Hong Kong: Day 3

I feel like my feet are about to fall off after the amount of walking I did today! But it was well worth it.

So today I went to Lantu island which is west of the main HK island. There ontop of the mountain there sits the biggest bronze statue of Buddha in the world. The journey there itself was an adventure. There is a cable car with a clear bottom floor which takes you up to the top of the mountain. The ride itself is a long 25minutes. The fog from yesterday still didn't dissipate, but when combined with a natural landscape it actually looks pretty cool.

There is a ban on Falun Gong in mainland China. Even here in HK you can find posters (the one of the right) that say that it is a cult. Probably from the government. What is interesting is that the poster on the left is pro Falun Gong. Perhaps democracy at work?

5.7km cable car ride. 25 minutes.

Once I arrived at the top I wandered around. The HK government built a commercial village right before the big Buddha with souvenir shops, cafes and even a subway sandwich shop. I guess they didn't see the irony of putting all these commercial enterprises right before the Buddha, but I digress. Anyways the hike up to the Buddha was teeming with people. In terms of largeness, I would say it is about the same size as the Big Buddha in Phuket which stands at 40m tall. It was impressive nonetheless.

 After the big Buddha I took a bus down to Tai O village - an idyllic fishing village nestled at the foot of the mountain. All the shops and buildings were on stilts and navigation can be done via boat or foot. I got on one of the tour boats and came full circle around the village. Once I was back on terra firma I checked out the various shops. By this time my stomach was in full give me "nom noms" mode. So I tried the first weird thing I saw - chinese pancakes. It was a chimera of crepe and Chinese fish crackers and chives. The first bite was pretty good, but the more I ate it the more I felt like puking. Anyways with the sun about to set I began to make my way back to the main city.

One bite is good, two bite is ok, three bite and you want to puke.

making Chinese pancake

bean curds and fish balls.

Around 6pm I made my way to Temple street night market by Jordan station. And similar to the nightmarkets of Phuket hawkers were showing their goods to the throng of tourists. I liked the layout of the market, it was concentrated on a long narrow road as opposed to a square. This made window shopping and getting lost almost an impossible combination.After buying some souvenirs for back home, my stomach was once again being an asshole. So I sat down on one of the outside stalls and had some Chinese seafood. The stir fried crab was really good.

nom nom nom on crabs.

So that was my third day in HK. Tomorrow I check out of my hotel and move into a 5 star hotel for my last night - like a BAUS.

Peace from HK.