Day 6

Today we spent most of the day in Lantau Island. The object of our excursion was a monastery with the world’s biggest Buddha. We took 2 ferries and a bus ride to the top of the mountain. We had a monastery vegetarian meal which was not so impressive. We’re really spoiled by the high quality, inexpensive food in Portland. We have not really found anything to eat that’s better than what we have back home. We’ll try an Indian restaurant next time and see if it is better. Anyway, after eating our lunch and an enjoyable conversation, we ventured out into what was fast becoming eerie atmosphere. The clouds had come down and quickly blanketed the monastery and its surroundings. Visibility became very poor. We started climbing up the stairs that led to the Buddha statue and it started raining. The lady at the entrance was very kind and lent us jackets. After reaching the top, it got even worse and the whole statue, which is gigantic, was barely visible. So we went inside the building that supports the Buddha or you can say on which the Buddha sits. It had the history of the massive construction and paintings which depicted the Buddha’s life.