Kristin Reporting!
*All pictures from this port were lost due to losing the camera in Singapore!
Today we are back in Hong Kong! It's hard for us to believe that the first time we were here and had a day touring the city with Jona was already 20 days ago! Those 20 days literally FLEW by for us! This is good because this trip is long enough as it is, I hope it continues to be enjoyable AND continues to FLY BY!
So, last time we were in Hong Kong we saw temples on Kowloon Peninsula and Downtown Hong Kong and had a traditional Cantonese dinner. This time we are headed out of the populated city and over to Lantau Island. Lantau Island is one of 264 (..ish) islands that make up the self-governed area of Hong Kong. Lantau Island has twice the land area as Downtown Hong Kong but only has 25,000 residents instead of 1.5 million (...ish). My facts are just memories from the tour so you're going to have to Google for the exact numbers!
My friend Natalie Leung recommended the Lantau Island 'Big Buddha' as being worth a visit, so we took advantage of Cunard offering a shore excursion to see it. We were happy that this tour started at 9:30AM and our meeting time was the reasonable time of 9:15AM!
The bus ride to Lantau Island took a little over an hour. The bus stopped at a view point where we could take pictures of the Lantau Link Bridge (Tsing Ma + Sap Shui Mun Bridges). The pollution on this visit was bad. On our visit on March 10, I believe it was gray because of the weather– it was raining. This time, the air didn't smell as clear and crisp. There was definitely also some mist in the air, but my air quality check said PM2.5 was at 120– “Unhealthy for Sensitive People”. Anyway, the haze made photos look terrible. Pollution is so disgusting!
We then crossed the bridge over to Lantau Island and took a windy road journey to Tai O fishing village. Here we got to see some ramshackle houses built on stilts. I guess when the tide goes out the boats end up sitting on the ground until it comes back in again. To get to the bridge to view the stilt houses we had to walk through a traditional market which was selling food stuffs: vegetables, strange dried things (mostly fish?), and plastic tubs filled with live fish! All of it was exactly like what we saw in Pusan, Korea but on a much smaller scale.
[Davin Interjection: The fishing village was interesting to see for the stilt houses. However, I’m not sure it was worth the extra drive just to see it (it’s faster to just take the cable car to the Buddha). I think the effect of the fish market was also muted because of our already having seen a more impressive market in Korea. Truly nothing can compare to a Korean fish market! They eat the weirdest things there!]
We also visited a local Daoist temple. It was completely unimpressive compared to the many famous temples we've visited by now. It's just a little local temple. It was even less impressive because 50 tourists piled inside it at the same time and it was little more than the size of Mom's Guest House/Gaming Cottage/Studio Apartment! You couldn't take any decent picture without a bunch of ugly tourist strangers being in the image!
D and I had some money to burn today in Hong Kong. It was leftover cash from our visit on March 10th. So, we bought a set of 12 small Buddha figurines as a souvenir. Maybe D will keep them all, or he will give them to me if he can't display them nicely somewhere at home.
Next the bus took us to the 'Big Buddha' of Lantau Island! This was a truly impressive sight! I was happy that I took D to see the Ryozen Kwan-On Temple in Kyoto for comparison purposes. The Ryozen was made out of concrete instead of bronze, and I think it is smaller but they are fairly close in size. Also Todaiji temple's Buddha was impressively large for a bronze Buddha, but looking back at pictures its size was small compared to the 'Big Buddha' of Lantau! Of course, the ‘Big Buddha’ of Lantau is a very modern creation, so Todaiji’s Buddha is more impressive from a historical standpoint!
Our tour included admission inside the Big Buddha reliquary which is in the building underneath the Big Buddha. Inside here there is a very nice carving of Buddha out of one piece of Rosewood. It is a beautiful piece, unfortunately no pictures were allowed. One (oldish) lady in our group used her tablet to take pictures, and the guide said to her, "No picture allowed!" and her reply was, "I'm not taking any pictures!" and then I watched her lift it at an angle that no one would do unless to take a picture. Just goes to show that being disrespectful knows no age limits! I might sneak a picture now and again, usually more at a museum than a sacred religious site, but if someone were to call me on such an action, I wouldn't lie about it and then TAKE ANOTHER PHOTO! THAT requires being a truly impressive kind of douche!
[Davin Interjection: Both the Big Buddha and the wooden Buddha were impressive in their own way. The entire scene of the Big Buddha at the top of the stairs is something you have to see for yourself!]
