After two stormy days in Hong Kong, Jake and I woke up on our third day hoping for some good luck and better weather. In the hills above the apartment we were staying in on Lantau island is a giant Buddha (or Tian Tan Buddha) and probably on a clear day you could see it from the apartment resort. It was the largest sitting bronze Buddha in the world prior to 2007 until another Buddha took this status. It is still impressive sitting at 36 meters tall. You can get to it by gondola, bus or walk one of the many trails in the hills behind us. Finally the weather seemed to have calmed down enough for us to brave going up. In typical fashion however as soon as we stepped foot outside the winds picked up and a light shower started overhead. Walking the 5 mins to the hotel and mall where we could catch the bus or gondola we thought about our options deciding against the gondola. The day before we had seen how quick the weather changed and weren't keen on sitting in a gondola swaying back and forth wildly. With the low cloud we also wouldn't get the panoramic views of the island promised from using the gondola. Opting for the bus was actually a nice choice in the end as we got to see a bit more of the island on our 40 minute drive The middle is steep hills lush with vegetation and then coming down over the other side of the central hills we got to see the smaller outer islands of Hong Kong scattered around as well as some of the wide beaches. With little traffic here it would be ideal to hire a scooter and check out these beaches and other small towns. Next time our travels bring us via Hong Kong it is something we will try look into.