Day 6 - Big Buddha and night life in Wan Chai

This day was the day of traveling to the Big Buddha on Lantau Island.  This massive Buddha sits on a mountain top and is viewed by thousands of people from around the world.  We tried to go on our last trip to Hong Kong but the lines were several hours long - like waiting in Disneyland.  Fortunately, Rich was able to buy tickets ahead of time so that we avoided the long lines to the cable cars.  Our cable car, or gondola ride was smooth and provided us with nice views of the mountains and the city below.  Lantau Island is a bigger area than Hong Kong, but only 100,000 people. When we got off of the cable ride, we stepped out to what felt like Asheville - windy weather and large mountains.  The Big Buddha is indeed impressive - looking at him from every angle is intriguing.  The area is set up like a theme park, with restaurants and gift shops abounding.    I love Buddhas of all kinds and this one must be seen by anyone like myself.  There are some other beautiful Buddhas there as well as a monastery and Buddhist temples.  We stayed several hours and took many pictures before riding the cable back down.  By the way, there is a walking path, and some people walk or bike to the top.  It is a long train ride from Hong Kong to Lantau Island, so the one way trip from our area in Hong Kong took 2 hours, meaning it was a pretty long day.  To summarize today's Buddha adventure, my favorite
part was seeing the Buddhas and Rich's favorite was riding the cable car.

One of our personal goals for this trip was to experience Hong Kong as a local resident.  This is one reason we stayed in an apartment as opposed to a hotel room. Having been here almost a week now,  I think I can grade ourselves on how well we are immersing ourselves into the local culture thus far.

Riding trains - we have nailed this one!  We dart around the train stations like a pro and know how to squeeze on an escalator with the best of them.  There are always thousands of people at the stations, particularly in the afternoons.  Generally, I have learned to keep up with Rich - those of you who know him realize that he can move pretty fast when he wants to!  Being from Boston, he learned how to handle trains years ago.  But I do think sometimes he is trying to lose me!

Grocery shopping - We are beginning to get this.  It is sometimes difficult to find common American items, like peanut butter.  And don't leave your cart unattended for even a few minutes.  The grocery employees will take it away and start to put your items back on the shelves!

Walking, walking, and more walking - I have decided that the reason Hong Kong residents are so skinny is that they walk all of the time.  There is a lot of walking in the train station itself.  So far, we average about 6-8 miles of walking a day.  So eating a lot on vacation has not been a problem so far.

We decided to stay and have dinner in our district of Wan Chai.  For one reason, we didn't want to have to deal with any more trains today. We ate at a tapas place called 22 Ships.  This place was recommended by our apartment owner, and it was excellent.  The red snapper and lamb dishes were the best food I have had here thus far.  And the setting was neat, as the food was being prepared right in front of us.  One of the cooks, another nice Aussie, gave us the name of other restaurants to try here.

We then wandered down to the "party zone" of Wan Chai.  It was a lively scene, but seems to get started a little later than Central. We wanted to do a little salsa dancing at Xperience, where we went on our last trip, but no salsa on Sat.  We ended up at a place that we had read about called "Dusk until Dawn".  This was definitely a great spot with live music, dancing, and, of course, Aussies everywhere.  Music ranged from Jimi Hendrix to the Jackson Five.  We actually ended up staying for 2 different bands, both really good.  Unfortunately, for me, drinking and dancing don't mix, so my feet were not moving where they should have been.  But we did have a great time.  As usual, the social director, Rich, found the best night spot and we got home at 1:00, late for us old folks!

One last funny bit is Club Seven Eleven.  This is the Seven Eleven on Lockhart St., the main drag of Wan Chai.  They call the store Club Seven Eleven because folks crowd around it with their drinks, right there outside!  It is really funny to see!