Day 6 - Saturday June 27, 2009

I woke up at 6 this morning and tried to make plans for the day to Lantau and Lamma. By 8 am everyone was ready and we were on the MTR heading to Lantau, an island of Hong Kong. Before leaving the station we stopped at a bakery for some delicious "Cheese Toast," it was really more like plain white bread with some cheese baked on the top, but it was delicious. CKE and I split the loaf, which is 5 pieces. After breakfast we got on the bus to go see the Big Buddha.

The bus ride was terrifying and beautiful at the same time. We drove way too fast along a cliff on another curvy narrow road with a lot of blind spots. We honestly didn't think the bus would be able to make it up the steep hills... We also saw a lot of beautiful mountains and what we think was a rock quarry along with two prisons.

When we finally got to the Buddha it was AWESOME. It is a 102 foot tall bronze Buddha at the peak of a mountain overlooking the island. He weighs 250 tons. It wasn't open quite yet when we got there so CKE and I went in search of the Wisdom Walk. It was a long walk, but on the way we saw:

• A stray dog that followed us
• An abandoned looking Tea House
• A HUGE worm...bigger than CKE's foot
• A furry caterpillar
• Another squatter toilet
• A moss covered tree
• A creepy Hostel in the middle of no where
• And a Campsite

When we reached the Wisdom Walk the view of the surrounding hills was amazing. There was a phoenix sculpture at the bottom of the hill. The Wisdom Walk itself is made up of 38 pillars (half circle logs...) with Chinese characters on them quoting messages of peace and tranquility. The stone path leading through the pillars was in a figure 8 and up the side of a hill. The place was a bit foggy and deserted when we got there which gave it an eirie feeling.

Then we went back to the Big Buddha (Which is actually called the Tian Tan Buddha) and climbed the 270 steps to the top. It was awesome. You could go inside the Buddha to a museum, which was lame, but it led to another floor up so you were right at the base of the Buddha. After looking at the view for a while (which was not spectacular, because it was really foggy) we went to the Po Lin Monastery for a "drink and snack" that came with your HK$23 ticket purchase. The snack (between CKE and I) was 2 cokes, 2 plates of noodles, a bbq sauce roll, a sugar covered donut, a fruit pastry deal, and a sesame filled thing - they were all really good. It would have been nice to look around the monestary more but it was so foggy all day that we couldn't see much more than 20 feet in front of us. Before leaving we used the bathrooms, which, in the ladies were mostly squatters - I thought about giving them a try, but chickened out.

After the Monestary CKE and I split up with Geoff and Danika and headed back to Hong Kong in hopes of fitting in Lamma as well (It was only 12 by the time we finished Lantau). By the time we took the bus and train back to HK it was pouring rain off and on...we were told a typhoon was headed for HK in the morning...we didn't want to risk getting trapped on an island so we made other plans. We went to see Transformers 2! It was really good and cost us about 5 dollars. We also got more bakery goods - a chocolate pastry and a "Chocolate Bear Bun" - both were delicious.

We took the train back to Kowloon and looked at the "Avenue of the Stars" with Jackie Chans handprints and a statue of Bruce Lee. We also saw the beautiful view of the Southern Island from the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade. We walked through the Salsbury Garden and up Nathan Road to the Kowloon Park. It was beautiful with flowers, water jets, water falls, an aviary (including flamingos), and loads of paths and small structures.

We headed back to the hostel via Nathan Road for some Tsingtao Berr, more bakery treats (raisen walnut bread and chocolate muffins), and much needed R&R. All in all a good last day in Hong Kong.