HongKongavong Adventure!: Big Buddha!!

After a long February, I finally made it back home to Hong Kong last Tuesday and I couldn't have been more excited! (except for the fact that all that traveling gave me a cold! BOOOOO) That didn't stop me though, and Eric and I went out Wednesday night with some of Eric's coworkers to celebrate me being back in town..but mainly to go to the horse races :P...that turned into a long night. Geez. The one thing I miss about home..but at the same time don't really miss too much is the fact that bars actually CLOSE. Especially on weekdays. It's a nice little way of saying, "hey, you've got work tomorrow..REMEMBER? It's late." Every day here the bars have the same schedule, nobody gives you a reminder that you should get home, or cuts you off at a bar..especially in Wan Chai where it's ladies night everywhere and you can get free vodka, gin or rum drinks till the breakabreaka dawn. UGH. It's exhausting. And the group that all went out on Wednesday..and again on Friday...and again on Saturday, decided that we're detoxing this week. THANK GOODNESS. I've never been so excited to sit on my butt and drink water all week! yaaaay!!

This weekend was an absolute blast though, Eric's sister and brother-in-law's friend, Amit, came to stay with us. He had been traveling everywhere; Cambodia, Bali, Thailand, etc. and Hong Kong was his last stop, so we had to show him a good time! He got in Friday night and tried to "drink us under the table"...that was his goal for the weekend..and he soon realized that Eric had been taught to drink whiskey by David (his brother-in-law)..so Amit had no chance. haha. We ended up just hanging around LKF on Friday, going into random bars..decided to call it quits around 2:30 because I had to wake up for work in the morning..oh to be young! ;) Amazingly, Saturday I woke up at 7am for work..weird. So I went into work early, got off at noon..wanted to go to the beach..but then I came home and fell asleep for 5 hours..hahaha, my body did NOT like that I stayed out so late!

Saturday night, Amit and I decided that we would go up to Ngong Ping and see the Po Lin Monastery and the Big Buddha! Eric had work at 3, so he couldn't join us :(. For some reason, Sunday morning I woke up at 7am again..seriously..it's freaking me out..and I was ready to go by 8am..little did I know that the boys were wanting to sleep in...they didn't wake up until 10:45...I was bored out of my mind! We started the day off right with some Dim Sum at IFC mall, this place we went to is known around the world for their BBQ pork buns..and OMGGAAAHHH they were incredible!! We sat and ate at the top of IFC in the roof garden, that's going to become a routine, the roof garden was beautiful and had such a great view! After that we decided to start making the trek up to Ngong Ping. We had to take the MTR all the way out to Tung Chung Station (about 40 mins) then grab a bus to Ngong Ping (about 50 mins). Ngong Ping is on Lantau Island and it was a beautiful drive. So many beaches and lush forests, I had to really fight the urge to ask the bus driver to stop at the beach..it looked so tempting. We arrived in Ngong Ping around 3:30pm and were amazed. It was so pretty there and the village of Ngong Ping was adorable, super touristy, but hey, I loved it! :) There's a gondola you can take that's called the "Ngong Ping 360 Crystal Cabin", it's a gondola with glass walls that goes up and around a few mountains..we decided to pass on that..(Mom and Dad we WILL be doing that when you get here!) We spent a few hours walking around Ngong Ping village and the Po Lin Monastery, then walked up to the Big Buddha. My legs have obviously adjusted well to walking a bunch of stairs around the city, because the stairs up to Big Buddha were nooo problem..I did hear quite a few people huffin and puffin though, it made me feel better. haha.

The Big Buddha was absolutely gorgeous. It was HUGE. We read about all of the history of Buddhism and how the bronze statue was created, which was really interesting and made me think of Eric's family..they're so amazing. We stayed up there as long as we could, then it started to get a little chilly. As we were heading back down on the bus, I passed out..along with almost every other person on that bus. haha it was a very silent ride.

I felt as if I took so many pictures when I was there..but now looking at them, it doesn't seem like as many! Oh well :) Missing you all back home! Can't wait to see you guys in July!