Big Buddha (or not, as the case might be)

Today it was time to get all cultural, head out to Lantau island and visit Po Lin Monastery, home to one of the biggest bronze Buddha statues on the planet (this one weighs as much as a jumbo jet, apparently).

I'd spent quite a bit of time researching this one on t'internet and it looked pretty impressive - flights of stone steps leading up to the Big Buddha, ornately decorated temples and halls, and the exciting prospect of the cable car ride up the mountain to get there.

The train whisked us to the far end of Lantau in less than an hour, we disembarked, made our way out of the station, then - disaster! Mrs V was standing a little ahead of me pointing dejectedly at a sign curtly informing us that the cable car service was suspended until further notice. There was a bus service available, but this, after a lengthy discussion with a transit official who had about as much understanding of English as we did Cantonese, turned out to take the best part of an hour each way on winding rural roads and we didn't feel that Tizer - or at the very least, our potential fellow passengers - would be up to it.

By this time it was mid-afternoon, and we were both bitterly disappointed at missing out on the monastery. I started to suffer from a customary spot of OCD (as is my wont) about screwing up a precious day of our precious trip and couldn't really think of a way of salvaging things. The day was two-thirds done and we were at the far side of Lantau Island, an hour's train ride back to the hotel. The only things close to us were the airport and Disney.

And so it was; within the hour, we were back on that feted 'Main Street USA'. As we arrived, the parade was just passing back through town, and it was snowing once again in South East Asia. OK, so it wasn't a Buddhist monastery nestled on a Lantau mountainside, but it was still a splendid afternoon out. Plus, we got to see the fireworks again and this time Tizer stayed awake for them. Loved 'em, so she did, so whilst I got a great big duck in terms of our cultural advancement and spiritual enlightenment, I still managed full marks for being the kind of top-notch Daddy that takes his daughter to Disneyland twice in three days. Christ, she's spoilt rotten...