Other than the beautiful Rosewood carving, there were some beautiful paintings of Buddhist scenes, people and animals. One image of Buddhas or Bodhisattvas in a natural setting had a sign that said it was painted with blood! Of course, at the time I thought that meant human blood, but now that I'm writing this it occurs to me that it could have been animal blood. However, the fact that Buddhists do not eat anything from animals suggests that it WAS human blood.
My imagination gave me the impression that the artist cut themselves to get the blood and then painted with it. I'll let your imagination tell YOU how YOU think this painting may have been created. Again, no photos unfortunately, but it was interesting that the image looked almost black on white as if it were painted with ink, not blood. It just had a barely discernible brown hue to the ink color.
When we finished taking in the site of the Big Buddha up close, we walked down the 256 steps to the bottom. There we met back up with our tour guide and got escorted into the Monk's main temple complex for a vegan buffet lunch. For being vegan, the lunch was varied and delicious! I said that the monks should really sell a cookbook! But, it wasn't varied enough from one dish to the next to make me think I could give up all my favorite non-vegan meals. Still, I feel inspired to do some experimenting with cooking vegan meals until we find 1-3 that are delicious enough to warrant adding to our recipe cycle– for the health benefits of eating less meat, and eating a wide variety of vegetables. I took away this lesson: Vegetable ONLY dishes CAN be completely DELICIOUS.
[Davin Interjection: I was pleasantly surprised by the lunch. It was probably the second or third best lunch we had (in competition with Taipei). I was concerned that it would be kind of drab, since it was all vegetarian, but they managed to provide quite a bit of variety. I am not certain I would be thrilled if I could eat nothing but vegetarian food for the rest of my life (especially vegan, since you lose cheese), but it was pretty good for just one meal!]
After lunch we had an hour to look at the temple buildings as well as take the ten minute walk through the "shopping" area on the way to the cable car station. We were going to ride the cable car down and the bus would pick us up from there. The temple hall had some magnificently carved dragon reliefs, and the main hall contained 10,000 Buddhas. This was the temple of 10,000 Buddhas that our little brother Jonathan had seen already when we met up with him, but in the end he said the 10,000 Buddhas temple in northern Kowloon was more impressive.
I more or less agree that I liked the 10,000 Buddhas Temple in Kowloon more, mostly because of the 1,000+ life-size golden Buddha statues that lined the path up the hill to the temple, but if you can go to both, then go to both. The 'Big Buddha' is worth visiting regardless, and then you are basically there, so why not enjoy the magnificent Dragon carvings at the 10,000 Buddha temple that's right next door? Davin actually found the main hall (interior) of the Lantau 10,000 Buddha temple to be more impressive. So, they are both very nice temples, and both well worth a visit!
[Davin Interjection: I can’t really decide which temple I liked more, because they are both good in their own right. The temple in Kowloon was obviously more impressive from the standpoint of the many different Buddhas that lined the path leading up to it. However, the temple here had more more impressive exterior decoration. The stone dragons carved on the walls were quite impressive. I also liked the little Buddha figures which could be seen underneath the roof, extending around the entire building. In the end, I’m glad to have seen both temples.]
We still had some money to burn through, so we looked at a nearby souvenir shop and I found some wonderful fans that are easy to transport and quite beautiful. We also found some postcards, either for the door or for mailing.
When we met up at the cable car station, our guide handed out our tickets. The 'standard cabin' was included in the tour price we paid, but we now had the opportunity to upgrade to a 'crystal cabin' with see-through glass floor for $55 HKD per person. We still had cash left, so we did the upgrade! In the end, I actually think it was worth paying for. The cable car line goes right over a river with some nice waterfalls which you cannot see as clearly or for as long if you are in a regular cabin (especially depending which side you end up sitting on). Right underneath the cable car was also the hiking trail, so we got a very clear view of that as well and it was interesting to see its most treacherous (steep) parts!
The cable car ride was AMAZINGLY long. I missed the sign that described its length, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's one of the longest in the world. Unless there are a lot more REALLY long ones scattered around the world that I don't know about, which very well could be. It is definitely the longest cable car ride I've ever been on in my life. It went up and over one mountain top, across a valley, up and over the next mountaintop, down the mountain, across a harbor to the reclaimed land of the Hong Kong airport, then hung a right and went across the water again before coming to the final station. It's possible I forgot crossing another mountain top– I don't think so though– because I was looking at the sights and not trying to memorize the cable car pathway at the time!
