Day 8 Big Budha on our last Day

Sadly it's Saturday and our last full day in Hong Kong.

Doug and Charisse had a full day planned and it was fantastic.  We took a ferry to Maui Wo. This one was about 45 min long. Once we got there we took a double decker bus (another 45 min) to Tai O fishing village. It's pretty amazing there. We wound around and around the market to another pier. There we took a sampan type boat (flat bottom) to see the pink dolphins. 

Before they took us out to the ocean they toured us around the fishing village. It was so cool.

 After we toured through the homes and businesses on the waterfront they took us out to the China Sea to find some pink dolphins.We saw a few but it was impossible to get a picture because you never knew when they were going to surface.

 So this is an incredible bridge tunnel system that goes out to Maucau. It was just about finished when we were there,

The water was so nice. I expected it to be muddy and polluted for some reason and it certainly is not. After we saw the pink dolphins we took another bus to climb to the top of the mountain to see the big Budha.

The entrance was so cool.

 To get to the top we had to climb the stairs of death. It was hot and humid and high altitude. Perfect recipe for a miserable climb.

Part way there!

 We huffed and puffed our way to the top.

 We went inside and there were a few artifacts inside but mostly it was a crypt.

The view from the top was incredibly beautiful.

So we headed down the steps and walked through the shopping and got a few final souvenirs. The shopping was great fun and we found some great things. We stopped at Subway for lunch!

On the other side of the shopping area was our transportation down. It came with a big line.

 

We opted not to take the crystal bottom gondola down. It was the longest gondola ride I've ever seen and it was really fun. Except when Doug tried to shake it!

 The view down was pretty great. There's the bridge/tunnel again.

One more big ol MTR ride later with a few transfers and we arrived back to our neck of the woods. We ended up at the Times Square of Hong Kong. 

It was fun to see all the lights. For dinner we went to one of Doug & Charisse's favorite restaurants, Crystal Jade and it was fantastic. We chowed down on Minced Pork & Green Beans, Pork Pan Fried Dumplings, Beijing Pork Dumplings, Shanghai Pancake, Sweet, Sour Chicken, Ham and Chicken Fried Rice. It was a feast and we ate until we were stuffed. Loved every second of dinner. We got back to the flat and it was time to pack up to go home. PS we didn't get General Conference live at the times we are used to. It started in the middle of the night that night so Doug filled us in on what we missed while we attempted to sleep.

:(