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Published: February 1st 2010
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cows when i first arrivedWhen I got off the bus I wasn’t sure where to go so I wandered for a while, I really liked the village because it was pretty quiet and peaceful. There were cows wandering around on the streets and yards. There were also quite a few dogs, which reminded me of Lijiang. At one point I was looking for a sign and looked up to see the famous Tian Tan Sitting Buddha. It is the largest sitting bronze Buddha in the world, it was very impressive. I followed some hard-to-see signs to finally arrive at my hostel. It is the same company as the first hostel I stayed at, but the conditions are much nicer. The place is much cleaner, and it is just me and an older man from the UK in one room, instead of the huge room with 20 people like the last one. The area looks really cool to explore, I’m pretty excited for tomorrow. That brings me up to present, sitting on my bed at the hostel. I ate some delicious coconut bread and some Chinese coco puffs, and I’m thinking about going to bed soon.
I started the next day on Lantau by wandering
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more cows through the small street of overpriced shops, and a Starbucks, that makes up the town of Ngong Ping. The town also has the giant bronze Buddha, a bus stop, a Buddhist monastery, and my hostel, the town has multiple hiking paths going through it that eventually go pretty much everywhere on Lantau Island, along with being the end point of a long cable car ride, which the man from the UK told me, is awesome, I plan to take it back to town tomorrow. After that I caught a bus into the nearby sea-side fishing village called Tai O, I was the only one on the bus, it was about 10:30 am, but since the buses and cable cars start at 10, no one has access to this town until almost 11 unless they are at my hostel or camping. The bus ride was about 15 minutes. When I got to the village, not much was going on, like Ngong Ping, it was just waking up. Shops were opening, mostly salted and dried fish, which was interesting, but I wasn’t compelled to buy any, also it was very expensive. I walked around the village and took some pictures, the village
is called the Venice of Hong Kong because a lot of the houses are on stilts next to the water, and therefore accesable by boats through the canals. That might make the village sound more impressive than it is, it is still just a small simple, and probably quite poor fishing village. I took some cool pictures and walked towards the outskirts of town. I got to a pier near the open ocean before I had to turn around, but I got some cool pictures. After that I wandered some more, but the village wasn’t too big so not much to see, although it was pretty interesting.
After wandering I sat down at a small restaurant towards the homes in the village, thinking it would be cheaper than the ones geared towards tourists, which it was. I ate some fried shrimp on sticks and a delicious “carrot cake” which was actually more like a chicken pot pie, but I don’t think there was any meat inside, just sauce and veggies. From there I walked toward what I thought was the path back to the village I was staying in, the maps in town were very vague and designed more
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big buddha to be pretty than helpful. I ended up climbing the side of the mountain next to the village, the mountainside was also the town cemetery, so I got to see that. I also got a cool view of the village. I kept walking on the path and it took me to the seaside, but kept going in the direction I wanted, so I kept on. It was getting to the point where I either had to turn around to catch the last bus from Tai O, or just keep going, so I asked a passing Chinese couple if I was going toward Ngong Ping, and they confirmed what I was hoping. I walked for an hour and a half or so on the path, it was pretty nice, occasionally overlooking the sea, sometimes just a path through a bamboo forest or other trees. I eventually made it to a street, the sign that pointed toward Ngong Ping was pointing me into a swamp, so I had to just take a change and pick a way and go.
As I was walking, an old hunched over man yelled “hey!” I looked around and saw him in his front yard fixing
a fishing net. I walked over and he offered me a menu of drinks, I asked for a bottle of water because it was cheap and I didn’t have much left, and I still had no idea how long I had to walk. I asked him if I was going toward Ngong Ping, and he said it was the other way. Thank God for him, because little did I know I still had a couple hours to walk, and going in the wrong direction would have made that even longer. I walked and walked, occasionally seeing signs, which kept me confident, although I was getting tired. After a while I got a really pretty view overlooking some hills, and far off in the distance, a prison. The prison was on a little bit of land between two hills that reached out into the ocean, it was very odd, and seemed like a place you could put a resort, rather than a prison. Ever since I seen the old man I had been walking on a nicely paved road, even though it was quite steep. I'm not sure what motivated such upkeep because the whole time I was on the road
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merry xmas cable car I wasn't passed by any cars going either way.
