Big Buddha and Dumb American

So there hasn't been an update in awhile, which I can make up a variety of reasons, but it probably just comes down to lazyness. With that said, I'll start the new material with a trip that Rachel and I did to the Po Lin Monastary and the Tian Tan Buddha that's gotten better with some recent new information.










The post, as originally conceived, would have discussed the following facts:

1) From Hong Kong, we took the MTR (subway) out to Tung Chung on Lantau Island. It's the largest island of the Hong Kong islands. It's a strange place because most of it is very beautiful plush green forested areas. Except for the ones where Disneyland and the massive airport are.


2) From Tung Chung, we took a 20 minute cable car ride up. Nice ride, but found out later that there have been instances where the cars have hit each other in the station, and one of the cars (empty) fell off the wire. Good times.








3) Upon arriving, we walked through a "village" to the monastary. Imagine if Disney had an "authentic" ancient village. Then throw in a Starbucks, 7-11, and gelato place. That's this "village". Super weak, although the gelato was good.











4) At the monastay, had a very good vegetarian lunch. For US$7.50!










5) Walked up a few hundres steps to the Buddha. The Buddha is extremely large. They claim it's the world largest outdoor sitting bronze Buddha. Which sounds like a lot of qualifying statements (which there are), but it's still large. And in a nice spot.











6) Took the bus back down to Tung Chung, which was a really windy and neat ride around a very green island.

And then I would have finished with some prattle about how strange it is to have this ancient Buddha statue on top of this dramatic setting, but then the very modern MTR, cable car ride and fake village making the trip very convenient, but still feel out of place in this serene area that's been otherwise untouched for many many years.

Nice post, right? Throw in some pictures, and we've got ourselves a good post about an experience that we did that's quite unique to Hong Kong. Except this past weekend, I was talking to some friends about the Buddha, and got to the part about the "ancient Buddha statue" and they look at me like I'm on drugs. Apparently, it was built in frikkin' 1993. Frakkin' hell. I thought it was just

Turns out that the monastery is about 100 years old, but the Buddha is brand spankin' new. Whatever. Stupid tourist trap.