Hong Kong ::Big Budda::.

Today Sauce, Mustard and friends visited Ngong Ping 360 to see the Big Buddha, one of the largest tourist attractions in Hong Kong. It starts with a 5.7km Cable Car ride that takes 25mins. By spending an extra HK$20 you will get to upgrade to a Crystal Cabin and bypass the long queue for the standard cabin, saving yourself an hour wait (and that's on a week day). It's well worth spending the extra money to get the Crystal Cabin not just for the short queue but for the sights through the glass floor and the sense of vertigo it gives you. 

The sights of the Big Buddha coming in from the cable car is quite spectacular but it still did not prepare Sauce and Mustard for what they are about to see. The Big Buddha was hugely commercialised. Starbucks, Subway and other franchises were everywhere. As Sauce and Mustard walked towards the Big Buddha, they passed many traditional statues of Chinese warriors.

The throngs of people became thicker, as Sauce and Mustard approach the stairs to Big Buddha, tourists and worshipers alike. The stairway was only a short climb, easy for anyone but the old. For those who have stair phobias, there are buses and taxis available. You can go inside Big Buddha, to visit the gift shops or pay HK$23 for a ticket to visit the vegetarian restaurant in his belly (food not included). 

Sauce and Mustard then jumped on a bus to the quaint Tai O Fishing Village (Weekday HK$6.60 / Weekend HK$14.60), where you can hop on a boat to go white dolphin watching. Unfortunately, Sauce and Mustard did not get to do this, as per usual, they were too pushed for time. Instead, they walked around the village and awed at the architechtural style of the village houses which were built on stilts in the water. They ate BBQ dried seafood (Mantis Shrimps, Cuttlefish, Octopus and Roe fish), freshly made pork and beef jerky, tea dumplings and Chinese donuts. Sauce was very impressed with the donuts, as they have no holes in the middle meaning more food. Before leaving Tai O to catch the evening Cable Car back home, Sauce and Mustard, visited a local temple to pay their respects.

Once again, Sauce and Mustard met up with the family for another feast. This time, Thai! Sauce and Mustard got to taste Thai curry crab, raw garlic prawns, whole boiled fish, giant clams in ginger, pineapple fried rice, red curry lamb and seafood tom yum soup. It was topped off with Thai jelly desserts and washed down with a coconut.