VacAsian Day Twenty Three (Sunday, 25 May, Hong Kong)

We had a great buffet breakfast at the hotel this foggy morning, then taxied to Tung Ching, an area adjacent to the airport, where we jumped on a cable car and climbed up through the clouds to Ngong Ping Village and the Po Lin Monastery, home of the Giant Buddha.

Despite it being late in the morning, the fog was not burning off, so it was cool, but muggy when we reached the top. Ngong Ping Village is not a quaint, provincial burg, but a tidy, modern (and contrived) collection of shops, cafes, restaurants, and more shops between the cable car station and the Po Lin Monastery. We bypassed the shops and beelined for the Monastery and the Giant Buddha. At the entrance to the Monastery, we stopped and studied a map that seemed to indicate that the Giant Buddha was through the Monastery grounds on the opposite end from where we were.

Only after we walked all the way through the Monastery grounds and back to the map did we realize that we were standing directly in front of the Giant Buddha, just steps away from its base. So thick was the fog that we missed the enormous bronze statue resting on its 20+ story pedestal. So "giant" was the Buddha and so close to us was it that had it been human, it could have slapped us in the backs of our heads as if to say "I'm over here, HueBin."

We mounted the long and slippery staircase up to the Buddha, still barely able to see it. Closer to the top, the detail and enormity of the statue became more clear. When we reached the top - yes, Huey made it to the top - we were in awe of the sheer size and power of the massive idol, a rendition of a traditional Buddha sitting cross-legged on a lotus flower. All around us, Buddhists prayed and meditated as the fog continued to swirl. Even for non-Buddhists, it was an enlightening and humbling experience. By the time we returned to the base, the fog had again become so thick we could no longer see the Giant Buddha.

As you probably guessed from our not so subtle foreshadowing, we stopped to shop in Ngong Ping Village on our way back to the cable car station. We enjoyed the cable car ride down, as we had the car to ourselves. We taxied back to the hotel, where we wound down a bit before walking to another part of Kowloon to have a late lunch at a Cantonese restaurant recommended by Robin's boss Mark van der Helm's wife, Vanessa, a native of Hong Kong who provided us with a great list of things to do, see, and eat in and around Hong Kong. Unfortunately, though none of our Hong Kong guidebooks told us so, Fook Lam Moon closes between lunch and dinner, i.e., when we got there, so we walked back to the hotel, window shopping along the way.

We returned to Fook Lam Moon a few hours later for dinner, where Huey tried shark fin soup. The food was good, the service was impeccable, and the prices were ridiculous, thought not "Mezzaluna in Bangkok ridiculous" (see VacAsian Day Nineteen). We stopped for ice cream at Ben & Jerry's on our way back and stopped at Temple Street Night Market for more shopping before returning to our room.

As this was our last night in Hong Kong, rather than pack it in, we headed out to the Star Ferry for the short ride across Victoria Harbour from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island to take pictures of the brilliant Hong Kong skyline. The "crossing" takes less than 10 minutes in each direction, but we got great pictures both from the Harbour and from the Hong Kong side.

Back at the hotel, we finished postcards, journaled, blogged, and began to pack. Tomorrow we leave for "The Land of the Rising Sun."