Big Buddha

So although I only recently posted about Hong Kong, I actually ended up swapping my KL flight last minute for another trip to HK! This time the weather was on my side, and I spent the day doing a bit of exploring in the sunshine.

I had decided last time to go to the Big Buddha, but obviously with the torrential downpour and clouds of fog there was no point. However this time I woke up early and made my way to Lantau Island, where it is located. The journey there was pretty straightforward, just one change on the MTR. Once you get there it’s around a 30 minute cable car ride up to the top. This is actually a highlight of the trip as the views are spectacular.

I’ll leave you with a few pictures of the view from the cable car!

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Once the cable car arrived at the top, it dropped us off at a little village type area which you have to walk through to get to the Buddha.

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To climb to the top there are 268 steps. This may not seem like too many but they are very steep, and it was over 30 degrees outside! By the time I reached the top I just had to treat myself to an ice cream to cool down 😉

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Surrounding the Big Buddha are 6 smaller statues known as “The Offering of the Six Devas”. They are posed offering flowers, incense, lamp, ointment, fruit, and music to the Buddha. These offerings symbolize charity, morality, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom, all of which are necessary to enter into nirvana. (Thanks Wikipedia!)

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You can climb up one level of the Buddha free of charge, and if you want to go any higher you have to buy a meal ticket to eat with the Monks in the Monastery. 

There are some lovely views out to sea as well.

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Going back down the steps don’t seem anywhere near as steep as they were when I walked up!

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I believe this was the entrance to the Monastery, I didn’t go in though.

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To come back down you have to go in the cable car again. There is actually a cheaper option of getting a local bus up the windy roads but you don’t get any of the views, and I suspect I probably would have felt a bit carsick!

The cable car passes right by the airport; I tried to spot the Big Mama (aka the A380) but to no avail!

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A lovely day trip in the sunshine, and another Buddha to tick off the bucket list!

 

P.s. If you want more regular day to day updates on what is going on in my life, follow me on Twitter and Instagram @rachelwwilson!

 

Hello Hong Kong!

The minute I got sent a swap request to fly to Hong Kong instead of Paris I knew I was going to accept it. Hong Kong has to be one of my favourite cities, and it’ll always be that little bit more special as it was where I went on my very first A380 supy flight.

This time around, I had lots of plans. Even though it was a night flight leaving at 4 o’clock in the morning Dubai time, once we arrived there was no time for sleeping and it was straight out to explore the Ladies Market. I’ve been there before, but it’s always fun having a walk around and seeing all of the kitschy things on sale (as well as lots and lots of handbags, of course!).

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Well hello to you too, Hong Kong!

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After a lot of browsing, haggling (and possibly a little bit of buying…) we decided it was time for dinner. Our original plan was to go to the Michelin-starred Dim Sum restaurant “Tim Ho Wan”, however the concierge had told us earlier that they stop serving at 9pm. By this time it was getting late so we popped into a little restaurant just off the side of the Ladies Market.

We chanced our luck and ordered some very interesting sounding things off the menu…such as “Born Fried Fried Dumpling”! Pointing at the pictures definitely helped, and they were all very delicious and freshly made!

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After dinner we had another quick browse around the market on our way back to the MTR, then headed back to the hotel. 

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By this time we were all practically falling asleep standing up, so decided just to head up to the rooftop bar to have one quick look at the amazing view before going straight to bed. 

However…once we arrived, the atmosphere was incredible, with a live band playing and such great views over the city that we decided to stay for a drink! We got a seat by the window and sat and chatted for a while until I really was about to fall asleep in my chair!

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The next morning we had arranged to meet early to get the MTR and then the cable car up to see the Big Buddha. I was almost ready to go and then upon opening the curtains discovered that not only was it absolutely pouring with rain, the was such a thick layer of fog that I couldn’t see anything at all outside! 

We had planned to go up to the Big Buddha to get some lovely views of the city and have a nice walk outside….so that got cancelled, which was a shame as I had been looking forward to it the whole flight. In the end I went downstairs and had a big feast of waffles and bacon for breakfast! Didn’t quite make up for it, but close enough! 😉

The last few hours of the layover were spent checking out the new roster and having a quick snooze before the flight home!

In June I’ll be flying to:

  • Kuala Lumpur (yes, again! Why on earth they keep sending me there, I do not know)
  • Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (a new destination for me!)
  • San Francisco (woohoooo!! Was originally rostered Seattle, but since I have already been there I managed to swap it for San Fran, so so excited!)
  • LEAVE! No idea where I’ll be going yet, any suggestions? 🙂
  • And to finish off the month, a Dhaka turnaround.

I’ve just had my mum come to stay for 3 days, and we managed to squeeze so much in … so of course there will be a blog post coming very soon, once I get tonight’s Bombay turnaround out of the way! 🙂

 

P.s. If you want more regular day to day updates of what is happening in my life, follow me on Twitter and Instagram @rachelwwilson!

