The first leg of our journey was to Hong Kong, but instead of flying to Hong Kong (which is an international flight from Shanghai) we took the cheaper option and flew into Shen Zhen, a Chinese boarder city. Upon landing in Shen Zhen we had to find our way to Hong Kong. We quickly learned this was a pretty popular idea because they had charter buses running across the boarder into Hong Kong. We were the last ones on the bus and Jeremy sat next to a nice man from Hong Kong we was eager to talk to him and explained the whole process. After about 45 minutes the bus dropped us off on one side of this huge customs building in the middle of nowhere. We went in and stood in one line to depart China and then another to immediately enter Hong Kong. The Hong Kong residents had an "easy-pass" type thing to quickly go through, but the Chinese had to wait in the same visitors line as us, hmm. The friendly man waited for us on the other side, and the bus drove around the building and picked us up. We got on and began driving on the opposite side of the road, officially in Hong Kong. Thee bus drove for about 30 more minutes and dropped us off somewhere on Hong Kong Island. We found the closest metro, took it 3 stops and then walked out to find our hostel. We stayed in a guest house in Causeway Bay. It ended up being right in the middle of everything, a nice surprise.
At this point it was about 10pm and we had been traveling for a good 9 hours, and we were starving. We walked around the area, trying to find anything by Chinese food and we ended up at a diner-type place with the teenage population of Hong Kong and ate gross diner food like it was the best thing we had ever tasted.
Jeremy's yummy diner food (he finished the whole plate)Our trip to Hong Kong was kind of a layover trip on the way to Bangkok which we tryed to make into a full tour. The next morning we woke up early, armed with our Frommer's guide to Hong Kong and a map from the hostel. We headed out to harbor where we took the ferry to Lantau, an island off of Hong Kong and home of the largest sitting Buddha in the world.
Photos on the ferry:
When we got off the ferry we took a local bus. When we got off the bus we saw...
The Great Tian Tan Buddha sitting on the Ngong Ping Plateau (2,421 ft). According to Frommer's the Buddha was built in 1993 and is the largest outdoor, sitting, bronze Buddha (over 98 feet tall, weighing 250 tons).
Getting ready to climb the 260 steps
Almost there...
Here we are!
If you'd like 150 artistic pictures of the largest sitting Buddha in the world, just email us. I only chose a couple of the favorites to upload.
Almost there...
Here we are!
If you'd like 150 artistic pictures of the largest sitting Buddha in the world, just email us. I only chose a couple of the favorites to upload.
The Bodhisattvas offering gifts to Buddha.
Inside of the Buddha was a small museum, which contained really beautiful old manuscripts and paintings, some of which were done in blood. At the top of a spiral staircase was a sacred relic.
Inside of the Buddha was a small museum, which contained really beautiful old manuscripts and paintings, some of which were done in blood. At the top of a spiral staircase was a sacred relic.
In the town surrounding the giant Buddha was the Po Lin Monestary, established over 100 years ago, however these buildings date back to 1921-1970.
At the monastery we enjoyed a traditional vegetarian meal prepared by the monks. The prayer on our table read, "Work with justice, so you won't regret and don't afraid of becoming poor, What we have got in our lives is not decided by us, but our fate. We should be modest throughout our lives."
After lunch we wandered around the monastery.
At the monastery we enjoyed a traditional vegetarian meal prepared by the monks. The prayer on our table read, "Work with justice, so you won't regret and don't afraid of becoming poor, What we have got in our lives is not decided by us, but our fate. We should be modest throughout our lives."
After lunch we wandered around the monastery.
This is the main temple where these three Buddha's sit, representing the past, present, and future.
There were beautiful offerings of flowers, fruit, and incense all over the grounds.
We left the monastery looking for the cable cars that would take us back to Hong Kong Island. We walked through a recently created village for tourists with souvenir shops made to look traditional. Of course, we participated in such tourist activities.
We rode the cable cars back to the Island. Since it was a Tuesday there were no lines anywhere, which was great. However, when we got to the cable car, they were filling these 15 person cars with 3-4 people who came together, which made it take longer. We over heard some other Americans laughing about this as well, so we invited them to join our cable car ride. They were from Missouri and Florida and teaching English in Heng Zhou, a suburb of Shanghai.
We left the monastery looking for the cable cars that would take us back to Hong Kong Island. We walked through a recently created village for tourists with souvenir shops made to look traditional. Of course, we participated in such tourist activities.
At the end of the ride, we took the metro to Kowloon and walked down the Avenue of the Stars!
Jeremy and I being STARS!
The view of Hong Kong from Kowloon
We sat at a bar on the Avenue of the Stars people watching and then headed to dinner at a great hole in the wall Indian restaurant.
After dinner, we raced back to the hostel to grab our bags, head to the airport, and make our 9:30pm flight to Bangkok! Talk about making the most of 1 day in Hong Kong!
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