Lantau and a big Buddha

Today was a long day. We got picked up at our hotel at 8 and the first stop was the Avenue of Stars. It's like Hollywood Walk Of Fame, but with stars from Hong Kong (such as Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yung Fat, Bruce Lee and more).

After that off to a jewellery factory where we got a fast tour of how to see the difference of colour on stones, how you make a jewellery and then the jewellery that was for sale. Didn't buy a thing, although some things were really, really nice. We found out that our Zodiac was the Rabbit :)

From there we went to Tung Chung Bay where we got onto a boat. It was a 45 minutes boatride and if we were lucky we would be able to see some Pacific Humpback Dolphins. And we were! We saw some of those pink dolphins jumping in the water - so cute!

From the boat we went through the fishmarket (dry fish parts and stuff, didn't look at all tasty to me...) to Tai O Fishing Village where the houses were built on stilts, and they were very old.

Then we took the bus to the Po Lin Monastery, a very rich monastery. They've built a huge Buddha in bronse. 34 metres high! Unfortunately it was very, very foggy up there, so I couldn't take any great photos of it. We went into the Buddha's belly where we got to see ashes from the real Buddha...

At the monastery we were treated to a vegetarian meal. The soup wasn't nice at all and contained everything that Henke doesn't eat... Tofu, mushrooms and sweet corn. Haha! But the rest was pretty tasty.

We walked through the new Ngong Ping Village before taking the cablecar (25 mins ride) down to Tung Chung Bay again. It was very high up, but I didn't get scared. Maybe because most of the ride was painted in white (all the fog made the visibility zero...)...

We found out today that they don't talk about the toilet, they say they're off to the happy room. Nice! :)

Afternoon/evening spent I in the hotel room while Henke was out roaming the streets for more watches and stuff. Came back almost emptyhanded (no watch). Tomorrow we're probably off to the Hong Kong-side, but the forecast says rain, rain and more rain... :P

Oh well, going back home on Friday! Can't wait!! Guess Henke could stay out far longer, but I want to go home now... Mum and Dad - we're supposed to land at Arlanda at 21:30 (coming from Heathrow, SAS).

So, probably last entry. Thanks all for reading and commenting! It has been great reading!!

Big hugs and o a o

PS - guess what those lovely Chinese letters mean...;)

Hong Kong

Well, we're here... Strangest flight so far. Supposed to take off at 23.55 and land 06.15 (local HK-time, i e almost 11 hours in total), but we took off at 00.20 and landed at 05.25. Guess the winds were with us... Very comfortable flight in all, but the food wasn't that good :(

Been here two days now and it's interesting... I'm not that impressed. I just think there's a lot of high buildings, very trendy, mixed with old ugly houses. Too many salesmen on the streets trying to get us to some strange place for looking at Rolex watches and Gucci handbags... Not my cup of tea.
Henke likes it more. He's fascinated by the city (but he do hates the salesmen too...).

Yesterday we took it easy, exploring some of the city. We ended the day by looking at the spectacular light show over Hong Kong's harbour area. They lit up the houses, used laser and music. Quite cool actually. See if I can publish it here, as I filmed the whole thing. (no it didn't work, I'll try tomorrow instead).

Today we've done a lot of walking around Kowloon. Good excercise. Just wished that I could find something to take home... Henke bought a T-shirt, a Quicksilver sweater, a watch and surely more stuff, while I got... Candy?... Wow.

Tomorrow we're off on a sightseeing tour with a bus. We're going to Lantau, where the big Buddha is situated on the top of a hill, next to a monastery. It'll be nice to get out of Kowloon for a while... :) I guess we're aiming to go to the Hong Kong island on Thursday, to see what it's like on the other side of the water. Friday it's time to go home, veeeery early in the morning :P

Well, o a o for now... Hugs for everyone!!