The Big Buddha

Well, we didn't make it to Macau yesterday. Tom left his passport at work, and one is required to go to there, so we went to the Po Lin Monastery to see the "Big Buddha" instead.

And we took just about every form of transportation to get there; a taxi to Central, a ferry to Mui Wo on Lantau Island, a bus to Po Lin and then another bus to Tung Chung, the MTR back to Central and finally a taxi to Parkview! Sheesh!

The town of Mui Wo on Lantau reminded me a bit of Oceanside. We checked out the cooked food market and the tourist stalls selling flip flops, hats and sunscreen and then decided to have lunch before we headed up the hill to the Buddha. We found an outdoor place overlooking the bay called "Tak Kee Seafood." Once again, the local food did not diappoint.

Afterward, we headed to the bus stop and caught the #2 to Po Lin. It was a really nice ride that took us past lots of little beach towns that dot the coast. By "town" I mean a small store, a restaurant and a few houses behind that.

On the way we saw some beautiful views of the rainforest and the ocean. We started looking for those huge spiders between the trees whenever the bus slowed down. We saw MANY. Any spiders you can see from a moving vehicle are just way too big.

It took about 35 minutes to reach the Buddha. We arrived in the late afternoon so most of the tourists were gone. Now, some of my friends have just taken pictures from the bottom, but I figured that since we've just made such a long trip, we might as well go ALL the way.

So 250 stairs later we made it to the top. It was beautiful view. We could see all the way to the ocean.

After walking back down the stairs we went to the temple. It was very serene and peaceful with Koi ponds and gardens.

Then the kids (including Tom) got some ice cream at one of the stands at the market outside the temple and we caught the #23 bus to Tung Chung where we could pick up the MTR back to Central. What an unbelievable bus ride. The road was only a lane and a half wide so there was lots of pulling over and letting the other cars and busses pass. Some of the towns we passed through had cows freely wandering the streets. (Perhaps there are Hindus in town??) And once again the contrasts are amazing. After the bus crested over the top of the hill, you could see the glass and steel buildings of Tung Chung.

This will probably be the last weekend I have off until we come home, so hopefully I can talk Tom or one of the girls to keep taking photos and posting on the blog.

Enjoy the photos from this weekend.