Star Ferry
About this time I realized that I had forgotten the map and written commentary for the walking tour. We had run into another friend by the Visitors Center and she had given me directions on exactly how to get to Lantau Island to see the Giant Buddha. The ferry to Lantau Island wasn’t free ($12.80 HKD which was about $1.50 USD, so we were able to use the change we had gotten in McDonalds after all). After arriving on Lantau Island, we were just in time to catch the bus to the Po Lin Monastery ($40 HKD because I didn’t have enough change or about $2.25 USD each). Lantau Island is almost completely forested and we saw lots of camping spots along the road and beautiful beaches for Hong Kong daytrippers. As we went up the mountain the clouds became more and more dense and we began to wonder if we made a long trip for nothing.
Foggy Buddha
After hopping off the bus at the Monastery entry, we followed the crowds to the 250 step staircase going up to the Buddha. Bill waited at the bottom because he had no desire to climb all those steps only to find out the Buddha couldn’t be seen. There was a camaraderie among all of us climbers and the breeze would blow the clouds to partially unveil the statue but they would be back before you could get your camera up. So when a clearing happened someone would go “Ahhh….” And then everyone else would look quickly to try and get their shot. I was lucky and was finally able to see the face.
Giant Buddha
As part of my ticket price ($23 HKD or about $3 USD), I was to get a “snack”, so when I came down all those 250 steps, Bill and I went to one of the monastery buildings were you could pick it up. The “snack” was a plate of fried noodles & vegetables, two dim sum selections and a cup of tea. Bill had the noodles and I had a curried pea & potato pasty and a bean curd pudding and we only had to pay for a can of 7Up.
Temple of 10000 Buddhas
We then spent about an hour wandering around the temple grounds and visited a replica village that held all kinds of souvenir shops and restaurants. We stopped and had gelato to finish up our lunch and ran into other CC friends who told us that they had come up on the cable car. We had spent 45 minutes coming on the ferry and then another 35 minutes on the bus, so when we heard that the cable car only takes 25 minutes, we decided that was the way to go. We ran into them again in line for the cable cars and they said they would wait for us at the cable car terminal and take us to the subway to get back to the shuttle back to the ship. We shared our cable car with 3 teens who tried out their English when they weren’t giggling or talking on their cell phones. It was very windy on the way down and we were still coming down out of the clouds, so we didn’t get to see much except for the forest and, when we got lower, the Hong Kong airport. Nancy & Ed showed us the way to get to the subway station, how to work the ticket machine, which stop to get off at and pointed us off to the right direction for the shuttle. It was so much easier with nice people who take the time to help us novices out.
Bill in Cable Car
We made sure to get back before the last shuttle departure because the ship was going to be moving from the container port to an anchorage in Hong Kong harbor and then commercial tenders would be taking us to the Ferry Building on Hong Kong Island and back. We had been contemplating staying on Hong Kong Island for dinner to stay for the Symphony of Light Show in the harbor but were very disappointed to hear that the light show had been canceled because it was a National Day of Mourning for the victims of the huge earthquake in Western China. This was just about the only indication that this port now belongs to China, other than the Hong Kong flower flag and the red Communist Chinese flags flying on all the public buildings.
After dinner, I was outside and got really good pictures of the lights of Hong Kong City, even though we didn’t see the light show.
Day Ferry Building
Night Ferry Building
Naval Ship at Night
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