Sorry for the delay in posting! I was very busy searching for a job and didn’t get around to posting as of lately!! Sorry! But welcome back to HKBushcraft for another installment of outdoors fun and adventure with me!
This time, I took a day trip to Lantau Island 大嶼山 (Dai Yu Shan) and Tai O Fishing Village 大澳 (Tai O) with my parents. It was an awesome experience to say the least. The weather that day was very foggy and overcast, as you will see from the pictures below, and had a median of 22.2 degrees Celsius, but was much colder at the top of Lantau peak.
Our trip began at Tung Chung (東涌) at the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car (昂坪360). Tickets were quite decent: adult round-trip was $185 ($33 CAD). There are ways to get discounts from tour groups or coupons, but we went on a whim and didn’t look into it. Here is the link for more information: http://www.np360.com.hk/en/buy-book/pricing-and-packages/.
Ngong Ping 360 was opened in 2006, and stretches for 5.7km and is owned by the MTR Corporation (What transit in HK isn’t?). If you have ever skied before, I would advise going on it, as it really isn’t anything spectacular. However, if you’re inclined to check off all the tourist attractions in HK, the price is decent enough to warrant a ride up.
Map of the Ngong Ping Cable Car System. From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HKTYS_ngongping360.png
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- Photo of Ngong Ping 360 overlooking Tung Chung Bay (東涌灣). The white containers to the left are the Aviation Fuel Tank Farms of Chek Lap Kok Airport (赤臘角機場).
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- Maybe the reason I’m recommending against Ngong Ping 360 was that it was really foggy that day,
When we got to Ngong Ping Village, the thing that caught my eye was how well it was built. It felt like Universal Studios or some other type of theme park. And I found out it’s because it was built for tourists. There was the usual souvenir shops, restaurants (even a Subway’s), and gimmicky items for sale. Although the storefronts all looked the same (the whole village is one retail enterprise by MTR) two stores caught my eye. One displayed a wide collection of chopstick sets made from different materials like Red Oak, Ebony stone, Sandalwood, and even some made of ivory (which I am against). The other store sold figurines of Chinese operas (戲曲).
You get to see my face.. should’ve bought a mask here.
As we walked to our first ‘real’ attraction – the Po Lin Monastery (寶蓮禪寺), we saw… cows! Apparently they were once used to farm in the villages near Ngong Ping and have since been set free. What I don’t understand is how the villagers got the cows up here in the first place, Ngong Ping is at 500m elevation, so those cows had to have been herded up at one point.
Finally got to Po Lin Monastery! About a 10 minute walk from the Ngong Ping 360 station. Had to take a picture to commemorate, but since we went right after Chinese New Year, there were people EVERYWHERE.
Please get out of the way sir!
When arriving at a monastery or Buddhist/Daoist temple (They often share temples and monasteries, but have different practices), it is customary to place incense sticks, even if you’re not a believer. So we went ahead and got some incense for $8HKD and put them in the offering holder.
Smokey smokey. The offering holder in front of Po Lin Monastery
I only bought $8 worth of incense, but these big mommas cost $100+ and burn for more than 24 hours.
Inside the prayer chambers, you aren’t allowed to take any photos, but you are allowed to photograph from outside. The architecture of the monastery is beautiful, but I had a feeling that what we saw was a facade covering the old Po Lin’s real walls.
Unfortunately, the only photo of the walls I had that is decent
Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas. Each little tile you see in the back is actually a miniature golden Buddha donated by someone.
After that, we climbed up the 1000 Steps to see the O.G. himself, Buddha. Well, a statue of him anyways. Did you know? Buddha is not Chinese! He is actually Indian! His original name is Siddhartha Gautama, and he lived from 563 BCE to 483 BCE. I’m no expert on Buddhism, so read up on Wikipedia here. The 1000 Steps to get to him are supposed to make visitors feel the journey towards Enlightenment (of calories maybe!) because Enlightenment can only be brought forward by endurance and the understanding of suffering, or so the scriptures say. When we got to the top, Buddha was sure huge! But we couldn’t really see his whole body because it was really foggy that day.
Somehow the fog adds a bit of mystery and sense of awe to this experience.
“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.”
After our spiritual experience, we boarded the bus at the top of Ngong Ping to head to Tai O Fishing Village! Again, it was a very touristy spot, but the feel was quite chill. WARNING! Don’t eat seafood at restaurants there unless you are willing to pay a boatload of money. A freshly-caught sea bass cost us $600HKD ($107CAD) WOW!! Make sure you ask for the prices before ordering.
The bus driver should be hired for the next Fast and Furious. He literally swerved that car like it was a twin turbo RWD. Skrr!
Other than the surprise bill at lunch, we had a great time. We went on a cheapo boat tour for $25HKD and walked around.
Tai O Heritage Hotel. Converted from a police station built in 1902. Check out the history: http://www.taioheritagehotel.com/eng/abthotel/hotel_history.jsp
Word of advice, if you plan on taking the cable car back down from Ngong Ping Village, make sure to leave before the peak times of 4:30PM-5PM. If you get caught in the evening rush, expect to wait at least an hour to two just to get to the terminal, and another half an hour to get back to Tung Chung. We ended up taking the bus from Ngong Ping to Tung Chung, which took an hour in itself, and had another Fast & Furious experience haha!
That’s it for this adventure. As always, stay tuned for more adventures, hikes, AND BUSHCRAFT RELATED MATERIAL FINALLY on HKBushcraft. Visit http://www.hkbushcraft.wordpress.com for more! Take care, and join me again next time!
-hkbushcraft.
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