Guilted into Exercise?


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Asia » Hong Kong » Lantau Island
September 13th 2016
Published: June 14th 2017
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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 in because of my dress, then I think that's their loss.

We decide that we can't afford to eat at the hotel. Last night's meal cost us a small fortune and I was still hungry when we finished. We catch a shuttle bus to Kowloon station, and have some breakfast at a cafe. They really know how to crank up the air conditioning here. It's cold in the cafe, as it was in the hotel restaurant last night. We decide that this mightn't be an entirely bad thing. It's probably excellent preparation for the gloomy weather that awaits us back home at the end of the week.

We catch a train to Tung Shun, and queue up for the cable car ride to Ngong Ping. The queue is massively long, and it seems that this is one time when we could have benefited from skip the line tickets. We could have paid extra to get in a shorter queue for a cable car with a glass floor, but glass floors make Issy very nervous. The five kilometre ride takes us across the water onto Lantau Island, and then up over steep jungle clad hills, before our descent into the village. Troy suggested we walk here instead; the cable cars are all packed, but we only see two people on the walking track, and they're both sitting down. I hope they're alright. I wonder if Troy walked. Somehow I doubt it; he's not into exercise. Maybe he figures that if we walk we'll encounter fewer people, and I'll have fewer opportunities to cause Issy further embarrassment. The Big Buddha is indeed very big, and comes into view as soon as we clear the ridge.

We walk through Ngong Ping along its only street. It's very pretty and lined with shops selling food and souvenirs. Access to the Big Buddha is via a very long and steep flight of steps. The entrance ticket gets you a free bottle of water and an ice cream, but you can only swap your ticket for these if you manage to make it to the shop at the top. They call this the "meal package". You can't buy a ticket that doesn't include the bottle of water and the ice cream, so I think they should probably rename it the "only package".

It's very steamy and overcast. Most of the surrounding hills are in the clouds, but the views from the top are nevertheless excellent. The museum in the base of the Buddha houses a display of Buddhist literature and other relics. We read that the statue was completed in 1993 and is 34 metres high, and we've apparently climbed 268 steps to get to it.

We grab a bite of lunch in Ngong Ping, and Issy then browses the souvenir shops while I visit the adjacent Po Lin Monastery. The air in the forecourt is thick with the smoke and odour of burning incense sticks. Signs warn you to be careful not to get burnt, but don't say a lot about the dangers of passive smoke inhalation. The Monastery's spectacular main temple houses three large golden Buddha statues. There's a ceremony in progress, complete with chanting monks. The Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas behind the main building is also adorned with gold Buddha statues and other golden ornaments.

Back on the cable car, we again keep an eye out for people on the walking track below. Again we see only two, and again they're sitting down. I wonder if they're the same two we saw on the way here. I hope again that they're alright. I also wonder whether they might be statues put there to make people in the cable car feel guilty about not getting enough exercise.

We get back to civilisation to find that school has apparently just finished for the day. I thought that most schools back home finished at about 3.30; it's now five o'clock. I think that Chinese school children might take their education just a tad more seriously than their Aussie counterparts. It might also explain why the front row seats at my University lectures always seemed to be occupied by Asian students.

The amount of building and road construction activity going on here would almost give Dubai a run for its money. Virtually all the buildings are very high rise and we assume that virtually everyone lives in apartments. Land seems to be at a real premium, so I suspect houses are probably only for the very rich. It certainly looks and feels a lot different to the Hong Kong that I remember from coming here as a nine year old with my parents, which was admittedly more than five decades ago. One thing that really stuck in my mind from that trip was the masses of refugees from mainland China living in shanty towns on the hillsides. There's certainly absolutely no sign of any of this here now.

We wander into a Vietnamese restaurant near the hotel. I think maybe we should have ventured out a little earlier. Before we finish eating most of the staff go home, and the few that are left turn off most of the lights and pull down all the shutters except one. I suggest to Issy that she should finish her drink quite quickly or we might be sleeping here. As we leave they half pull down the one remaining shutter. There's still a couple in the restaurant. I hope they've brought their sleeping bags.


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