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Published: November 4th 2017
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Cable Car
Heading over the bay and up the mountain towards Ngong Ping. It was a hazy day. I utilized miles for long haul flights on this extended part of the Midlife Crisis Flashpacking Trip. I am on course to requalify for Platinum status with American Airlines this year, but any additional flying won’t be enough to qualify me for the next tier beyond Platinum so I couldn’t justify forking out cash for flights. My award flight to Singapore was booked at the last minute and the only available seats required me to stay overnight in Hong Kong. As my flight the next day was at 4.10pm, I decided to visit Ngong Ping near the airport before boarding that flight.
I landed in HK at night on November 1st and made my way to the Regal Airport Hotel where I had booked a room with some American Express points that I was unlikely to use otherwise. On the morning of November 2nd, I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed (jetlag sucks), checked out, and left my bag with the concierge. Walking out of the hotel, I found the bus stop easily and hopped onto a bus to Tung Chung. The bus journey took about 15 minutes. Crossing the bridge into Tung Chung, I saw the cable car station
Tian Tan Buddha
Why, hello there, big boy. and immediately alighted.
There was a bit of a queue for the cable car when I got there at 9.45am, which was just ahead of the operating hours which start at 10am. I bought a standard cable car ticket for HKD210 (about USD30). The line moved quickly and I was on a cable car by 10.10am. The cable car journey took about 25 minutes, climbing up some very steep mountain sides. It was hazy, but I could still get good views of Lantau Island, the airport, and a huge infrastructure project - a bridge linking Hong Kong to Macau and Zhuhai.
The cable car deposited me at Ngong Ping Village which, not surprisingly, turned out to be a tourist trap. I wasn’t there for the touristy stuff anyway. I walked through the village and found my way to the Tian Tan Buddha, which was a big and very impressive sitting Buddha atop a long flight of stairs. There was an exhibition hall underneath the Buddha but it wasn’t well annotated so I didn’t learn much from it. After visiting the Buddha, I went to Po Ling Monastery. The monastery grounds were nice and shady and there were a
Path of Wisdom
Unfortunately, I did not exit the path any wiser as I couldn’t read the Chinese script. couple of impressive halls. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed. I had a good lunch at the vegetarian restaurant on the grounds.
After lunch, I sought out the Path of Wisdom, located about 15 minutes walk away from the monastery. The Path of Wisdom has a series of halved tree trunks with wise sayings carved into them. Unfortunately, I didn’t come away from this walk any wiser because I couldn’t read the inscriptions, which were in Chinese.
After a very pleasant few hours atop the mountain, I took the cable car back down, boarded a bus back to the airport, retrieved my bag, and checked in for my onward leg to Singapore.
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alex waring
Alexander Waring
The Travels Begin Again!
Looking forward to reading about where your travels will take you this time :) Sounds like you made the most of your time in your Hong Kong stopover :)