A walk in the forest

My most recent trip took me to the lovely Zurich in Switzerland. I think this was my fourth or fifth time visiting, and as I’ve been to the city a couple of times I was keen to explore a new area. A group of about 8 of us decided to go and discover the forest which is located very close to the hotel we stay at. ImageImage Taking a well-earned break….or maybe just a photo-op, as this bench was actually just outside the forest! ImageImageImage Doing my best Sound of Music impression. ImageImageImage In the middle of the forest we came across a little duck pond, covered in algae but very peaceful. ImageImageImageImage All in all a lovely walk through the forest. It’s so easy to forget how wonderful nature is when you’re surrounded by it every day, but when you live in the desert you really learn to appreciate all of the greenery!

 

P.s. If you want more regular day to day updates of what is happening in my life, follow me on Twitter and Instagram @rachelwwilson!

 

A meander around Munich

The morning after I landed from Manchester, I headed straight back to the airport for my next flight – Munich, Germany. As my family live in Austria I thought it would be a great opportunity for them to come and visit, however Harry was the only one who could make it. After a quick plane ride from Vienna he arrived in Munich shortly after I got to our hotel.

Since the weather was so lovely we decided to head straight out into the city, which is only a short underground ride from the hotel. Before we even got to the underground we stumbled across a market selling lots of lovely fresh fruit and veg. Of course I couldn’t resist a few punnets of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and some fresh asparagus that is in season right now. After dropping those back off in the hotel we soon arrived in the town centre.

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The main square in Munich, the Marienplatz, has a huge cathedral and as we arrived we realised it was just coming up to the hour, so we stayed (along with hundreds of other tourists!) to watch the Glockenspiel – while the church bells ring the figurines go around and it’s almost like a little show. Impossible to take pictures of though, haha!

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We walked around quite a bit of the city centre, just enjoying the lovely sunny weather.

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After a while we decided it was time for an ice cream, so stopped and found a little cafe in the sun.

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We then headed over towards the English Gardens. This is a huge park that spans over 370 Hectares and is actually one of the world’s largest urban parks, even bigger than Central Park in New York! Of course we couldn’t explore all of it that evening, so just had a nice walk around.

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As some of the crew had arranged to meet for dinner, we headed back to the hotel for some delicious asparagus ravioli, crisp white wine, and finished off with some traditional “Kaiserschmarren”.

Having been awake since before 5am that morning, I realised I was actually quite tired, and headed up to bed leaving Harry to chat with the rest of the crew for a bit longer.

The next morning we forced ourselves to the gym, and then to cancel all of our hard work out went straight on to breakfast and tried a bit of everything! I find the breakfasts in Germany to be the best; there’s always so much choice and it’s all so fresh!

A quick trip to the supermarket to stock up on a few essentials and all too soon it was time to start getting ready for the flight home. Harry left to get a train to Austria to see the family for a couple of days, and it was back to the airport and sunny Dubai for me.

Thanks for coming all the way to Munich Harry! 🙂

Also just realised I haven’t posted my roster for this month, so here goes:

  • Manchester (check my previous post for this layover!)
  • Munich
  • Zurich
  • Casablanca
  • Hong Kong (so looking forward to this flight, I haven’t been since my very first flight on the A380; I think there’s a post about it somewhere near the beginning of my blog!)
  • Bombay (t/a)
  • London Heathrow

I’m hoping to get back into blogging a little bit more this month after taking a little break, so if there’s anything you’d like me to write about feel free to leave a comment! 🙂

 

P.s. If you want more regular day to day updates of what is happening in my life, follow me on Twitter and Instagram @rachelwwilson!

Catching up

So after a month of no blogging I decided it was about time I wrote something again! Sometimes life gets in the way and things happen that you weren’t expecting.

The best cure? A day out with your best friend. Luckily, after a few tough weeks and not everything going as I had hoped, this was exactly what was on the cards, and after a busy flight to Manchester I was ready to go.

I hopped on the train to Sheffield, where Lucy is at university, and it was a beautiful sunny day. She was waiting for me at the train station, and we strolled down one of the main streets for a browse in the shops. (Of course!)
As she had to go to lectures in the afternoon and I had to get back to Manchester in time for the wake up call, we only had a few hours to spend together. After a spot of shopping we headed over towards the cathedral.

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We chose a little cafe next to the cathedral and sat by the window.

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Before we knew it, we’d ordered cream tea…scones with jam, clotted cream and a big pot of tea! 

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We sat and chatted until Lucy was going to be late for her lecture and I was going to miss the train if we didn’t stop talking, so she dropped me off at the station and we went our separate ways. The day was definitely far too short, but it was so lovely to catch up and get some much needed advice from one of the people who knows me best!

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I tried to get a picture of all the lovely hills covered in tiny little lambs, but of course the train was going a bit too fast! When I see the beautiful countryside England has to offer, I do sometimes wish I still lived there….and then I remember that 99% of the time it’s raining, haha!

A day trip in the sunshine with my lovely best friend was just what I needed, and it has definitely cheered me up a whole lot!

 

P.s. If you want more regular day to day updates of what is happening in my life, follow me on Twitter and Instagram @rachelwwilson!