This morning my dad, Amie, and I went to the Hong Kong temple. We did baptisms with Amie, and it was really neat. Almost the whole thing was in Chinese, even my dad who baptized us spoke in Chinese. It was neat to see little old women, of all ages, there just to do baptisms.
After the temple, we took the subway back to the hotel. It was so crowded that my dad and I made it on, but my purse got stuck in the door. Amie was left on the platform, and the door only opened for her because it hadn’t shut all the way because my purse was in it. It was hilarious. So when the doors opened again, she crammed on, and it was the most crowded subway I have ever been on.
When we got back, we all got ready for the day and packed up all our stuff. It was a challenge to get everything to fit because I “acquired” lots of new things here in Hong Kong. I only had a carry-on small suitcase, and that was it. So it was very full, and so was my purse. But we finally got it all in. Our flight didn’t leave until later tonight, but we had to check out by noon. So we all went downstairs with our luggage and left it in the huge room next to the lobby. They tied a piece of string through all of our handles, and said it would be there for us when we got back.
We then got back on the subway and headed out to Lantau Island. It’s an island on the south west side of Hong Kong. The subway took about 30 minutes. We went to the end of the train line. When we got off we went to the bus station to catch the bus out to the Big Buddha. It was about a 45 minute bus ride, and it’s the only way to get there. Taxi’s don’t service that mountain.
It’s a huge brass Buddha that is about 80 feet tall and sits on the top of the mountain. We had to hike up about 15 flights of stairs to get up there. It was really neat. We bought tickets to go inside the Buddha and see the exhibitions and our tickets included free water and ice cream. So when we were done, we found a place to sit in the shade and enjoyed our cold treats. It was so hot today, and so sunny. The place where the Buddha is is so pretty. It reminds me of Hawaii, if I’d ever been there. :) It’s just all ocean and beaches, and mountains covered in greet trees. It was gorgeous.
When we were done with the Buddha, we got back on the bus and took it to the subway station. We ate lunch/dinner at a place called The Spaghetti House. Then we got back on the subway and headed to the hotel. We walked back to the hotel and got our bags, then left again.
We took a taxi to a different subway station and got on the train there. This train was nicer because it had a first class compartment that actually had rows of seats instead of normal subway seating. It was nice because we needed the extra room with all our baggage. We stayed on the train for about 45 minutes until it took us to the Hong Kong border. We had to clear Hong Kong immigration. After doing that, we had to walk across the Hong Kong border. It’s a bridge that goes over the river and is all enclosed for walking. After we walked across the bridge, we had to go through China immigration, then China customs. Finally, we were back in China.
We got into a taxi to take us to the airport. Even though we were only a 5 minute walk away from Hong Kong, it felt like I was back into a place that I recognized. (Hong Kong felt so foreign to me. I think it was because they drive on the opposite side of the road, and there are so many people there. It was just all new to me.) When we were checking in at the airport, the lady helping us at the counter was pretty slow. We were in the first class section, but there was still a pretty long line behind us. Some Chinese man behind us started to get really frustrated and went to the next lady over to complain. I couldn’t understand, but it was obvious what he was saying. That lady told our lady to start hurrying it up. But then, the man came over and was complaining to our lady. (She’s just a young woman, I felt bad for her.) My dad finally stepped in and told the man to cool it. I don’t think he knew my dad spoke Chinese. It was ridiculous. I was glad to be out of that line.
Now, we’re sitting on our plane. We were supposed to leave an hour and a half ago, and we boarded in plenty of time. However, there is some delay that is keeping us here on the ground, and we haven’t moved an inch. It’s so hot and cramped in here. I’d rather wait in the airport than on this plane. Also, its 11:00 at night, and the flight is 2 hours long. (I don’t want to complain to anyone here because there’s nothing they can do about it, so I’m just going to vent on here. Haha.) I just want to be back home, to my parents house that is. I’m ready to be in a place I know again.
I’m not sure when we’re going to take up, but hopefully it’s soon because we have another full day tomorrow. Tomorrow morning we have to go to the fabric market to get our clothes we ordered tailored to us. Then, at about 5 pm, we leave for Xi’an. It will be another fun trip. I’m just ready for this little trip to be over.
Funny story of the day:
Right after going through security at the airport, I was walking next to a little Chinese girl, probably about 6 years old. She looked up at me, and was awestruck. She probably stared at me for almost 10 seconds with her wide eyes, and she finally waved at me, with a huge grin. I waved back and said hi. She was super excited and went running to her parents to tell them. I saw them again just past an escalator and she looked at me again. She waved and said, “Hello!” So I said, “Nihao” back. She was so happy. Her dad told her to say, “Bye,” so she did, and I walked past. She was so cute and I made her so happy. I don’t know why she was so excited, but it was really sweet.
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