Lantau Buddha, Hong Kong

All is still crazy in Passenger Land. We landed yesterday at Heathrow for about 10 days of R&R at H's family home. While she sleeps off the flight and the stress of closing down our New York apartment, I will provide more belated images from Hong Kong.

The Passengers ventured off Hong Kong Island on a journey to the Po Lin monastery on Lantau, one of the many islands in the Pearl River Delta within the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Despite the July heat and soaring hills, the journey was not difficult thanks to a load of technological wizardy. The Tung Chung terminus of the rapid, efficient MTR brings visitors to the brand-new Ngong Ping cable car.

The gondolas wind up and over a sweeping landscape of rugged, iconic hills rising out of the South China Sea. I would love to come back with hiking boots and a picnic for another trip. The ride brings thousands of tourists and locals up to a recreated Chinese village, built by the cable car company and filled with mulitmedia exhibits, souvenir stands, and a Starbucks. The Po Lin monastery nearby hosts the real attraction: a 112-foot bronze sculpture of the Buddha seated on a lotus throne. This is not an historical attraction. The statue was finished in 1993, and the two locations enjoy a mutualistic, capitalist relationship. The monastery welcomes devotees and lures pilgrims with its gigantic statue, while the Ngong Ping provides spectacular transportation and attends to visitors' more base desires with tchotchkes and gelato in the village. Win-win.

Weekenders use parasols to ward off the sun as they walk from the village to the monastery.

Warning: crowds and stairs ahead. The flag of Hong Kong SAR appears at left.

A statue of a devotee making an offering.

The walkways around the Buddha statue provide stunning views of the South China Sea. High-speed ferries can be seen streaking west to Macau. The former Portugese trading post is now a gambling/party mecca.