Hong Kong has more than shopping

Believe it or not I did more than just shop in Hong Kong. During my nine day long trip to Hong Kong, with my dear friends Heather (pronounced heathA) and Shelly, I went to ocean park, visited the largest bronze sitting Buddha in the world, went to the peak, and saw PINK DOLPHINS!!!!

So the pink dolphins… I know you are all sitting at home thinking that I made them up and they do not exist, BUT THEY DO. In Hong Kong there are pink dolphins that jump out of the water. They have no idea why they are pink, but they are. We took a boat out near the airport and I saw at least 20 pink dolphins! I wish I had a picture to share of these infamous pink dolphins, but you wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to take a picture of them. By the time my camera auto focused the dolphin was gone. I now have 40 pictures of just water with no dolphin in sight. I have posted a link to a Google image of a pink dolphin from a more skilled photographer than myself. http://lhessiando.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/pinkdolphin.jpg

We also visited Ocean Park, which is a zooish/ amusement park type place. The highlight was seeing the pandas and the red pandas. The first three pandas we visited barely did anything. We stood there for 40 minutes and all gasped with excitement when the panda’s ear flinched. That was the most movement we saw. We walked out of there so excited about the pandas and went to visit the other pandas. But before that we sat down for a quick lunch, when suddenly it started pouring; I have never seen rain like this before. We were sitting under this large picnic umbrella and decided to stick it out, but the rain changed directions and we seemed to be its main targets. After about ten minutes of holding on to the umbrella for dear life we decided to make a dash for the gift shop like the much smarter people before us. When we got there we were soaked. SOAKED.

The other pandas we visted were SO LIVELY. They were eating and walking around, in fact one even took the largest dump I have ever seen and then just passed out. As it happened, I just stood there covering my eyes and thinking, hmm, I guess pandas and humans have more in common than I thought. We then went to see the red pandas, which I didn’t even know existed. They were so cute! They look like a hybrid of a raccoon and fox.

Lastly we visited the largest bronze sitting Buddha in the world via cable car. Somehow I got this idea that I wanted to put my finger in the Buddha’s belly button, but when I got there I realized there was no way I would be able to reach it, it was that large. There is a monastery at the Buddha. We went to the restaurant that serves the food that the Monks eat. It was a great vegetarian meal filled with tofu, rice, and spring rolls! I loved it, except the soup. The soup was this tasteless broth with random bits of branches and bark in it. Heather told me the bark was a mushroom, so I tried to eat it. It definitely was not a mushroom.