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Published: August 2nd 2014
Hello All,
Today was certainly a great day. I was planning on heading out to Po Lin Monastery and Tai O with one of the pilots, but he is on day three on not wanting to move more than about 10' from a toilet. Poor guy hasn't really ever eaten anything different and he is hurtin. He thinks this time it was the bananas and when I tried to explain to him that anyone who eats an entire bundle of bananas might not feel great he just couldn't hear it, then he ate a pound of prunes to try to clear out his system. I see a flaw. Anyway, I headed out at 7:45 this morning and started my day, and oh what a day it was! Great sights, cool experiences, and of course, my favorite, awesome new tastes!
There are three ways to Po Lin Monastery: bus, foot, of the Ngong Ping Gondola. I was prepared for a long day, but not for a long hike so I took the Gondola. The Ngong Ping Gondola is one of the episodes of Nat Geo's Engineering Marvels show so I was pretty excited to ride it. For $130 HKD ($15
USD or so) I got a round trip ticket. The line was very short and I was happy to be in a Gondola with one other young couple. The cars each hold 10 so it was nice to only have three of us! The ride up to Po Lin was about 30 minutes, I took more pictures of the airport and the bridge to Macau because I am fascinated with airports and bridges. The Airport was built on a reclaimed island and the bridge to Macau will soon be another episode on any engineering show. It is a tunnel bridge that is 37 miles long!!!!! Awesome stuff. Anyway the Po Lin Monastery was being worked on so I couldn't really get the pictures I wanted, also, there was a ceremony going on so cameras weren't allowed as far in as they usually were. I sat (kneeled) in on ceremony for a while and I must admit, those Monks sure can bring a person to some sort of peace. The smell of the incense, the sounds of monks chanting, turning everything off and just being there was a feeling I haven't felt since......well I don't know, maybe never. It was very
nice to say the least. I climbed the steps up to Buddha and looked around, this time not taking the opportunity to snap pics, but just to take it in with my own eyes and enjoy the moment. I had breakfast of Dim Sum and some type of noodles with beef and from two different little places for a total of $38 HKD or 5 bucks. They were both amazing and exactly what I wanted. I get tired of the noodles from time to time, but not this morning. Back down the Gondola to Tung Chung where I caught the local bus #11 to Tai O.
The bus ride was AWESOME!!! It was about an hour to get over Lantau Island to Mui Wo and then back across Lantau to Tai O. It was really a crazy ride up over the mountains and back down again. The bus was struggling to make it up the hills and then struggling to keep it slow on the way back down. The best way I can describe it is to bring yourself to just that moment where the roller coaster goes from the long slow climb up to plummet down. Several people
even put their hands up on the bus which had every seat filled. The ride passes through a few small villages, the Lantau Correctional Facility, and over the mountains twice before arriving at Tai O. My first impression of Tai O was a sense of "awe." Maybe I was still in my Buddhist haze or maybe it was just the serenity of being at a small fishing village in Hong Kong, but my senses were on overload and I made sure to allow myself the rest of the day here. It was about 11am and there was a small river/bay cruise leaving at 11am so I figured it was just meant to be. I hopped on board for $25 HKD and settled in for an hour cruise around the village and out into the bay. The houses on stilts look like they should be on a movie set, but then you see beer umbrellas and large screen TVs and realize that maybe you haven't traveled back as far in time as you thought. It is still a working fishing village, but it is also pretty touristy. The markets are set up to sell to locals, but also the attract the
eye of the hungry or curious traveler. The river cruise brought me through the heart of the village and then out around the rest of the island back to the beginning of the village. We were lucky enough to have some dolphins cruise along side us for a bit and I got a few marginal pictures of them. At the point of Lantau Island where we headed back to Tai O there is a neat rock structure where the ocean has created a bit of an arch. It just really didn't seem at all like we were only 25 miles from Hong Kong. It is pretty amazing how fast an adventurous soul can get away from the city and into some pretty neat areas.
