Next Adventure in the Rowland Travelogue: Lantau Island

I know, I know. This blog has basically deteriorated into a weekly travelogue. We (and by "we" I mean myself, Cody) have tried to avoid making it a "mommy" blog, but in doing so, we (again, we=Cody) kinda over-emphasize our Saturday excursions...

Well... no reason to break the chain this week, so here is our Saturday in a nutshell.

We hopped on the subway and headed for Lantau Island to see Ngong Ping 360 (I still have no idea how to say that!), the Big Buddha, Po Lin Monastery, and Tai O village. After an hour subway ride, we made it to our first destination: Ngong Ping 360, which is basically a gondola ride with no skis or snow. Here is a collection of the pictures:






That last picture has a view of the "Big Buddha" In the distance. They weren't kidding when they named it Big. The cable car drops you off at the Ngong Ping Village. This is basically just a tourist trap that uses Buddhism to sell you tchotchkes and tickets to a movie about how Buddha became Buddha. It was about a million degrees, so we just walked from one end of the "village" to the other on our way to the Buddha and the Po Lin Monastery.


Next came the Monastery. Sadly, due to the tourist trap down the road (and the fact the monks built the huge Buddha statue right across the street) this monastery is not the quiet, peaceful place you think of when you hear the word "monastery." Oh well, they rake in a lot of money through donations given by all the tourists. Here are some of the highlights:






So far this has been Nicole’s favorite temple because they do not allow incense burning on the inside of the main hall. Outside the temple, however, you can burn all you want; and the bigger the better.

After we paid our respects to the monks by taking pictures of their holy temple, we were then off to the "Big Buddha" across the street. Like I said, they weren't kidding when they named this thing big. I could try and explain it, but I'll let the pictures do the talking for me:







Cool view of the monastary from the steps up to Buddha.

Again, after we paid respects to Buddhism’s most holy man by taking lots of pictures, we boarded a bus for a crazy 15 minute ride down the mountain to the fishing village of Tai O.

It was a beautiful ride through the trees and the rain forest, the only problem was the road was only wide enough for one bus/car, and for some reason, we passed probably 10 buses and a few dump trucks on the way down. Let's just say the driver had to make liberal use of the brakes.

After we were safely down to the village, we walked around and took pictures of this incredible place. It may not be as picturesque as some of the other places we visited, but it is one of the few places in Hong Kong that has retained some aspect of its traditional way of life. Most of the houses are stilt houses built right on the water. Unfortunately, we got there at low-tide, so instead of the water lapping up against the houses, all you see is mud. Anyway, here again are some of the highlights:







Cool Rooftop of the Guan Di temple in Tai O.

So, many of you will have noticed that there aren't many pictures of us. Well, like I mentioned earlier, it was about 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) and 90% humidity. After walking around for a little while, we didn't look our best. I figure I'll save you the horror of seeing my red hot, sweaty face in every picture.

This village was cool, but kinda sad. People really live like this. I felt bad taking pictures, but then I figured I was not the first foreign tourist to take a picture here.

Anyway, this post is super long, sorry about that. Because of the time difference, we don't call our families on Sunday night anymore. This really leaves me with one thing to do: blog. (WOW! Never thought I would say that! Looks like you win again, universe.)