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Tom C-B's Travels 2006
TUESDAY
Still not fully recovered after Monday night's horror show, Kim did well to muster up enough enthusiasm for us to start our big adventure in search of the "tallest Buddha in Asia". The Buddha was situated at the 'Po Lin Monastery' in 'Tung Chung' on Lantau Island, so we navigated various metro lines and bus routes before arriving at our destination. What we saw took our breath away - the Buddha sat on a platform up countless numbers of steps, with his head wreathed in low cloud. Unfortunately, when we got to the top it was a little too cloudy for us to take any decent photos, but it was still amazing - I'm not sure how big exactly the Buddha statue was but, take it from me, you wouldn't want to meet him in a bar fight!! After we had pottered around the surrounding temples, we made our way back to Kowloon. We had planned that we would get down to the harbour in the evening so that we could watch the lights show on Hong Kong from across the water, but our timing somewhat let us down. We arrived about 3 minutes too late, and just to really rub salt in the wound, the heavens duly opened. Ducking and weaving our way through throngs of people all wanting to find shelter from the downpour, we managed to find our way to Hong Kong's 'Avenue of Stars' on the harbour promenade. We were only allowed a cursory glance at the plaques and handprints before we were once more forced to take cover from the rain. We ended up in a cosy and very comfortable coffee shop overlooking the harbour, so we settled in for the night and sat out the storm. Three and a half hours later (yeah, I know!!) we emerged from our shelter to find that the rain was subsiding, and that we were safe to make our way back to the hotel. Naturally, we crashed out...
WEDNESDAY
Our last full day in Hong Kong and we were determined to make full use of the Tung Choi Street Market (The Ladies Market) which we had fleetingly visited on Monday. Another success story as Kim continued where she left off in fine form, buying 3 tops and a big handbag/holdall for a combined price of $220! I simply stood back and watched a master at work, and of course bought some food (noodles with beef and black bean sauce in case you were wondering) to sustain me until dinner! For said dinner, we had arranged a second meeting with Nobihuko and his family, as it was his sister-in-law's last night in Hong Kong before she went back to Tokyo. We were invited to their flat in the smart 'Fortress Hill' district of Hong Kong Island, where we went out for dinner at a beautiful local restaurant called 'Lanzhou La Mian Xiao Long Bao'. The food was sublime, with soupy dumplings, fried noodles, and sweet and sour fish, my favourite dish of the evening. After a thoroughly enjoyable evening, we bade our farewells at the MTR station, and carried our full stomachs all the way back to the hotel. A fitting last day to round off what has been a truly eye-opening, mouth-watering, action-packed week.
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