Happy New Year!

HNY to you all, here's to a happy and healthy 2012.

Went to see the big man yesterday, and by that I mean the bronze Buddha, not David!

The Big Buddha, who is the tallest seated outdoor bronze Buddha in the world, sits 35m high and judging by how we felt when we got to the top, he sits above 500 steps (realistically its about 120 steps!). Here is the big man and Amy

 

We took a 25 minute ride on the glass bottomed Ngong Ping Crystal Gondola to get there, anyone afraid of heights should give it a miss, especially in the mist!

To end 2011 we spoilt ourselves with a classy Pizza Hut dinner in Tung Chung before heading to the Kowloon waterfront for New Year fireworks. 

The countdown (in Cantonese) started at 60 and then at midnight the mainly local crowd banged their  blow up sticks together, the hundreds of boats blasted their horns and the fireworks started. Although impressive and at a cost of £15m, they were so quiet!!!

With hundreds of thousands of people heading back to the one and only local underground station, we headed in the other direction like two lost salmon back to our beloved 21p ferry crossing - but as with many other things on New Year's Eve the price had increased - to 24p!

Our New Year's Day started a little later than planned but we headed off to Central Hong Kong Island to watch the Dragon & Lion Dance Extravaganza - a Guinness World Record attempt for the biggest gathering of lions & dragons at any one time. Very colorful and pretty impressive considering some of them measured over 300ft long!

Next stop was The Peak. The main attraction being the ride on the world's steepest funicular railway to get there, so we took a taxi!! (and avoided the 2 hour queue)

Views would have been amazing if it wasn't for the thin layer of mist that seems to linger at the top!

And just so we've made the most of all of the public transport on offer in Hong Kong, we took a 15 minute bus ride home for a whole 80p for both of us! Anything to save our tired feet....

PS - Happy Birthday Mike Cox!