The Big Buddha

 

We dropped Kate off at work and went to meet our friend Joni and her adorable kids Conor and Clara.  We decided to head off to see the Big Buddha!  We took the MTR, the super clean, super easy and super fast subway to Lantau Island.  From there is was a quick cable car up to see the Big Buddha.

 

 

 

 

Oh wait, that’s right it was the longest cable car you could ever imagine taking.  See those tall buildings on the right?  That’s where we started.  When we neared the top of this hill we thought we were there, but we hadn’t even gone halfway.

 

 

See the buildings on the right, that’s where we started!  After two more mountain ranges we finally caught a glimpse of the Big Buddha. 

 

 

You can catch a glimpse of the Big Buddha way off in the distance behind the wire on the left.  Luckily, everyone on board loved every minute of this.  We also opted for the glass bottom, which led to some stomach flipping at times but was beautiful.

 

 

 

This looks like Adam is standing on a mountain of broccoli

 

 

The boys were a little wary at first and who can blame them!  This was a high and long cable car!

 

 

But after a couple of minutes we all relaxed and enjoyed the views.

 

 

Every time another cable car would pass going in the opposite direction, this would happen.

 

It’s pretty rare to have three children looking at the camera at the same time, well done Randy.

 

By the end of the trip, this is what the car looked like.

 

  

Once we were off the cable car we walked around and took some pictures. 

 

 

 

After Randy explained to Adam that these poses were definitely NOT zen like we tried again.

 

 

But it turns out Adam just wanted to pose with the better looking group.  Rightly so Adam, that’s where you belong.

 

 

We walked around a bit saying hi to the locals and taking in the sights.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was time to walk up a couple of stairs to the Big Buddha.

 

Can you tell we were all up until 2:30?

 

 

 

After  a yummy vegetarian lunch at the monastery (well yummy for 7 bucks) we headed back down.

 

 

 

What a fantastic day and such a great way to spend time with our friends!  We later found out that the Big Buddha was actually built in the 90s…i guess that solves the riddle of how the monks got all that bronze up all those hills.  This maybe should have tipped us off.  But this was still a great day out!

 

 

 

After this it was home to bed for Adam.  With a trusted babysitter, the adults got to out to a delicious dinner at Restoration.  When Kate and Gavin first mentioned we were going out to Creole in Hong Kong, Randy and I were both a bit curious.  But this was by far the best meal we’ve had since New York.  Amazing food and amazing company.  After dinner we headed out for a nightcap, so much fun…and definitely worth it even when Adam woke us up at 6:15 the next morning! 

 

 

ps- you’ll all be glad to know that thanks to Kate lending us her camera charger (I forgot to pack our charger and it’s currently sailing on a boat with the rest of our stuff somewhere in the Pacific) this is the last of the Iphone pics you’ll have to suffer through 🙂 Thanks Kate, one more reason we love you 🙂