Busy Weekend

So for
my second weekend here I thought I'd kick things off with meeting some people and doing some sightseeing!

On Saturday the University held a sightseeing tour of Hong Kong for the international students, taking us to Victoria Peak, some market that I don't remember the name of and then back to Tsim Sha Tsui for dinner. So I trekked out to the university and boarded a bus with all the other exchange students. Unfortunately they were all dull undergrads and I bailed when we stopped at Victoria peak. (I'll be back for better pictures on a clearer day)

Fortunately I had other plans in place for the evening. After taking the tram back down to Central I headed back to Wan Chai to meet up with some nice people from the internet for dinner. We went out for a "Hot Pot" dinner. Now, while some of you may be familiar with this form of dining, I certainly was not. We were seated at a table with two induction cook tops on it and presented with a menu full of various types of broths, meats, vegetables, etc to order. The way it works is that you choose the type of broth you want and they bring you a big pot of the stuff that boils on the cook top. From there you order your veggies, meat, fish, poultry, what have you which comes raw. You then put your chosen ingredients in the pot to cook. It's exciting stuff. So several hours later and several dozen plates of food later we departed the Hot Pot place and made our way to 'Dusk til Dawn' to catch a bit of music. Around these parts live music seems to be pretty popular, you get a nice variety of the best of the 90's and well, the best of many other decades. After some drinks I had to bid good night to my new friends so I could go get good and snockered and watch Arsenal play a very dull game against Bolton (One - nil to the Arse!). All in all, a very successful Saturday night, tried some new food, made some new friends, found a couple new places to drink!

As Sunday morning came, I awoke cursing whoever had thought that alcohol was a good idea. But I did find a text inviting me out on an afternoon excursion to see the giant Buddha at Ngong Ping on Lantau island. I hauled myself out of bed and headed over to the MTR to meet up with some of the previous evenings compatriots. We trained out to Lantau and boarded the gondola up to Ngong Ping, a Buddhist Monastery and tourist attraction high in the mountains. The gondola I should note, offers stunning views of Hong Kong Interational Airport and other sweeping vistas I guess. Anyways, we disembarked at the top and entered a beautiful tourist compund replete with bars, restaurants, shops, and of course, a Starbucks. We made our way from the village to the Buddha, and to quote Vogel, "Man, that is one big Buddha!" It is immense, some 35 meters tall. In addition to a plaze for the tourists there is actually a monastery here, which is also quite breathtaking. Actually the whole place was incredible, the views from the mountain were extraordinary and I was amazed at how lush and verdant the landscape was being so close to the city. But after several hours we had to catch the last gondola back. After a short train ride back we parted ways and I laid to rest my first full weekend in Hong Kong.