Big Buddha

Saturday 23 November

I wanted to go to one of the islands and plumped for Lantau and the Big Buddha. The MTR train there was full and included people going to Disneyland. Not that the Big Buddha was far off Disneyland. There’s a vastly expensive cable car package being sold at Tung Chung with a massive queue. I decide to take the bus. The ride was long; uphill and downhill and two girls from I don’t know where sat next to me. The closer one asked if she could have her photo taken with me and her friend took a couple of pictures with her snuggling up to me. I thought my luck was in; but their English was non-existent. I couldn’t see how it would work! The relationship ended when the bus arrived.

The big Buddha is, as they say awesome, It was only built in the 1980s after monks from the nearby monastery visited Japan and saw a big Buddha there and decided they wanted one.

From The BB I got a bus to Tai O, an old fishing village built on stilts. Although a massive tourist destination, the village seems to have retained some integrity and conventional fishing is encouraged there! 

Tai O is quite large and I found I needed a bit of time to get into the mood of it. I stayed on until nightfall and got the bus and MTR home. Having had a lunch of noodles at the monastery that didn’t seem entirely to agree with me, I had a spartan evening meal and went tor a brief walk rejecting the advances of the ladies of Lockhart road. ...........