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Our first full day in Hong Kong, we both wake up early, have a cold shower ( later we found out that Blue means hot and Red means cold! ) and head out for breakfast with our new found friend from New Brunswick who is also staying in our dorm. We ended up at this "coca - cola " place where the obvious theme was coke. So much so that we suspect our breakfast even had some mixed in.
Breakfast was basic since most dim sum places didn't open till 830-9. I had a squished/grilled ham and processed cheese sand which for HKD$28 ( about $3 Canadian ) and a coconut milk tea ( HKD$16 ). The milk tea was fantastic, a must to try in hong kong or china. Alyssa and Sarah both had waffles with strawberries for about the same price. Which apparently were good.
Later on we departed Sarah, as she had to fly back to Beijing to for work.
And caught the Metro ( MTR ) to central station where we jumped on another train to Lantau island.
Once we got there it was fairly easy to find out way to the tram which would take us up to the peak an the giant tourist Budha/Temple.
Sadly the weather was crap. And had we prepared for in advance ( ie been in decent physical condition ) we would have hiked to to the top. ( about a 2.5-3 hour hike up a marked trail with lots of stairs ) So we took the tram up like everyone else, except one guy we passed over who looked like he was 70 and seemed to be struggling hard.
The visibility was poor, and winds were high. Best to pick a clear day if possible. After about a 25 min tram ride to the top. We go through this ancient Chinese village full of, star bucks, subway, and over priced chopsticks and souvenirs ( I didn't know they had these back then! )
We start walking up the stairs to wards the great massive Budha, an pick up a "meal pass" for HKD$25 each it allows you to go Into the Budha ( but not the prayer hall ) and see some beautiful murals describing the history of Budha.
Not really worth it! To be honest! Worth going to see the Budha, and I'm sure it would have been amazing during a bright sunny day. But what was worth it was the "snack" after 2 pieces of big dim sum, a drink and a pile of noodles!
Another cool thing to do, is once down form the Budha, before you go to the temple. Sneak right and walk to this prayer area. You go through a massive green house which wasn't in bloom, but when it is i bet it would be fantastic. Plus you don't have to fight with all the tourists.
For those of you that don't want to take the enlightened ancient walk up the last hundred steps. Conveniently the ancient munks built a road and big busses to drive your lazy ass up! If an 80yo hunch back can do it, I'm sure you can.
On the tram we got the glass bottom tram. Kinda neat but if your strapped for cash. Don't bother. It's not much more. But you also don't gain much.
At the bottom in Tung Cheng square. Where beautiful high density apartments line the skies. They had a nice fountain water show in the centre. Which me, being me, decided to go dancing and running through it. Having all the people staring at me like I was nuts... But I already knew that.
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