Day 7 - Saturday Feb 17th

We wake up and Wei Yan heads out to eat & pick up our laundry, and I opt to stay in and blog a little. I make a little instant coffee that I brought with me and a granola bar that we also brought with us to eat on the plane. Wei Yan returns with Eunice, Sam and no laundry, but has some spicy lo bo gao and squid jook. Both are pretty good minus a few shrimp shells in the lo bo gao and some weird white gelatinous stuff in the jook. I try to ask Wei Yan to look at the white stuff & remember what it was, but not tell me til after I'm done, but he immediately declares that he has no idea what is is. Before I'm done eating, Dave gets back with 2 bags of laundry. Seems that the lady at the laundry was afraid she lost a bag and lied saying that it wasn't there yet, when she was just trying to figure out what she had lost. Finally, she figures out that it's all there, and gave him the laundry.

We head out to the Big Buddha. We have to take a few trains and make a few connections. A bunch of people get out on the Disney stop - it is definitely a far way out there and Dave tell us the ticket price is high. Doesn't take a genius to figure out why it's not that popular. We finally get out at the end of the line & hop on the tram. It's all enclosed except for these vents that create a huge breeze - although I can appreciate how it would help in the winter, it's just cold. I'm glad Wei Yan reminded me that I would need a jacket since it's 5F degrees colder up here. It's a big foggy, but after we get funnelled through a store at the top of the tram, we can see the Buddha. We walk through a small street with a bunch of stores & restaurants. Feels a little like Disneyland and very un-mimimalistic. Dave eats some healthy jelly made from tortise shell - which we get Sam to taste. He declares that it's not that bad, but the rest of us just watch Dave eat the black jelly that he is eating for health reasons instead of taste. We walk over to the bottom on the Buddha. We decide to head up the stairs first. Everyone is a little winded and definitely feels the stairmaster burn. Once at the top we take a bunch of pictures, enjoy the view of the monastary and look around. Wei Yan gets about 4 calls while we are up there so I take off to take some pictures and look around. The inside underneath the Buddha is a round room where there are what look like names written all over with a few peoples' pictures. A few pictures of Buddha and basic stories. I head outside & wait at the top of the stairs for the guys. A lady makes it to the top & her friend asked her in a Southern accent if she felt 70 yet! The lady takes the 70 year olds picture at the top - reward for all that work and then she asks the 2 other ladies if they want their picture taken and they reply something to the effect of them not taking pictures.

Anyway, find the guys and head back down the stairs. The guys then eat some jerky & other snacks that Eunice brought with her (she stayed at the bottom of the stairs). I take a picture of the guys eating their jerky, and then a picture near the entance to the monastary that says "vegetarian food only" - there was no sign in the common central area, but I still find it ironic. Seems more commercial than religious, although I see a few people bowing & praying to the Buddha. We check out the monastary - the temple here is definitely the most ornate. We find out that the monastary is trying to build a new temple about 4 times the size of the existing one - and you can donate for certain things - 1,000 for a brick, 500,000 for a dragon pilar. Then we opt not to eat & head back down.

We grab a bite to eat at the bottom - it's like a Moe's burrito place but with different types of rice instead of tortillas. Pretty good. We head on the MTR back to Causeway Bay for Won Ton Noodle soup. It's a chain that they have in Ontario too - and Dave says that the Ontario branch is better. I try the noodles with vinegar and chili sauce like Dave & Eunice and it's much better than I think it's going to be. Then we stop at a shop to buy dried sea cucumbers. They look like turds in a jar, but at least they have no heads or eyes. There are some dried scallops too - but again, no heads or eyes. Sam & I discuss this fact. It's taking some time, so I check out the back of the store despite the smell. There are some type of lizard dried up & some sea horses that Wei Yan points out, so I report to Sam that we were wrong - they do have stuff with eyes & heads, so it really is that bad. We purchase few more things and then head back.

Then it's off to see Wei Yan's grandmother & meet his uncle's family. It's a long commute. Wei Yan's grandma is sleeping so she ends up not making it to dinner. We go to see her afterwards and the place is really crappy as EVERYONE warns us. We're glad for the warning, but it still is bad. It takes his grandmother about 5 minutes to wake up. When she finally does she does smile quite big when recognizing Wei Yan, but she is pretty out of it still. We leave her after getting Wei Yan's mom on the phone to talk to her and make arrangements to come back tomorrow. After getting back, we head to the Excelsior & meet up with Sam. We opt for the bar downstairs since the streets are packed for the New Year's fair. After some beers (Irish coffee for me) and some appetizers (onion rings & wings) - Wei Yan & I head to check out the fair. It's now 2:30am - and Dave says that it usually dies down by 2am. We finally make it into the fair, and then we are stuck. It's one way down a row of vendors - and you can barely move in any direction. Wei Yan calls Dave & we head sideways and then back despite the one way. We finally meet him at a Coke-a-cola tent & decide to just leave.

We're tired and despite the smoke from the bar, we just sleep. It's probably 4AM now and the streets are still full.