aside

mary and me on the world's longest outdoor covered escalator

Asia is the land of ultra-specific superlatives. In our four days in Hong Kong alone, we experienced the World's Largest Outdoor Seated Bronze Buddha, the World's Largest Permanent Light Show, and the World's Longest Outdoor Covered Escalator. At the Royal Palace in Cambodia, we saw the World's Most Diamond Encrusted Buddha and the Emerald Buddha, which is the world's largest single carved crystal Buddha (not to be confused with Thailand's Emerald Buddha--also not made of emerald, and possibly also a superlative of some kind). In Korea, I've been to the World's Largest Outdoor Standing Bronze Buddha and the World's Largest Outdoor [Something I Can't Remember] Sleeping Buddha (not to be confused with the World's Largest Reclining Buddha, which lives in Burma/Myanmar along with the World's Largest Underwater Bell...or so I've been told). In China I remember seeing the World's Largest Indoor Buddha Carved From A Single Tree and many more. Bizarre...but I guess I can't really make fun of it--the system seems to work (we clearly would never have visited, remembered, or photographed ourselves riding the World's Longest Outdoor Covered Escalator if we hadn't known of its eminence).