Monday in Hongkong

At the end of my last post we had just gone to bed on Sunday night. Monday we got up early to have the hotel breakfast before meeting our tour bus for the day tour. First we went to see two suspension bridges (which our guide pronounced 'britches'). Then we stopped at a beach to walk on the sand. The water seemed dirty to me. After that we went to a 500 year old fishing village. Our guide said it may not be around much longer because the kids leave and get jobs elsewhere. There was all kinds of dried sea animal parts hanging up for sale. We also saw the two village temples. Lest you feel too badly for them, I saw a concrete inset that said "Broadband".

After the fishing village, we went to see a huge bronze Buddha, sitting on a lotus flower. We went inside but were not allowed to take pictures in there. For 50,000 Hongkong dollars you can buy a ceramic tile of yourself or a loved one to hang in the temple. Many people do apparently because it is the richest monastery in the world. Nearby, was the monastery restaurant where we had a vegetarian lunch complete with tofu. We saw all kinds of flowers there. I was surprized how familiar they were: vinca, begonia, mums, azaleas, allemanda, salvia, etc.
After lunch I sat outside eating the cashews I had bought the day before. Then we walked around to the tourist stands (all proceeds go to the monastery of course).
From the tourist stands we took the skyrail back to the suspension bridges and were bussed back to our hotel.
Again, we were so tired we took a nap. After we woke up, we walked to the harbor to see the light and sound show put on by 68 of the buildings on both sides. We were early so we checked out the planetarium to see what we could watch later. We got spots on the wharf and waited. The show was not as spectacular as I had hoped. Stone Mountain was better. So then we went to the planetarium and saw a dinosaur movie on their IMAX. It was a pretty good documentary (in english on headphones). Then having missed supper we went in search of a restaurant. Chris ordered for us both. My eel and garlic dish was excellent. Chris had chicken. We went back to the hotel and fell asleep.