Day 96: Dec 9th: Over the hills and through the woods...

Our hearty breakfast this morning still seemed like a luxury, and we didn't want to cut it short! Although the restaurant owners did look at K funny when she started chopping a banana that she'd brought into her oatmeal - excuse me, 'porridge' - in the end they decided it was amusing. Maybe tomorrow we'll bring our own coffee too (they seem to like over roasting their beans here)!

We took the ferry to Lantau Island, which is the bigger of the two islands that we were told we must see. Although there are many sights here, the first thing we did after regaining our land-legs was make the short walk to the beach. It was a perfect day, around 73 degrees (Farenheight of course. I'm still not sure I'm able to translate that into Celcius!), and we rejoiced in actually having made it to the other side of the world, and took photos touching the Pacific Ocean to celebrate!

We tore ourselves away from the bright blue ocean and boarded a bus to the top peak of the island, called Ngong Ping. Here we found the biggest bronze sitting Buddha in the world (we've seen bigger, but not in bronze). The statue was impressive in the hills and a postcard we saw proved how cool an areal shot would look.

Lunch was at a restaurant that looks like it would be right in town according to the way it was advertised. Clearly they didn't translate "only a twenty minute walk" into english.

Next on the list was to catch a bus to Tai O, a small fishing village on the other side of the island. It was gorgeous out and so we just walked around the back streets along the water. It was quaint but clean and very beautiful.

We lost track of time, and ended up running back through the village to catch the last bus back to Ngong Ping. Luckily Karla is still young and spry enough to run...Alicia had to resign herself to speed walking because of her bum hip. We took the bus back up to the top of the island at 5pm to take a sunset cable car ride to the other side of the hills where you can easily take a metro back to Hong Kong island. It was both cheaper and much faster. It was also dark already and so we werent missing any great views underground.

Dinner was at a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Karla finally ate a meal with actual meat pieces and we even got a serving of steamed lettuce with the rice. What a complete meal! Although Alicia wasn't quite satisfied this time...we can't win here!

Back at the hotel, we watched TV and waited for Natasha to call after her law school exam. She was an '04 Wes grad and friends with Jake, who you may remember from Turkey!

We walked together to a bar with peanuts everywhere and caught her up on life at Wesleyan University. We basically spent the whole time exchanging stories and reminiscing and it was a great night.

We all were very sleepy around midnight and headed home. She was just so friendly. And its always fun to meet other Wes grads. They have this way about them that makes them fun to be around.
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