Christmas in Honkers

Not to be mistaken for Christmas in Yonkers, may try for that next year... Had a Christmassy breakfast with my wonderful hosts in the heavy shade of the 7cm flashing Christmas tree the building gave the dwellers (well, someone at the counter downstairs...)

Carrie was not feeling well, so she rested at home, whilst Som and I went to visit the giant buddha.  Tian Tan Buddha Statue looks hundreds, maybe even thousands of years old.  It was opened in 1993.  Som and I had a race with an Indian family through the hour+ queue.  Of course, they didn't know this.  I don't think.  Som asks "Why is it relevant that they knew?" and too true! Essentially, people here are very sneaky with their queue jumping (Phillip Ruddock would be appalled), and this was a group of 6 and a child.  3 plus child pushed past without us realising, then I blocked their passage (Phillip Ruddock would be proud) and the race was on.  At the ticket window, they overtook.  But, we were on the first cable car.  Once in Ngong Ping Village, suddenly they were in front of us... and the race was won.  We looked for them on the way down, but we think we lost them in the battle of Ngong Ping.  The cable cars were scary as... Som was not overly happy, I just ignored the fact that there was a million miles below us and we were held on by only a few small wheels.  Eeek!  The cable car ride was about 25 minutes long, and there were about 10,000 people in the queue (Som's estimate - I have no idea on crowd size, could have been 240, could have been a billion). The statue was amazing, very, very huge and serene.  Not so serene was the tourist atmosphere around it - although the touristy-ness abated slightly at the buddhist temple in Ngong Ping.  The monk's chanting was broadcast via microphone, and there was a lot of incense in the air - looking from a distance, there was quite intense smoke from the courtyard of the temple.  Once we'd viewed this, there was another queue for several hours and then back to Tung Chung to catch the train back to Star Tower.  Carrie cooked a beautiful meal, then downstairs to have Hagen Daaz and watch some figure skating.  Som and I commentated on one girl's lessons - she just wasn't getting the necessary speed and lift, surely that is exactly what her coach was saying. Som practiced his reverse pikes the whole way home.  Not cool.  Merry Christmas!