Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region, People’s Republic of China - Oct 25, 2011

Day two in Hong Kong was on our own so we decided to venture into the underground subway system and find our way over to Lantau Island. After a successful connections and 75 minutes later we arrived at the base station for the gondola that whisks you to up to the Po Lin Monastery and the worlds largest outdoor Buddha, wow what a ride and an incredible sight to see. This sight includes many walks of spiritual enlightenment, you could spend all day here. We had the crystal or glass bottom gondolas, real cool, some of these pictures are through the floor of the local fishing done here.

 We say Good Bye to Hong Kong and China on our sail away.

Tip or Comment of the Day. Yes we say good bye to China, four ports in the People’s Republic of China and one in the Special Administrative region. For me and my understanding of life here, it seems to work and that there is a plan. Yes it is unfair that there is one country with two systems but it seems to be overall accepted. I found people here very friendly and the cities visited, although very busy, very clean. Respect for one another is the word that I come with, crazy busy but not threatening, at no point here did I feel we were being marked. If anything people were helpful and cared and proud of where they lived. Part of way it works here is the number of people here, things can be cheap because so many are contributing, the subway for instance was the equivalent of about $2.50 Cdn to go for about 70 minutes out of town. Yes at times crowded but okay as people are just used to it. So there are the pluses and minuses, an immense amount of people but beautiful with incredible amenities and we have our own natural beauty with natural amenities, if we are to grow we really need to have our population grow and in some cases grow up. This is why travel is so interesting, it isn’t about getting the great deal in the market (although that is always fun) but it is about visiting other places in the world and see how different people and cultures work and in some cases not work. There are trade offs everywhere, in China I see that the population is here and they seem to be managing just fine. Time, I only wish we had more time here, this part of the world is definitely worth exploring further.

Tomorrow our one port stop in Vietnam...