Today was the visit to Lantau Island (and in retrospect I have to say one of my favorite parts of the trip!). The cable car ride was a wonderful experience, and it was nice to finally see some of the Chinese countryside. While Hong Kong is beautiful, seeing the mountains and a taste of what the landscape is supposed to look like gave me a little insight into Chinese paintings. All I could think of on the cable car ride (and the trip in general) was "Gosh! I wish I could see this all in the summer!" Wow, I can only imagine what it must look like with everything blooming more than it already was.
Seeing the Big Buddha was awesome, although I do have to agree with Lauren that it was sad to see everything so commercialized. It's also hard to truly take in the magnificence of it all when there are a thousand people walking around. If I were a monk I'd be really irritated by it, but I guess you can't keep something so beautiful all to yourself. :-) And, being a vegetarian, of course I have to comment on the meal we had at the monestary. IT WAS THE BEST MEAL I HAD IN CHINA. Where were they hiding all that stuff in Hong Kong?!? If I could, I'd take a monk home to cook for me. Mmmm...
It was really neat to go to Tai O and see how the colloquial people live. I can't believe how tiny the houses are! I know they must work their butts off in that little village, but there was something so quaint about it. The best part of it was seeing Hong Kong as close to it's original state as we could have - as a tiny fishing village. The city is great, but a city is a city is a city. The way to really get to know a country is by it's towns and villages. It's really inspired me to come back or go somplace new and rather than visiting a main city, go to some random villages and see what it's REALLY like to live there.
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