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Hong Kong day 7
We woke to the best sunshine in Hong Kong so far so we set off for Lantau Island. Lantau is the largest of Hong Kong’s islands and is almost double the size of Hong Kong Island itself. It is the site of Hong Kong International Airport, but most of the island remains largely rural, dominated by dramatic peaks and valleys. It has two principle attractions, Big Buddha and Disneyland.
We followed the advice on trip advisor and took the MTR to Tung Chung where we joined a very long queue for the cable car after shunning the temptation of the outlet mall and Disney. Although we queued for over an hour the time went very quickly as we chatted to two sisters from America next to us. They had arrived in HK in 1981 as boat refugees from North Vietnam after 16 weeks at sea and, after six months here were given a home in the USA. They were spending a few days in HK having visited their 92 yr old grandfather in Vietnam. He now has both running water and hot water but still tends his rice fields every day. They were so eloquent and told us fascinating tales of their lives and how happy they are now in Arizona and California.
The cable car to Ngong Ping took 25mins and was a steep climb over the first peak. We were shocked to see how many people were walking the arduous trek up. Lantau is noted for its many hiking trails.
Ngong Ping Village is a very popular destinations for tourists, but it is a Chinese themed village (maybe we didn't miss all of Disney) so we just walked through it to Big Buddha which is one of the largest statues of its kind in the world, a 112-foot tall, 250-ton bronze structure that can be seen from miles around and is a point of pilgrimage as well as a massive tourist attraction. We trekked up 268 steps to get to the base of the statue and it is very impressive. The statue was erected in 1993 as a result of a campaign from the monks in the adjacent Po Lin Monastery. The Monastery itself had some beautiful buildings and statues. The whole area did have a very serene atmosphere despite the strong tourist element.
We then took the local bus to Tai O as do many tourists to see this traditional fishing village.The stilt houses and the narrow streets full of dried and live seafood shops were interesting but also showed a level of poverty we had not seen elsewhere. We watched a street seller making doughnuts which tempted us and were delicious before we took another bus to Mui Wo through the rural parts of Lantau Island again with stunning scenery and a would be rally driving bus driver to catch the ferry back to Central. Neither of us are fans of fair ground rides but this journey showed how much fun they can be.
The day trip was worthwhile to see how different life can be just 10km away from the crowded streets of HK island. We ended our last evening here with a very large supper at our favourite local Thai restaurant.
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