The Big Buddha

Friday we finally went to see the biggest Buddha on the planet! Oh, first we had Mak noodles with Veronica and her friend whose name I forgot, sitting at this tiny table. I had prawn noodles. Very yummy. I love how places here have tiny stools and tables where you have to be really efficient at positioning your food and chopsticks. By the way I rule at chopsticks now.
Then Justin and I went our separate way to see the BB. To get to it you take the MTR and then a cable car. Oh I totally forgot to mention that they have cell towers in the subway!
The Big Buddha is located on Lantau Island, which also has Disney Land HK on the other side of the island. The MTR goes to the island and then you take the cable car from there over the mountains to Ngong Ping, which is a town built just for this statue. The cable car had a malfunction about 6 months ago where one car just fell from the line. There was no one in it at the time, but obviously that's kind of a problem. So they closed for the following 6 months and redid the system completely (supposedly), and they actually just reopened New Years eve. Needless to say I was a little nervous, especially considering my fear of heights. Justin was trying to freak me out too that punk. It was very pretty, just smoggy. The smog there is same or even worse than LA. Today we were hiking on the ridge of a hill, and we looked up at the sky and could see the gradual color change from bright perfect blue to brownish. It was crazy, I've never seen anything like that before. Should've taken a picture.
Back to the gondola ride, we decided that the mountains on Lantau would make a great ski resort, and all you need to do is just make a shitload of fake snow. But first we must build up capital by working at Second Sight. Oh wait...
Anyway, as soon as we cleared the highest peak we saw the buddha. It was really cool because the view from the gondola is his silhouette, and it's just giant! It's 34m high! You'll see pics, but just imagine rolling hills in the distance, and on top of one of them is this perfect huge silhouette of a buddha. It was like something out of a movie. We read about the construction in the gift shop, which I am now realizing is inside of it, and it's pretty interesting. They made a small model first and then used software to translate the coordinates for the real thing.
First thing's first, we had ice cream as soon as we got to the town (of course you have to walk past all the shops on the way in and out). Justin scoffed at the "mainlanders" touring there, and how he has not been this far from HK island for years. Then we walked around a bit at the bottom to the temple near by and the huge hot incense pot. I gotta say, touring these temples is awesome, but I really hate the smell of incense.
Then we almost died scaling the 268 steps up to the thing. It was really pathetic. We decided he needs to stop smoking and I need to start exercising more. Then, well, what can I say, it's a ginormous buddha. It's really cool. Took as many pictures as I could. It's kinda hard to get the whole thing in when you're up there!
The rest is the same, just in reverse hehe. Except we bought a couple trinkets instead of ice cream. After this Justin and I needed a break, so he went to do errands and I went to check out the Western district, which has a lot of antique shops. Unfortunately I was too late (around 6pm) so everything was closed. Kind of a waste of an hour. I followed the lights and people and finally ended up back in Lan Kwai Fong. I found this out because I walked up some stairs and ran into Benson! Actually I already started to head back down when I heard my name called. I would probably not have turned around if I didn't have an uncommon name, at least in this country. :) Plus I was curious who this other Natasha was. Anyway, apparently Benson and Prudence had just finished dinner with her mom, so they gave me a ride home.
I met up with Justin, Veronica, and another one of her friends later at a Korean bbq place in Causeway bay (of course) for dinner, after which I decided to call it a night. I did the same thing tonight. That's why I've been able to write more, which is cool. My days are plenty full and I am so glad I did a blog. My memory is so bad!