Blogs from Lantau Island, Hong Kong, Asia

Lantau Island, the largest of Hong Kong's islands features Ngong Ping cultural themed village, 34 mts tall Tian Tan buddha statue also known as Big Budda, the Po Lin Monastery and its vegetarian restaurant, souvenirs shops and cafes. I highly recommend to leave early for Lantau so as to avoid queues . We made a mistake by not booking tickets in advance and so we had to queue up to buy tickets and THEN again wait in line to board cable car. Online booking can be a smart option There are 3 cabins av.aliable(standard and cristal bottom cabins and private cabins). Max. 8 people can accommodate in 1 cabin. We chose single ride standard cabin and descended by bus. Even though we visited on a weekday it almost took 2 hrs in queue, but once got ... read more

Hello. Today we went to Disneyland! This is important for a number of reasons, which I shall enumerate thusly. It's Disneyland We found our way there alone without Kate and Lloyd It's Disneyland! It was really cool. I thought I would like it, but was mostly doing it for the kids, but then I got on the train with Mickey Mouse windows, and there were bronze statues of Snow White and Donald Duck and Jimmy Cricket behind little perspex screens, and I found myself all giddy with excitement even before we arrived. Navigating the metro system in Hong Kong is, full disclosure, not a difficult thing. It all makes sense, everything is in English, the trains come every couple of minutes, there's not a lot to get wrong. But even so, we made it without error ... read more

Friday night we met up with our friends Frankie and Amy, who are our friend Chris's parents. Frankie and Amy live on Ma Wan island where we've been staying and know the area well. They invited us to a traditional seafood restaurant owned by local fishermen. Even though we'd not met for a long time, we got on straight away. The food was fresh and plentiful and the drinks were flowing: The Alsace gewurztraminer perfectly accompanied the rock fish and razorfish, 2 delicacies none of us had ever tried. The boys were just as happy with TsingTao, the local Hong Kong beer. Frankie guided us around the old fishing village before beer and icecream completed this very full day! Thank you Frankie &Amy for your hospitality. Have a great trip to Taiwan!... read more

Troy and his girlfriend Maddie came to Hong Kong last year. We spoke to them shortly after we arrived here, and they suggested that we visit the giant Big Buddha statue near the village of Ngong Ping on Lantau Island, about 30 kilometres from the hotel. Troy also made some other suggestions, mostly in response to Issy telling him about all the things that I'd apparently done to embarrass her over the past few days. The drug sniffer dog at the airport didn't seem to mind at all being patted, and I thought it was quite rude of the customs officials to tell me to leave it alone and move on. I also can't see what's wrong with wearing board shorts and thongs every day. If the staff at posh restaurants don't want to let us ... read more

As part of my day tour of Lantau Island, I was able to visit the quaint and picturesque Tai O fishing village which is situated on the western coast. Here, the houses are on stilts . They look old and rustic (or just rusty) but the tour guide said that much of that was for the benefit of tourists and they are actually lovely and modern inside. Wandering through the traditional seafood market is great fun. Have a go at identifying all the different dried products you see. Some are obvious and some you may regret asking about. Apparently, most of the dried seafood used in HK is produced in this village. To see the village properly, you need to get out on the water which is part of the tour. Not on a tour? You ... read more