HK Day 3

On Day 3 in Hong Kong my cousin Ming Ye and his wife Eugena picked us up for breakfast.  Eugena wanted to take us to a more typical breakfast than yum cha for someone our age.  She said that for our generation it is not appealing to go sit and visit over tea and what I'll call small plates for several hours, so instead people our age go to sha shan tang.  To me, sha shan tang basically means Chinese diner.  They're very small places where you can get in and out quickly and they have very large menus with several Chinese and western options.  Because we were in Hong Kong, I opted not to have eggs or toast (or anything I could get at home) and ordered a noodle bowl.  MMMMMMMMM.  I think we need more noodle bowl breakfast joints here.

Then we drove to Lantau Island to visit the Big Buddha.  To get to the top of the mountain where the Big Buddha is, you must travel up by gondola.  The floor was clear so you could see everything you were travelling over...not good for anyone afraid of heights!

It was raining when we got to the top and none of us foreigners were prepared so we slipped into a couple of little theaters, one that showed Buddha's life journey and another that featured animated monkeys teaching the lesson that excess and selfishness are no good.  It was still raining when we came out but, of course, there were plenty of ponchos for sale.  We walked around the little village for awhile before we were hungry again.  They had lots of little stands (kind of like food carts here in the States) set up with food so we stopped to get some snacks.

When we were replenished we began our walk to the Big Buddha.  Once at the top you could go inside the base of the Big Buddha but I forgot to get any pictures of that.

Just like at the top of The Peak the day before, it was very windy, cold, and foggy at the top of the Big Buddha.  Considering I live right by the Rockies perhaps I should have been a little more prepared for the extreme weather difference between  mountains and lower elevation, but I wasn't!  I was prepared for upper 70s/lower 80s weather only!

At the bottom of the steps of the Big Buddha were some temples that we stopped to explore.

That night for dinner, Ming Ye took us to the most amazing place to celebrate Eugena's upcoming birthday.  It reminded me a little of our experience with Hush.  So, in Hong Kong, no one has very much space in their flats so for parties everyone usually goes out to a restaurant; however, this new concept has sprung up where a chef rents out an apartment and uses that space as a restaurant to host small to mid size parties.  Because it is such a personalized experience, you can work with the chef to serve pretty much anything you want.  The dinner was absolutely lovely.  We had oysters, lobster, and steak, among many other beautiful and delicious dishes.  And it was an incredibly intimate, yet hip, setting.

Please disregard my strange, disfigured looking hands and body in that last pic.  I was wiggling around when Ryan was trying to take a panoramic.

We had so much fun spending all day with Ming Ye and Eugena and it was enlightening to learn from them some of the things that our generation does.  It made me think if I lived there that would be how my life would be.  And Eugena speaks flawless English and has been to the States several times as a flight attendant, so she was able to relate to some of the things we would talk about and also explain/translate things for us very quickly.  I am amazed that most of my family can speak two or more languages.  Eugena speaks three!!!

Thankfully, this was the first night Ryan and I were able to stay awake and function reasonably well.  After our fun filled day and night, we fulfilled Mom's quest of taking every form of public transportation by grabbing a taxi for our ride back to the hotel/Miu Ye's flat.