Today I’m committed to a Lantau Island tour of the Buddhist Monastery. It doesn’t turn out to be a visit of the historic monastery but is, instead, a tour of attractions that the government has apparently invested in to assist local economies on this beautifully green and mountainous, outlying island. We wish we could learn more about the background and grounds for the investment in what is obviously an island and rural areas in stark contrast to the urban crowding of the other main islands.

At Tai O, a fishing village whose economy depended on salt panning for nearly 100 years, there are efforts to encourage other enterprises and build community space for citizens. A bamboo construction crew is working in the central square while we are there. Every vendor’s stall is piled high with dried fish products and fish dry in the sun on locally made basket trays. There are also lots of cats. The monastery supports a number of cottage industries including an excellent vegetarian restaurant and incense burning on a large scale.

Finally, there is a very big Buddha (it won’t be the first time we’re told that any particular Buddha is the biggest anywhere) on a mountaintop that is so visible from so many angles at such a great distance that it is a natural to toy with setting-up the Buddha to beckon the clouds. A newly built cable car takes us very high above the island and back to the station where we re-board motor coaches for the trip back to the ship.

Tomorrow and the next day will be hard working days on ship to catch up again before we arrive in Saigon and Vietnam. As the ship pulls away from the famous deep water port I catch a blurry photo of the last brightly lit building before it’s lights out on the ocean again.