Hong Kong Part II: Destination Buddha

After a fun flight over and a great night out, we woke up early, eager to see the sights of Hong Kong. Day 2 was packed to the top, and was perfect except for a little foggy weather. We made our way to Lantau Island, an eastern (?) island via the good ole MTR. On our way to the "train," we found a little bakery across the street from our hotel with delicious rolls, kolaches, etc...and we both ate breakfast for about $2.

[Let me take this opportunity for a little geography lesson. I'm sure very few of you know the exact geography of Asia, let alone Hong Kong. And neither did I until I was forced to study many-a-map on our trip. First, Hong Kong is on the southeast corner(ish) of China. There are several "sections" of Hong Kong: Kowloon, Hong Kong Island, Lantau Island, New Territories, and probably a few more, but that's all I know. (And for further information, you can always consult Google....that's where I'm getting my information as we speak.) Hong Kong Island is, I guess, the main island. Consider it Manhattan Island, if you will. Close to a lot, but an island nonetheless. To the west (checking my mental compass rose), yes west, is Lantau Island. That is where most of our adventure today takes place. Kowloon is right across the harbor from Hong Kong Island, and has a lot of the city. New Territories is northwest of the Kowloon area, although we didn't make it out there. I heard there's some great stuff there. (And, yes, if I were writing this for a grade I would get a D- because of how many times I am saying stuff and alot.) So now you can count this as an educational blog and not a total waste of your time.]

And back to the show...we took a long trip on the MTR to the very end and then took a cable car (what they call the Ngong Ping 360. I don't know what that means.)

This was in our first turning point. I think we had to make it to that distant mountain.

Same turning station...just looking behind. That's how far we'd already come. Quite the trek.

The trail below us that we COULD have taken. As seen above, that would've taken (me, at least) days. Also shows a little of how high we were. Not for the height-phobes.

I think we're getting closer...can you see the "thing" a little bit behind the first mountain?

Throughout the trip, it became more and more treacherous. Yes, treacherous. We could barely see where we were going. Thankfully no planes ran into the cables nor did our cable car dis-attach from the cable. A.H. (the female from our partner couple) would say "Don't look now, but....we are SWINGING" (as evidenced by the cable car pictured).

Just another cable car picture. We took several.

Yes, we were on there too. And notice the "Say Cheese" sticker next to me. They took pictures like on roller coasters when you pulled up to the final stop. 

Here, we finally reached the top of the cable car. But as you can see, we still had a trek up to the Buddha. There was no controlling the wind, so excuse the hair in the face. Zac doesn't have to worry about that. There was a little shopping village, obviously for the tourist. It had a Starbucks and several other cafe-y places and tons of places to buy souvenirs that were 1/100 the price in town. But it was fun. And you can bet your bottom dollar that we stopped at Starbucks on the way out. A little picture of the town:

The "shopping village"  looking onto Destination Buddha

We came across this: the Bodhi Tree. I believe it was the tree under which Buddha reached enlightenment. This exact one...right across the land from Starbucks. J/K. This one was made of rubber and plastic. 10 points to whoever knows where the real one is. Anyway, you can read about it below.

We kept walking and walking, passing this ^ and this v

And finally made it here:

Only a couple hundred more steps left. 268 to be exact. I wanted to stop halfway through and felt like a grandma (no offense, mom, I'm 35 years younger than you), but Zac, the Marine that he is, pushed me through it. I think I made my New Years Resolution there that I would get into shape.

What goes up must come down, so after touring the little museum inside the Buddha and fighting blustery winds (seriously, I could lean into the wind and not fall), we climbed down those 268 steps. We toured around the monastery right below the Buddha. Here it is from up top:

And we enjoyed a vegetarian lunch at the monastery. It was really interesting to experience that, although the slimy mushrooms and slippery plastic chopsticks were NOT a good combination.

We found all of the decor very interesting, and there were Buddhas everywhere! It was also very interesting to observe another religion...

Seeing all of the fruits and vegetables laid out for the Buddha and incense burning and bowing seemed so obscure. Until once I started thinking about it, I realized this would be no different than observing the extravagance of St. Peter's Basilica and watching people kneel, pray, and light candles there. I actually ran into this article after I got back, comparing the two religions. http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2005/clarkolson_cathbuddh_feb05.asp

 Seems like we're not all that different after all.

Big pot of incense

We ended up catching "Prayer time" with the monks (here they are filing in), which was also very interesting. When we'd had our fill of blustery weather, we head back down to the village and back down to the loooong cable car. Not without stopping at Starbucks, of course.

This is an apartment building we passed by on the cable cars. There were probably thousands of buildings like this in the city, just to show HOW populated this little island is! 7,000,000 people!

We did more at the end of the day, but I'll leave it for the next chapter. I apologize that I've been horribly slow at telling our little Hong Kong adventure. But there's much more to come!