Visiting Buddha and Changing Venues - Hong Kong, China
Hong Kong, China
Hi Everyone. We completed our fist full day in Hong Kong and it was heaps of fun. We got to see some interesting sights and we made a venue change for the remainder of our time in Hong Kong.
Despite restful slumber on our flight and a refreshing shower upon arrival, we both still woke up about 330 AM local time and couldn't fall back to sleep. So we took to organizing our photos and working on the next blog installment. After showering and dressing for the day, we headed to the lobby for brekkie. The hotel offers a pretty extensive breakfast buffet and we opted to give it a go. Since we really didn't have dinner the night before, we were pretty hungry. The buffet offers western, Asian and European breakfast treats and we decided to mash it up and have all three on one plate. So, for example, Joe enjoyed his ham and cheese omelette along with some pork and cabbage dim sum and veggie spring rolls. Meanwhile Joey's United Nations of a meal consisted of croissant, bacon, muesli and Singapore noodles! All of it was delish and hit the spot...or spots.
After brekkie we did a reconnaissance mission in advance of our plans for today. The first stop was the Tung Chung station of Hong Kong's awesome metro system. We would be taking the metro to Kowloon later in the day and we wanted to get a good understanding of the fee structure and where we needed to transfer lines. After that it was a quick walk over to the Ngong Ping 360 aerial tramway. This would be our main event of the day.
We headed back to the hotel, packed up, checked out and stored our luggage with the concierge. We then headed over to the Ngong Ping 360 cable car, which would take us on a 3.5 mile, 25 minute journey up into the hilly, wooded beauty of Lantau Island. We decided to spend a bit more and ride in one of the "Crystal Cabins" which has a glass floor. 7 of us piled into the gondola and began our trek up, up, up. The whole glass floor thing was awesome, but a little scary at first. It's quite a different experience to see the earth below you as you rise higher and higher into the sky.
Lantau Island is much less developed than the areas of Hong Kong usually shown in photos and movies. It is home to Hong Kong's amazing airport, which was built in 1998. The new airport spurred development and growth, especially in the area where our hotel was located, known as Tung Chung. As we rode the gondola, we were amazed as our view quickly changed from row upon row of massive apartment complexes to densely forested mountains. It was beautiful.
When we arrived at the end of the ride, we walked straight into a tourist trap that we almost always fall for - the obligatory souvenir photo trap!! When we started the ride, photos were taken of all couples/groups in the gondola. Upon exiting, a horde of young staffers were waiting to pounce and a young man eyed us and charged forward to show us our photo. Of course we'll buy it, saps that we are!!
We then began our trek through the Ngong Ping Village. In doing our research, we learned that this tourist spot was built in a cloud of controversy because of its proximity to the Po Lin Buddhist monastery. There were concerns that rampant tourism would destroy the peaceful seclusion of the monastery and its inhabitants. I guess everyone worked out their differences because things seemed pretty harmonious, but over the top touristy. The "village" is a bunch of shops, restaurants and attractions selling all manner of Buddhist and Asian crafts and food. Oh, and Subway sandwiches. Very Buddhist!! Closer to the actual monastery is an area where followers of Buddhism can leave offerings of incense, flowers and food. A woman left an offering of what looked to me like a frozen dinner still in the box. One of the shops sells sticks of incense, some of which are the size of baseball bats. The whole area is filled with sweet smelling smoke. Scattered around the grounds are dozens of dogs, all of which were sleeping in the sun. They wore collars so we don't know how wild they were, if at all. But they seemed to be a living a very Buddhist life of peace and harmony with their surroundings.
The star attraction in this area is the Tian Tan Buddha. At the time of its completion in 1993, it was the world's tallest, outdoor, bronze, seated Buddha. It's pretty massive at 112 feet tall and can be seen from miles away. We trekked up the 240 steps to get to the top, passing the faithful as they bowed in devotion every three or four steps. Amazing views of the mountains and other islands in every direction. We made a few circles and took a bunch of photos and decided to head back down to Tung Chung.
For our descent we were the only occupants of our Crystal Cabin. So of course we could be silly and take photos of each other laying on the glass floor. Good times! We dodged the second photo trap - they get you in both directions - and grabbed some lunch in the outlet mall connected to our hotel. We are loving the noodle and rice dishes here and I had scrumptious honeyed BBQ pork on rice, while Joe was less satisfied with his brisket and pork belly on rice. We washed it down with a couple of Tsingtaos.
We retrieved our luggage from the hotel and bid farewell to the Novotel Citygate. We can't remember why we decided to stay our first night near the airport and not in Kowloon considering we arrived at a decent hour. But, we're glad we did because it was a terrific day seeing a lesser known part of Hong Kong. We made our way to Tung Chung station and took our first ride on the metro. We had our luggage with us so we were a little concerned that it would be a challenge in navigating through the crush of humanity, but it was still a bit early in the day so the crowds weren't too bad...until we hit the station connecting with the Disneyland express line. A jillion families with strollers and kids and mouse ears piled on to the train. But by the time we got to our transfer station, the crowds were manageable again.
We then embarked on a stressful and tiring trek from the train station to our new hotel, the Intercontinental Hong Kong. We entered onto Nathan Road, the main street of Kowloon. It was a bit of a challenge to work our way through the crowds with our luggage, and a few of the lifts we needed weren't working, but we powered through this challenge and made it. Remember my Gold Ambassador of a mate? Well let's just say that his ambassadorship is paying off very nicely for us. Upon approaching the entrance, a young man dressed in one of those bell hop outfits complete with hat rushed toward us and took our luggage. An assistant manager kind of guy then came over, noticed Joe's Ambassador luggage tag and immediately whisked him over to the Ambassador check in desk. I could barely keep up. After checking in, and learning that we have been upgraded to a nicer room, we were escorted to our room by Sonny, the very personable check in guy. Upon entering the room we were struck by the view out the window. Unobstructed, perfect view of that stunning Hong Kong skyline. The room is enormous, with a walk in closet/dressing room and a huge bathroom with two sinks. Perfect!! Thank you, Sonny!
A nap was in order due to our early rising. After that we were up and out and into the Hong Kong nightlife. Our hotel is right on the harbor, so we walked along the promenade and took photos of the skyline that was now alive with color. We hung around and waited for the nightly light and music show. Many of the buildings adjacent to the harbor flash lights and lasers in synch with music. It was OK. We then ate dinner at a local mall and had, you guessed it, NOODLES...and beer. Back home and off to bed, ending a great first full day of this amazing journey!!