Back from the cruise it was about lunch time so I set out to find some new flavors. First thing I ran into was a red liquid in a seemingly used water bottle. Why not! I asked the lady what it was, but all she could say was Hong Kong so I figured that translates to "try it out buddy, what's the worst that could happen." It was only $7 HKD and I was sweating profusely
in the 107 degree weather with out a cloud in sight! She had three colors of drink and they were all called "Hong Kong" so going back to my childhood where everything red tasted good, I picked the red one. I was delighted with a flavor that I have never had before, but it was some sort of bitter yet sweet tea with a bit of a syrupy texture. It just screamed "Healing powers!" to me. I then came upon a very happy little man who was cooking something. I had three choices of dried fish that he heated up over charcoal. When asked if I wanted "spicy" or not, I got a little scared and asked for only a little. I should know by now that I can handle more "spicy" and it is usually much tastier with the spicy. Anyway it was terrible and I honestly couldn't stomach more than a few tastes. I now have a taste for the smell of nearly every fish market I have been to. Oh well, better luck next time, but if you want to watch the video of preparing this little snack click here:
Sorry for the quality, I'm not
good at videos. So after that little taste I thought to myself, "Why not try cuddle fish?" So I went and tried cuddle fish boiled in a plum sauce infused water, note the picture. Awe come on! Strike two. Cuddle fish is like chewing on raw squid. Hey speaking of raw squid, why not try it.......well the easy answer to that is "because it is raw squid" but I tried it anyway. Ok, not bad it just kinda tastes like raw calamari (I know, bad joke. Sorry). Fish balls are good. Random, I know, but there are plenty of fish ball vendors around and I knew they were good so I had a few of those dipped in spicy sauce this time and they were ooooh so good. Obviously you can see by the size that they aren't THOSE kind of balls, merely fish meal locally made, shaped into a ball, and then boiled. Ok, so four foods tried, two and a half were pretty awful, the last one a half were ok. I was thirsty, yeah I know that's kind of a common theme. I keep my Nalgene bottle full of water with me at all times, but that
is for emergency use only and when in markets and such, there is always plenty of stuff to drink. I stopped by another place cooking "egg waffles" and he had.......wait for it........fresh watermelon! OMG never have I tasted anything so good as fresh watermelon. I bough a bag of it for $7HKD and a concoction that he told me Tai O was famous for (at least that's what I think he said) and it was sort of frozen so I was game. As you can see in the picture it was white and I was hoping for some sort of coconut flavored thing. He was also selling frozen mango, but it was ridiculously expensive at $24HKD. Back to the drink, whatever it was, I want more! I was about half way through with it before I figured out what it was. I'm not sure if you have ever been blind folded and tasted something you have eaten for your entire life, but that is what this was like. I knew the flavor. I knew it well, but I just could not for the life of me place it. Well, finally my little Buddha on my shoulder spoke up and I
realized it was water chestnut. Well, also a little spark of a reminder about a travel blog I read about Tai O mentioning to make sure to try the chestnut water. So, you drink/eat this type of water. It has chew-able size chunks of water chestnuts in it, but it was cold, sweet, and just perfect. I would almost make the trek back just for more of this sweet elixir.
I walked across the breakwater and tried for so long to photograph the schools of fish jumping out of the water, which I imagine is either for feeding or to evade a killer, with little success. It really seems as though this area is a natural fishery. I mean every time you look in to the water, there are schools of fish of all sizes swimming around. The main harvest in this area is shrimp, muscles, and small fish like the one I gulped down. They are typically dried and put into soups and noodle dishes, although the occasional larger fish is caught and served up. There was a 3:25 bus back to Tung Chung that I got on as one of the last passengers which was nice as
the next one was not for another 30 minutes. I actually got a window seat next to a little Aussie kid and was completely freaked out 1 second later when he woke me up to tell me we were in Tung Chung. I must have fallen asleep within five minutes of leaving Tai O and slept like a baby through 14 bus stops and two roller coaster rides back to Tung Chung. I was lucky in that my bus back to Discovery Bay was leaving as I got to it and then I was back. It was like a trip through a worm hole, one second I was in Tai O, literally to me, the next second I was back in the hustle and bustle of the city.
I will go back to Tai O before returning to the states, if not only for the culinary delights. I hope you enjoy the pictures, and please check out the video if you don't get sea sick!
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Mom
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Wish I had been with you! Sounds so cool. And the food. Don't think I would be brave enough to try all these things!