My first day

The view from the airplane as we coasted over hong kong island and kowloon is simply breathtaking. Most of the island was a dark hill, except for the settlements on the top of victoria peak. All the brightly lit sky scrapers gathered together at the foot of the island and separated by water from a similar gathering at the head of Kowloon. I wish i had gotten my camera out in time :)

Getting from the airport to my hostel was surprisingly easy. I took airport bus #11 to causeway bay and the hostel was only a block further. This place is located in the "fashion district" which consists of a group of brightly lit high end stores teeming with people at 9 pm on a friday night. there is even a Starbuck's two doors down from us (horrors) although the coffee is quite expensive compared to the espresso drinks. My post-travel shower definitely ranks up there with some of my best ever. I did an ok job of sleeping through the night, considering the 13 hour time difference. Staying up for 30 hours tends to help a great deal with jet lag.

I have two roommates. One of them is a british girl named Emily, very friendly and way younger than me. I decided to travel with her today to Lantau, one of the outlying islands, which houses both the airport and a very famous monastery, including the largest bronze seated Buddha in asia. First we got breakfast at the department store across the street, which included mango yogurt and this crazy assortment of sliced fruit, including kiwi, pineapple, watermelon, and this stuff called dragon fruit whose inside resembles a white radish riddled with black poppy seeds. It's juicy and mild, but nothing to write home about (unlike rambutan and mangosteins). We took one of the very old, very tall and thin wooden trolley cars along the main drag to the ferry terminal. Consumerism and exported american and european culture are everywhere, including lifesized Nike posters featuring various NBA stars.

It was quite an overcast day, which made the ferry ride to Lantau somewhat of a disappointment.. What would have been a dramatic passage between scores of rocky islands was mostly obscured by fog. From the base of the island at Mui Wo, we took the bus over the island to the monastery of Po Lin and the Tian Tan buddha statue. The center of Lantau is mostly covered with rock and vegetation, save for the windy ribbon cut through for the road. Po Lin monastery was beautiful, if overly touristy. I guess the same is true for the buddha. What interested me was the preponderance of Chinese and Hong Kong tourists at both venues; it wasn't just us white folks. The fresh orchids and chrysanthemums at Po Lin were especially striking.

From there, we entered this unbelievably cheesy tourist village (we are so not the only ones who can do cheese) en route to the Ngong Ping 360 tram, which brings you all the way to the start of the MTR subway system. The views of the buddha were excellent, but again the overcast weather prevented any real island panoramas. We had lunch at the monastery's vegetarian restaurant, which was authentic and therefore a wee bit scary. I stuck mostly to the mushrooms with baby bok choy, but did also have an excellent spring roll filled with something resembling daikon.

It's the year of the pig (the boar, really) and they are everywhere. Pink ones, cute ones, fat ones, you name it. So clearly, I need a pig :)

Tomorrow I'm planning to take the ferry to Macau. It only takes about an hour and I can't resist the opportunity to visit another island equally steeped in history. Unfortunately, uploading photos isn't working at this very moment, so I'll need to figure things out. Hope you are all well.