Day 3 - Exploring Hong Kong

Jen and I were up early again to catch the metro, to the ferry, to the bus, that would take us to the Tian Tan Buddha and the Po Lin Monastery. "The monastery was founded in 1906 by three monks visiting from Jiangsu Province on the Chinese mainland and was initially known simply as "The Big Hut" (大茅蓬 Tai Mao Pung). It was renamed to its present name in 1924. The main temple houses three bronze statues of the Buddha – representing his past, present and future lives – as well as many Buddhist scriptures. Po Lin Monastery main temple (note map of full site in photo) Po Lin Monastery interior Tian Tan Buddha, a giant Buddha statue completed in 1993, is an extension of the monastery."

The journey to the monastery took about 2hrs (one way), but it was worth the trip! When Jen and I arrived, there was still some left over fog and mist from the Typhoon and we didn't know if it was going to dissipate or not, so we hiked all the way to the top of the Buddha in the fog.

While we were initially disappointed that we couldn't see the Buddha, we knew we had to depart around 2pm-ish to make it back to the city for our night tour of HK.

But first... Breakfast!

I loved all the "geotags" HK offered

However, HK was HOT... I am talking 87 degrees (30c) - plus 80/90% humidity. I was dying!

It was incredible how massive this city actually is...

So freaking hot!!!

Now it's time for the ferry ride to see the Buddha.

Once we arrived to Lantau Island (after the metro, ferry, and bus), it was exciting to explore the monastery grounds and hike up to see the Buddha - and yes, I did go up all those steps!

So many steps....!

Thank God for Jen! Because, after we visited the monastery, the clouds cleared up and the Buddha became visible. There was NO WAY I could do those stairs again and survive! So Jen (because we both wanted some amazing photos!) ran up those stairs again and took some awesome photos.

So we said farewell to the Buddha, and headed back for some food at Tim Ho Wan, which is known for having the best Pork Buns in HK. And let me tell you... I could've eaten a thousand of these things!

As we relaxed by the water front with a Starbucks :) We were excited for our Night Tour of HK. This place is so massive that during our three day trip we were only able to see the top highlights, but it was a lot of fun exploring! The amount of people in HK is insane! They stated that in one neighborhood of HK, there is 18 million people living in a 2.1 mil square radius... That is nuts!

Hong Kong is beautiful at night! After our tour we headed back to our Hotel, to prepare for another early morning of exploring and then heading to the airport to catch our flight back to Tokyo.