Today was a fabulous day in Hong Kong. We slept in and woke up to a bit of rain that blew over by the time we had finished breakfast. Then we hopped on the subway (which is super easy to use) and headed out to Lantau Island, passing Hong Kong Disneyland on the way, to see the giant Ngong Ping Buddha. After getting off the subway we got to take a high flying sky cab across the beautiful green mountains to the opposite side of the island. We had quite the views of Hong Kong for a bit, and then it vanished behind the hills. There was a cute little shopping area waiting for us when we got off the sky cab, complete with STARBUCKS. Before indulging ourselves with a cool Frappaccino, we hiked up 268 stairs to see the giant copper Buddha. Just to give you an idea of his immensity, he was 86 feet tall in a sitting position. The view from the top was breathtaking and reminded us of Hawaii with mist-shrouded mountains and ocean views.
After our Starbucks break, we experienced a very cool multi-media presentation of Siddhartha Guatama’s life. As we walked out, we thought we heard thunder, but it turned out to be a traditional drum performance presented by a group of about 30 students. We were very impressed and surprised by the special presentation, which was upbeat and entertaining.
After riding the sky cab back across the island, we popped into an outlet mall and visited a few stores, including a HUGE grocery store. We were surprised to see Doritos, Colby Jack cheese, Duncan Hines cake mixes, and many other American necessities :). Then, it was back to the hotel for a scrumptious afternoon tea and catching up on a bit of blogging.