Hong Kong Diaries....

Get ready for a HUGE post.  I wasn't sure what to title this post because it has pictures from our past 3 days here.  First I never showed you the 16-piece sushi platter Sam ordered at the Japanese restaurant.  I'm not a sushi eater, so I really can't tell you everything on the plate (and there were a few unknown fish to Sam as well, but he ate it all and enjoyed 95% of it).

Onto Thursday's activities, we decided to head to Lantau Island (Hong Kong's biggest island that is host to Disneyland and the Tian Tan Buddha).  The airport also resides right next to Lantau Island.  The Hong Kong airport was built on a man-made island!  Sam and I have watched a Modern Marvels episode about this airport multiple times.  Back to Lantau Island, we took the subway (MTR - Mass Transit System) to Lantau, and got off at the last stop, and lo and behold there was an outlet shopping mall there as well!  We didn't really shop there but Sam did step inside the Nike outlet and bought himself 2 new t-shirts.  Sam can't do much clothes shopping here, the XL slim fit men's shirt could have fit me!  Then we got in line to take the cable car ride up to the big buddha (as I like to say, but officially it's the Tian Tan Buddha).  The best part about this entire experience was the cable car ride!  The Tian Tan Buddha was completed in 1993 and it's the world's largest seated, outdoor, bronze buddha statue.  Everything surrounding the buddha was manufactured tourism.  If we had been visiting an ancient statue or ruins it would have been more interesting/fascinating.  But the cable car ride was fascinating!

There was a mini-city at this subway exit where the outlet mall was and the entrance to the cable car ride.  Sam and I decided that the city of Asheville could live in all of those towers.

It was a really enjoyable ride.  It took about 25 minutes and is a total of 3.5 miles.  

Here's the big buddha from the cable car.

Woohoo, Wofford attire made it to China!

They had these really pretty evergreen/pine trees that lined the staircase.  Sam and I both liked the look of these trees.

That's the airport behind the cable car.

Here's another view of the airport.  We watched multiple planes take off and land during the ride down which was really cool to watch.

Now onto today's morning activity (today is Friday for us).  Sam and I ventured way out into the New Territories to the Tai Po district.  We were on a mission to find Yat Luk BBQ restaurant.  Tony Bourdain on No Reservations visits the restaurant and said the pork, duck, and goose were out of this world!  We were definitely the only white people in miles and miles of this restaurant, thankfully, one person in the restaurant spoke English (he looked to be the owner).  But we were prepared to do the "pointing" ordering system, which is where you to point to food at a table near you.  There was NO ENGLISH on this menu or anywhere in this restaurant.  It was quite an exciting experience.  Hong Kong's 2 official languages are Chinese and English.  all of the signs in Hong Kong are written in Chinese and English, and all of the restaurants we have been to have had English on the menu and/or pictures of food.  This menu was all Chinese (the pictures of the menu were taken on our iPhones, and I haven't uploaded those pics yet).

Here is Sam's goose.

Here is my pork.  It was AMAZING!  

The front of the restaurant was covered by bamboo scaffolding unfortunately.  On a side note, Sam and I were quite proud of ourselves for finding this place!  It was definitely off the beaten path.

Happy Sam, after lunch!

We spent about 45 minutes walking around the Tai Po Market area.

HUGE Carrots!

These were taken in and indoor market where the 1st floor was wet food (like raw meat and fish), 2nd floor dry food (like veggies), and 3rd floor was cooked food.

This is the 3rd floor, featuring cooked food.

Tai Po 

More of Tai Po