[Davin Interjection: If I ever go back to Hong Kong for a longer period of time, I’d be interested in hiking the trail to the Lantau Island Buddha. It looked like a decent challenge. Although, I’d hope to do it some time when there was less pollution. There were a couple of way stations along the cable car, so it looked like it might be possible to hike part of the way and then get on the cable car, or vice versa.
The cable car ride was indeed very long. It just seemed to keep going and going. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was the longest in the world! Also, the upgrade to the Crystal Cabin was definitely worth it! The view through the floor was so much better than just looking out the window!]
At the cable car station we found the winning postcard for our postcard door. It shows a cable car and the Big Buddha can be seen behind it. It's NOT the best picture of the majestic and glorious Big Buddha, but what a GREAT representation of our activities today!
The bus returned us to the ship (after an hour of driving), and we put our souvenirs in our room. We then headed off the ship to turn in our Octopus Cards (tap-on/tap-off cards used on the subways and trains here) which we had purchased for use on March 10th. We were actually supposed to go to a refresher Muster Drill, but we didn't have time to go since it would mean we might miss the chance to turn in the Octopus cards for the remaining value and deposit! When we asked the purser's desk last night, they said that we would be contacted about a 'Late Arrivals' Muster if we missed the first one.
We found our way back to the subway station where we had purchased the Octopus Cards and turned them in. It takes a really long time to walk to a subway station in Hong Kong. The tunnel that leads there just goes on and on forever! With our refund in hand, we headed out to find some dinner. The plan was to get a Pizza Hut pizza. Now that we've been to Pizza Hut in Australia, saw the menu in the Philippines, and went to one in South Korea, D thinks we should go to Pizza Hut any time we get the chance so we can compare the experiences!
It's really NOT a bad idea because when we arrived at this Pizza Hut in Hong Kong we were not prepared to find it to be a full-sized sit-down Italian Restaurant! I took pictures of the restaurant, and every page of the menu! So, the mental image we had of our plan was to obtain and eat pizza out of a cardboard box. Instead, we found ourselves sitting down in a dine-in restaurant! The next thing we noticed was that they didn't have regular crust as an option. It was either pan, thin & crispy, or stuffed crust. So, we had to modify our choice again and go with two pan pizzas.
The pizza that came was really delicious and of the usual Pizza Hut recipe. The pizza was served to us still in the cast-iron deep dish pan. The crust was REALLY good. The pineapples were sliced and quartered rather than served in the usual pineapple bit size that we're used to. This was the only negative because if you left it as-is it was not enough pineapple, but manually removing each piece and cutting it into thirds fixed the problem but required that I get more hands on with the pizza than I really wanted to– but I did.
We successfully used up all the cash we had gotten from turning in the Octopus Cards and paid the remainder with our credit card. We then headed back to the ship. The Cruise Ship Terminal in Hong Kong IS A SHOPPING MALL. Apparently it's things like this that give people the impression that the purpose of Hong Kong is for shopping! For us it meant that D was very interested in returning to the Gelato shop that we'd passed this afternoon to get some ice cream! They didn't have D's favorite (Banana) but he loaded up on Double Chocolate, Coconut and Strachiatella (Chocolate Chip). I got the same, minus the coconut– too many scoops for me! It was delicious! We took the ice cream cones with us through security and back onto the ship.
I was now exhausted! We popped back up top to get some evening photos that included images of a couple Chinese Junks. This was actually the only time we saw a Junk while in Hong Kong (on either visit). We have only good things to say about our two days in Hong Kong and about the city itself. My little brother considers the city expensive, but since the HKD is pegged to the USD its not so bad for Americans, or at least Americans who already live in a city with a high cost of living.
On our visit to the city on March 10th, we noticed meals were a bit more expensive than San Diego, but this could be due to higher cost of living or just simply due to us eating at prime restaurants versus the dirt cheap ones that we know and love back home! So, I personally would not boycott Hong Kong for financial reasons. Especially as most temples are free to visit, and most museums are very reasonably priced ($10 entry). So any increase in food and hotel costs should balance out in other areas.
So, this was the story of our most excellent and fun day spent in Hong Kong!
Next Stop: Nha Trang, Vietnam (April 1, 2016)
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