Lantau Island-Biggest Outdoor Buddha in HK

20/02/2005

After wandering some time in Central HK, Fox and I took the subway to go back to Kowloon. Would like to add a little note on the underground system in HK because I was very impressed. I have ever experienced such a "user friendly ", good maintenance and efficient metro system! The station was very clean, interm of safety, I give them 10/10. There was a long glass door in front of you, before the metro comes, this door will be closed, so there is no way, one can commit suicide (you never know). When the metro comes, you are asked to give way to the people who come out from the metro (not like in Belgium, you are reached with bunches of people who tried to get on before letting you off). The system works a bit similar to Paris system on a smaller scale, however, you can never be lost. The system just does not allow you to get off in a destination that were not entered by you (when you buy your ticket). For instance, if you entered info into the ticket machine to go to the Mongkok area, you can only get out of the station in Mongkok, not before or after that destination!. Also, the HK people is very responsible, the ticket will be automatically taken by the machine when you put it into it to get out of the station, and everywhere there is a slogan about keeping the city clean, and recycling...

We arrived in Kowloon at last, went back to the hotel, so Fox could call Ada's parents (our colleague). We were invited for dinner with them. The dinner was impressive, it was apparently a typical New Year dinner with all the rare and expensive food (food that were only eaten by ChineseKings, Queens before) such as big oyters, lobters, shark fins, a roasted milky young pig... (is it how they are called-but this is how Vietnamese call them)..In general, a big fat meal, then dessert was the sweet red bean, supposed to be very good and bring luck ;-). The Chinese use a lot of red bean while VNese with the same sort of cake or dessert, we use green bean instead...I felt almost asleep on the table because I was so tired from the trip but most of it was because of having too much food ;-)

We said good bye to Ada's family, went back to the hotel, rest abit, then headed to HK Hard Rock cafe ;-), Fox's favourite cafe!! The band was quite nice, but the cocktail were really bad, Actually Fox had an ice-cocktail instead of an actual cocktail ;-), I took a cosmopolitan, but really the one Fox prepared at my BBQ last year was much better.

The bar opened until 1am or so, so we left, and of course before we left, we picked two HK Hard Rock cafe sweaters (they have a shop downstairs selling these items, and upstairs was the bar...) ;-)) Cool!!

21/02/2005

Fox is preparing to leave today, his flight is at 11 or 12am, so he awoke early to take the taxi to the train station to checked in. Took me some time to get up, by the time I finished my shower, Fox was back. He checked out (I stayed with Fox the day before), I checked in ;-), stayed one more night in HK. After I leave my stuffs in the hotel, we went to have breakfast, again dimsum of course. We didn't order a lot this time...We ate fast because Fox was running out of time. He took a taxi to the airport for his flight, I went back to the hotel, asked them if they can book my train ticket to Guangzhou for the day after. When everything was booked, paid, and I would have my ticket delivered later on in the day. I headed to HK Harbour city, took a ferry tp Hk islands, and from there change to a ferry number 4 if I remembered correctly to Lantau Island to see to Biggest Outdoor Buddha. It took about 45mins by ferry, and then another 1h by minibus to get there. The bus was pretty small, and they also rode on the left side like it is in England.

The weather was quite chilly, but the view was quite impressive. The buddha is huge!! and was built on the top of a hill. While I was still amazed by the place, some Chinese started speaking Chinese to me, I was just smiling and explaining that I am not Chinese. They asked me to shoot pictures for them with the Buddha in view. So I found them a nice spot, shot pictures, and asked them to have a look, if not ok, I would make it again. They were happy with them, said thanks...I bought the ticket which included a vegetarian lunch at the monastery, then climbed to the top where the Buddha is, took some pcitures from there, climbed down (very high btw). Time to eat..Yupie!!! It was simple but weird the first thing they brought, but ok that was food for monks, nuns, so I shouldn't complain. I used to eat in pagodas for free in VN so many times, I experienced all the good food that they made from tofu or soya beans. I loved the bean curd dessert that was made from soya beans, so good, and when you eat it, it is supposed to calm your body temperature down ;-). My whole family has a bad temperature gene, we get upset very easily, so this is perfect for me hehehehe!! I went around visiting the place before taking the bus to the fishing village (which I missed at the end ;-(((.

I went back to Kowloon, decided to go for a food massage (the experience was bad and good), so I bargained with the Indian girl for the price. BTW, I love bargaining, for a cheaper price is only a small reason but I was born in a place where everything was for bargaining too ;-). It's a culture thing, when you bargain, you interact with the seller, thus relationship is built, then you can just chit chat...I remembered my first bargaining experience was when I decided to buy a pair of shoes that I liked, not those tight shoes that my mom used to convinced me to wear to help my feet get smaller because my feet were big (well, I am tall!!!), and it's not nice for a girl to have big feet. Plus, it is difficult to find shoes ;-)). BTW, the shoes that I bought were very ugly, preferred mom's choices at the end!! I should thank my mom for that otherwise my feet will be like those of an elephant ;-))). Anyway, the Indian girl brought me to the massage place (btw, we were just bargaining on the street where she handed out flyers about the massage place), so after a few more phone calls, we agreed for a price. Then I waited for the masseus, he was about 40 something, fat guy, and does not speak any English. He took out a couples of hot white towels, clean my feet with them, then put on the massage cream, then massage. The feet is where all our nerve systems are...Gosh, it was quite hurtfull at the begining-the thing is-because they are used to massage that their hands are so strong. I told him to massage softly because I was a beginner, but he didn't understand, so i just said "Ai" when it hurted, he just laughed at me. I had also a neck and shoulders massages but it was too painfull. When I took the shower later before bed, I saw from the neck to the shoulders, there were only bruises!!

But do not let my experiences scares you, it is definitely worth it to try, at least the foot massage was very good. It was not just simple push into your feet but to where the points link to (like one specific point links to your heart, other links to your kidneys, lung...etc). Next time, I will try the Thai massage where some girls will stand on your back, he he that will be nice!