Another half hour after the overlook, I was back to Ngong Ping. I bought some noodles and soymilk for dinner and raisin pumpkin bread for breakfast and headed back towards my hostel. I saw a sign that pointed for Wisdom Path, it said it was just 5 minutes past my hostel, so I decided it wouldn’t kill me to walk for 10 more minutes. Wisdom path was pretty cool, it was just some Chinese proverbs etched into tree trunks sticking out of the ground, unfortunately it was under construction, but it was still pretty cool. Now I’m back at my hostel, I just ate some noodles, and I’m looking forward to doing some reading and going to bed. I think I may have exchanged a little more money than I needed, so I should be able to afford a good last dinner in HK tomorrow night, as well as the cable car, which costs about $9 US.
The last morning on Lantau ended up being the most clear, which is great because it was the day I was to take the cable car back down to the city with
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big buddha a subway stop. The cable car just opened when I got there, so I got a car to myself because no one was up on the top of the mountain yet except for fellow hostellers. As soon as the car pulled away from the boarding station I could see why everyone said it was so cool, it went pretty fast and I sailed out into the sky overlooking all the awesome hills and trees, and the maze of paths that people could hike on. I immediately wished I would have splurged for the “crystal car” which has a glass bottom. The car was made for 6 people, so I could stand up a bit and walk around to look out all the sides. I was really enjoying overlooking the island, and wondering how much the huge cable line and all the cars must have cost, when the trip got even cooler. We went over a big hill and in the distance you could see the Hong Kong airport, I’ve never seen an airport in action from above before, well not really above, but up and away. I watched planes take off and land as we got closer and closer. The
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dried salted fish pictures can’t really do it justice but it was actually very impressive. Right before the end of the line, the cars go over two big rivers, which was a little scary for some reason, but pretty cool. It also ends in a suburb with some high-rise apartments so another change of scenery was pretty interesting, but not as pretty as the hills. Overall I thought the cable car was great, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is anywhere near Hong Kong.
After the cable car I took the subway back to Naomi’s University. This being the 8th day in Hong Kong, I was pretty tired and felt like I didn’t need to explore much else that day. We just relaxed, watched a movie, and walked around her campus a little because it was a pretty nice day. I had quite a bit of money left over that I had exchanged, but not enough to exchange back, so I bought us some decent dinner and some ice cream before I left. I booked a hostel in Kowloon near a bus stop in Mong Kok neighborhood because I had an early flight and needed a good way to get
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houses on stilts to the airport. My hostel was surprisingly extremely clean, also extremely small, just a room with a single bed and a TV. However, I did have my own bathroom which was cool. I walked around on the street a bit trying to spend my remaining HK money, but nothing was interesting, unless it was too expensive. I found some really cool markets similar to the Silk Market in Beijing, but outside, the market is called "Lady's Market" but they had men's things too, but anything I wanted was too expensive. I bought some bubble tea and went back to my room, hoping I could spend my money in the airport.
The next morning’s trip went fine, the bus was easy enough to find and take to the airport. I bought a good breakfast and some starbucks to finish off my HK money. I kept a $10 bill however, because in HK they are plastic, and also very beautiful, probably the prettiest bill I have seen in all the places I’ve been. The flight to Shanghai I slept, and while waiting for and on the flight to Beijing I finished my book. I also realized that I had a total
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tai O village of 6 flights in the past week and a half, 8 flights in the last month…crazy.
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Uncle Bill
non-member comment
Very cool Jake, looks like you're taking advantage of seeing as much as possible. However, I didn't read about how many companies you approached in HK for possibly opportunities? Maybe you want to save that for your next post so you can include Bejing? See you, Bill