The Big Buddha

I know what you're thinking: you're in Hong Kong and you're at the Big Buddha instead of the city?! Or maybe I'm being presumptuous and you're actually not thinking that at all. Either way, let me clarify: I spent my last semester abroad in Shanghai, China (also the reason you can expect more posts on China soon!) and one of our field study trips was to Hong Kong. This means that instead of the 3-day eating/shopping trip most girls would have loved to have in this exotic city, we got the one day raining leisure day plus the gloomy, foggy other days for tourist activities. I would not have minded had I been more prepared for the weather. It was an odd combination of freezing cold and humid warmth, which means that jackets are your frenemies. I'm so glad the inside of this Mango tweed is a polyester/nylon lining of some sort because it kept me warm, but didn't get too gross when I started to get sweaty from the climb to the giant sitting Buddha. If I recall my history lesson correctly, this is the largest sitting Buddha in the world; the largest standing one is somewhere else...

tweed jacket: Mango shirt: French Connection skirt: Charlotte Russe wedge sneakers: Target

The backpack that you can't see me carrying is a Tod's leather backpack that I got in Shanghai. I love my side purses, but when I'm traveling, nothing beats the backpack. It leaves my hands free to carry my camera.

As you can see from the photos, the day that we went to Lantau Island to see the Buddha, it was extremely foggy and gloomy. It actually started to mist rain near the end of our trip here, so none of my photos are particularly vibrant or sharp, but this is technically what the Buddha should look like on a nice day.