I'm not as exhausted today. We went on a guided tour to Lantau Island so someone else showed us around and transported us everywhere which meant a lot less time in the heat!!
This morning we set off to walk to the meeting point and stopped at our favourite little bakery on the way. We've been buying breakfast here every morning and trying all sorts of interesting rolls and things. Today we had a roll with blueberries, cranberries and cream cheese. Was delish!!
We found the meeting point and waited for our bus. Whilst waiting we noticed lots of kids walking to school. We've noticed that the school uniforms here either make kids look like they work in an asylum or look like a nurse from about the 1960s. They don't look very practical or comfortable and the boys' pants are usually white! I'm glad the school I work at has much nicer uniforms.
We got picked up a 8.30 and drove to a meeting point where other buses were supposedly bringing the other people from our tour. This didn't happen for quite some time though. Annoyingly, we sat and waited for close to 40 minutes, and we began to wonder if we would have been better off simply going to Lantau by ourselves.
Once we finally met the group we continued wondering the same thing. Our guide seemed very abrupt and disinterested and the group had some very sullen looking people - a Spanish woman honestly looked like being on the tour was torture. She had the best 'resting bitch face' (excuse the language - sorry nan and pa - that's a thing I promise!) I had ever seen!!
We drove to the ferry terminal and caught a ferry to Lantau which took about half an hour. Mum and I watched with horror as a man ate hot glutinous rice and drank a steaming hot coffee as the boat rocked. Somehow he didn't spill any of it or burn himself!
Once we got to Lantau the tour started to improve. The guide told us her name was Crystal and started telling us facts about our surroundings. Lantau island is the largest of Hong Kong's approximately 260 islands and is twice the size of Hong Kong island (where we are staying) at 147 square kilometres. 10,000 people live in Mui Wo (the main village) and lots of these people catch the ferry to HK city every day for work. We kept driving and saw a turtle crossing the street and lots of ox sitting by the roadside.
Our first stop was Cheung Sha Beach. No time to swim but mum and I had a look around and dipped our feet in. Water temperature was 24 degrees which from what I've been told was 14 degrees more than the air temperature in Melbourne today (sorry guys!!). It was 31 here again today (sorry again!).
Then we stopped at Tai O, a small fishing village. A lady I used to work with had recommended we go here and I hadn't known our tour stopped here! We walked through the village and saw some very smelly markets selling various dried fish parts, puffer fish and God knows what else! Then we went on a quick boat trip to see some houses on stilts. We visited a temple that was built in 1488 and was extremely hot inside.
Next, we visited the Tian Tan Buddha (aka the 'Big Buddha'). It was amazing! 32m tall and made of bronze, and surrounded by the beautiful mountains and lush greenery of Lantau Island. I think most people ('myself included until I did some research) picture Hong Kong as a huge concrete jungle and that's it, but there's so much more to it than that. The Buddha looked quite mystic and old, but I'm actually older than the statue! It was erected in 1993. We started at the top and went into the memorial hall, where Buddhist people who had passed away's names and photos were up. Some were covered with red paper and Crystal told us these are people with no family who want their name up there, so they pre-purchase the name and photo while they're alive. Bit morbid if you ask me!
Then we walked around the Buddha. It faces towards the temple of Tian Tan in Beijing. Crystal had made a big deal about how many steps there were and was adamant we wouldn't have time to climb. I didn't see the point of coming all this way and not climbing, as the best views of the Buddha are actually as you start to walk further away from it. Turned out it was only 260 odd steps, and mum and I climbed all the way down and then back up again with ease, not even panting at all. She got a bit funny with us when we told her on the bus, but to be honest she was a bit funny in general, hot and cold! The whole tour group was. No cohesion or introductions or anything. Mum and I were each very glad we had the other!!
We then caught the bus back down the hill and walked towards the Po Lin Monastery. Here we had a vegetarian (delicious!) lunch. Again no one in the tour spoke, very weird group. Mum and I went walking in our free time afterwards and we went to the Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas, which was lined with (you guessed it!) ten thousand small Buddhas.
We walked to our meeting point in Ngong Ping Village and meandered through the tacky souvenir shops and other tourists until we reached the cable car. This was included in our tour price and was a real highlight. The sun even came out at this point (no rain today but a bit cloudy) and we had some amazing views of the Buddha, islands and mountains. The cable car was 5.7km long and lasted for 25 minutes, at the end of which we had a Birdseye view of the airport. Once we finished we got back onto a bus to take us back to the city. Not wanting a repeat of this morning, we told the driver we would get off at the first stop and decided to make our way back from there. The traffic was hideous and our hotel was the furthest away. So we looked in H&M and a couple of other shops and then caught the metro back. Now we are resting in the room and are considering heading out to Victoria Peak late tonight if the weather permits and we aren't too tired.
So another great day, just a bit of a weird tour group. But I've had so many amazing tour groups that I guess I was due for a strange one!!!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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