Left Foot In, Right Foot Out

Did you know that some Chinese believe if you enter a temple with your left foot first and exit with your right foot you are spiritually cleansed.

Today I took an organized tour through the college of business to Lantau Island and Tai O which is a small fishing village on the island.

Lantau is the largest of the Hong Kong islands and is home to the largest sitting Buddah in the world!

After an hour and a half bus ride, a short stop at Long Beach, some interesting Chinese crackers (they tasted like weird popcorn), and meeting some new exchange students we finally arrived at the Buddha.

Long Beach... A Foggy Morning 

Paul and his Chinese cracker snacks

From the bottom of the hill it didn't look very big but after climbing the steps to the top of the mountain I realized how much the giant sculpture dwarfed me!

View from the bottom of the mountain 

After a quick walk around and a climb inside the Buddah (the Buddhist relics are inside) I headed back down all the stairs to eat lunch.

                            

      


                   

 

I don't know if it was my lack of sleep or just the fact that I was extremely hungry but my chopstick skills were not up to par. I reached for a spring roll, took a bite, and the whole thing fell on the table. Despite the mishap I did not give in to eating with a fork. The dishes we were served were mainly vegetarian. I tried most of them. The only sketchy looking one was some tofu brain thing.

After lunch a few other exchange students and I went to the temple. It was so colorful! There was also a lot of incense burning in shrine type things.

After a quick walk through all the shops and a pit stop at Starbucks we got back on the bus and headed to Tai O.

John, our tour guide, instructed us not to get on any boats that take you on a dolphin tour so instead we explored all the shops and taste tested a few of the local treats.

All of the shops sold mainly fish based products. Most of which looked completely inedible! All the stalls did make for some good pictures though!

    

 The strangest item I saw for sale were raw egg yolks that had been set out to cook in the sun. I didn't try those but shortly after spotting these treats I tried a red bean dumpling and coconut dumpling.

Raw egg yolks

The red bean was not very tasty but the coconut one was surprisingly good. The sticky/fluffy consistency was a little odd but I didn't get sick and I figured I had to try something new!

Coconut dumpling

After a long day exploring we all got back on the bus and headed back to the city. I made plans to go out for dinner and drinks but ended up sleeping until morning. Hopefully I get over this jet lag thing soon!

Location:Lantau Island/ Tai O Fishing Village