Hong Kong

Well, it looks like it may take some time to adjust after 21 days on the ship. At breakfast this morning at the hotel, when they asked Lee what our room number was, she gave them our cabin number on the ship!
Breakfast in a big hotel like this always launches you on a steep learning curve to figure out where stuff is. The buffet breakfast predominantly served Asian food as well as Indian and Halal. I think there might even have been a North American section. We’ll find out tomorrow when we have more time.
Our tour today started in the lobby at 9:30am and not wanting to be late, we rushed through breakfast. Our first stop was at Lantau Island, which is the largest island in Hong Kong and is 60% larger than Hong Kong Island. The primary reasons for visiting Lantau were twofold: to experience the gondola ride and to visit the Po Lin Monastery. The gondola which was originally built 120 years ago, is thankfully, now updated. The distance travelled by the gondola is 5.2 km and took about 25 minutes. It’s a startling view up through the mountains to the temple and monastery. After construction of the gondola, restaurants developed, and served alcohol, which the Buddhists were not happy with because Buddhists are against drinking any kind of alcohol.
Before we left the bus, our guide advised us that the Hong Kong authorities would be issuing a level 3 typhoon wind warning (we call them hurricanes) at 3 o’clock in the afternoon and, as a result, instead of going back down on the gondola, another bus would meet us at the top to take us back down.
Each gondola held eight people, and before the doors closed, a photographer took pictures of each couple. By the time we got to the top, they had an army of people with our developed pictures mounted in snow domes, like Christmas domes, and an enlargement that you could buy. We chose not to purchase anything, but it was an incredible bit of organization to have the pictures ready for us by the time we got to the top.
We walked past some souvenir shops, and many shops selling prayer sticks of various sizes for people to purchase. They would then make a wish, light the stick(s)and while holding the burning incense sticks in front of them, either singly or in groups, bow many times in front of the large urns before they placed the sticks in the sand, the smoke carrying their prayers skyward. There is no reluctance on the part of Chinese or Japanese people to make their prayer ceremony in public. Even little children were given incense sticks and made their prayers.
We made our way through the beautiful gate, and along the Ngong Ping Piazza to the original Po Lin monastery ( Po Lin means Heavenly Lotus) which was gorgeous. Along the way we took a picture of a Lotus flower in one of the large ponds. What's so important about Lotus flowers? ....wait for it. "In the eyes of the Chinese people the lotus symbolizes lofty character and divine virtues". We then continued on to a newer, larger and even more colourful monastery behind it. The most colourful display was The Hall of 4 Heavenly Kings, a common component of most Buddhist Monasteries. “Vaisravana, the Guardian of the North, is the embodiment of wealth and prosperity. He serves to remind Buddhists of the blessings of abundance and the need for ethical distribution of wealth. The remaining three kings each carry their unique symbolism and dominion – Virudhaka, the King of the South, symbolizes growth and improvement. His blue color stands for the heaven of the south and he wields a sword that represents his authority. Dhritarashtra, the King of the East, holds a lute, a symbol of harmony, peace, and equilibrium. He represents power, protection, and upholding of the law. Finally, Virupaksha, the Guardian of the West, represents knowledge and oversees all actions of mankind. The divine serpent or dragon accompanying him, symbolic of rain, links him with agricultural fertility.
Our lunch, served at the monastery, was all vegetables and no meat because of the Buddhist religion. We sat at large round tables with a large Lazy Susan in the middle, where the plates of food were served family style for sharing and the food just kept coming and coming. There is no way we could eat it all, but it was delicious.
After lunch, we had about an hour and a half of free time during which people could walk the 268 steps up to the Big Buddha. Lee did, Don did not.
The original human Buddha was Siddhartha Gautama, a 5th century BC prince from present-day Nepal who renounced his wealth and became a monk to seek enlightenment. Born into a wealthy family, Gautama led a life of luxury until he was distressed by the suffering in the real world. He left the palace in secret to live as an ascetic, depriving himself of worldly possessions. After years of meditation, he attained enlightenment under a pipal tree at Bodh Gaya, which is now known as the "enlightenment place". Through meditation it is said that he found 42,000 ways to achieve enlightenment. When he died the 42,000 ashes of his body were buried in temples all over the world.
The giant Buddha, called Tian Tan Buddha, is 112 ft high, made of bronze, weighs 250 tons and consists of 202 pieces made by China. The largest of the pieces is the head. It was completed in 1993 and since the airport was not completed at that time, everything had to be delivered by boat.
The ride down in the bus was quite an adventure on a steep winding road and a slightly aggressive driver. We passed the Shek Pic Reservoir built between 1957 and 1963, it has a storage capacity of 24 million cubic metres and is the third largest reservoir in Hong Kong. In 1961, an 8-mile submarine pipeline was built to move water from the reservoir on Lantau Island to Hong Kong Island.
Once back at the hotel, we had some quiet time and set out at 6:30pm in search of a dinner venue. On the advice of the concierge, we chose a basement level restaurant in a commercial building just across the street. It was totally authentic and delicious and there were only about two tables of non-Asian people. As usual we ordered too much food. Lee had cooked shrimp and Don had cooked beef. The rice, non-sticky type, and particularly the slippery fried noodles became a major challenge for this amateur chopstick user. At one point, I was trying so hard to get this massive string of noodles, first on the chopsticks and then into my mouth with my head hanging down over the plate, that my glasses fell off my head and onto the pile of noodles.
We met some fellow Canadians at another table who were just going to board their ship the next day. We chatted a little about each others trip and then proceeded back to the hotel. It had rained slightly and was quite windy, so we decided not to walk on the boardwalk, but come back directly to the hotel.Read more