Final day in Hong Kong

We were surprised at how tropical the weather felt in Hong Kong. Out in the country, the azaleas were in full bloom and the air was very warm and muggy. In Shanghai, we didn't have enough layers to keep warm in the cold 40 degree winds, and on our trip to Lantau Island today, we were over-dressed. No complaints, though!
Our first stop made us laugh: we have only been to two countries so far, but it seems we have seen "the world's longest suspension bridge" on numerous occasions! The Tsing Ma Bridge was actually very impressive.


Next we stopped briefly at Cheung Sha Beach, noted for its white sand. But our favorite stop of the day was Tai O fishing village, which was the center of Hong Kong's salt-panning industry for 100 years. Salt is still very plentiful there, and the village market was filled to the brim with salted fish.



After walking through the market, we began wandering the narrow streets of this ancient village.

For some reason, one of the houses had a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs motif, but the other home shrines were traditional Buddhist shrines.

The brightly colored shrines made a striking contrast to the gray sheet-metal homes. We wondered how hot the homes would be in the heat of the summer.

We tried some delicious curried fishballs before we left Tai O.

Our final stop of the day was the Po Lin Monastary, the principal center of Buddhism in Hong Kong. And, yes, home of the (yet again!) World's Largest (outdoor bronze) Buddha. The statue was indeed very large and beautiful.


At the monastary, we had a vegetarian lunch with some tasty dumplings and sweets for dessert. The monastary's several buildings were colorful and filled with flowers and incense.


There was a large area for lighting incense sticks outside the monastary.

We took a short walk away from the monastary and looked back at the Buddha.

To get down from the mountain area, we took an incredibly long cable car ride. The views were fantastic.

Even out in the country, high rises were everywhere as shown in the first picture. Back in town, I took the second photo, wanting to capture just how many high rises are in the "vertical city" of Hong Kong. The density is staggering, but difficult to show in a photograph.


We made it back home to the ship, which here in Hong Kong was docked at a pier that we accessed through a...shopping mall! Yes, to get in and out of the ship, we walked through a western-style mall, complete with Toys R Us, Kentucky Fried Chicken and much more! The best thing about the mall was that it had free high-speed internet. The SAS students have very limited internet on the ship, and none of us can do any sort of Skype or on-camera internet. So the students LOVED that we docked at a mall that gave them free internet 24/7.

In the photo above, they grab their last few minutes of Skyping before making on-ship time.

We sailed past the Hong Kong Cultural Center on our way out of town. In front of the center is the old Clock Tower, a landmark from the original railway terminal built there in 1915. We headed towards Vietnam.