Big Buddha's Day

How many Buddha statues can one person see until Buddha-fatigue sets in?  For me the answer is simple, there are never too many to see.   I do have a Buddha tattooed on my leg after all.

 

Wednesday, our second day in Hong Kong, Kelly and I went out to see the Tian Tan Buddha, also known as the Big Buddha.  He is located at Ngong Ping, a small village on Lantau Island.  It took us around an hour to get there from Hong Kong via a subway train and a local bus.  We went out with our friend Dan, the IT guy for our voyage, but as is common traveling on SAS, we ran into two other friends, Aparna and Karthik, randomly at the statue.  The five of us ended up spending most of the day at the Buddha and hiking the Wisdom Path on the adjacent peak.  The day turned out to be my favorite day of the voyage so far.

Kelly with the Buddha.

The Buddha is an amazing site.  Standing 112 feet tall, weighing 250 metric tons, it was the world’s tallest outdoor bronze seated Buddha prior to 2007.  When we got off the bus and I saw him perched atop the 240 step vertical walkway I was in awe.  There was a fog that rolled through throughout the day and when we were at the base of the statue the sun would be peaking through the fog appearing to give the Buddha a halo around his head.

Karthik, me and Dan hanging out on the rocks.

One of the best aspects of the day was getting out of the densely populated city and escaping to this peaceful island.   

There were no car horns blaring, no shysters pedaling their knockoff items, just tranquil sounds of the ocean in the distance and the breeze rolling through the trees.   When we hiked over to the nearby trail to get a view of the Buddha from the side, we relaxed on a few rocks and enjoyed the view.  Of course there was a point in the trail where it forked, we went right and had to bushwhack our way through the brush until we came to the abrupt end where there was nothing to see.  When we backtracked to the fork and went left we found a clear path around to the rocks with a spectacular view.  

It was a great time with some great people.  Days like these are why we came back to sail with SAS.

I squished the Buddha.

Karthik and I jumping for joy.