about how it was cast and transported.

After the much easier downstairs walk we encountered some of the local wildlife include free roaming cows stealing apples and dogs that I thought were dead but were just sun bathing. We walked about the small temples of the Po Lin monastery which housed some beautiful gold buddhas. There was incense being lit everywhere and drums being banged. Very serene and peaceful, even with Matt having a go on the drum.

Lunch was..... ambiguous. The cafe at the monastery is vegetarian only and as everything else had fungus in the name we went for a 'mixed vegetarian.' I still could not tell you what any of the components were but it was very tasty. One thing was curry flavoured, one sweet and the other again ambiguous.

We continued exploring the site including the Wisdom Path and an abandoned wreck of a tea garden. I even found a geocache to my great geeky delight. After the excitement of that we caught the bus to Tai O, a fishing village not far away. Man was there a lot of dried fish. And more sleeping dogs (not dried or dead). Plus some cool houses on stilts. I took us on a bit of an adventure wandering through the village with the fake confidence of someone who has no idea where they're going or if they're trespassing but luckily we made it back to the bus stop without being arrested.

In the evening we grabbed some lunch at a cafe and took the Star Ferry across the harbour and back. Hopefully at some point Matt will learn that it's winter in Hong Kong and chilly in the evenings before Starbucks bankrupts us.Læs mere