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Today we awoke to Shannon's alarm at 9am and proceeded to get ready for the day. We stopped at the bakery near the station to pick up some breakfast before hopping on two trains to get to our destination, Tung Chung. From here we were planning on getting the cable car up to Ngong Ping.
First though we ate our breakfast on a bench seat and then followed the crowds towards the cable car. As we approached the cable car we noticed the incredibly long line of people. We joined the line and noticed signs indicating that it was a 90 min wait to get to the ticket booth with probably a further wait from there to the actual cable car. We weren't too keen on waiting around because it was already 12pm and we didn't want to be waiting until almost 2:30pm before we got to the top.
So after a bit of discussion we left the line and went back towards the station where we picked up some free wifi and managed to work out that there was a bus that went to Ngong Ping also. A bit more digging around and we found the bus stop. There was still a line of people but it wasn't nearly as long as the cable car line and after about 15min we were on the bus heading up the mountain.
The bus ride took about 40mins but we had some good views along the way and it was a comfortable coach so it was a pleasant journey. When we reached the top we entered the village of Ngong Ping and had a walk through the cobbled streets. We decided we'd see if we could get a cable car down instead and when we noticed there was no line for tickets we bought two straight away.
With that business taken care of, we walked towards the giant Buddha who is the main attraction of Ngong Ping. He was quite the sight and we climbed the staircase to get right up close and enjoy the views. We had a great view of Po Lin Monastery from there as well so we snapped some pictures. It was fairly crowded up there but it was bearable.
After we had finished acquainting ourselves with the giant Buddha, we descended the stairs and went back into Ngong Ping village. We had a look in a few of the souvenir shops but didn't buy anything. We stopped for a coffee at Starbucks before joining the relatively short queue to get into the cable car.
The cable car journey back took about 25mins and we had some impressive views of Lantau Island. It was beautiful. I'm glad we got the cable car and I'm even gladder that we were savvy enough to get the bus up.
Once back in Tung Chung we caught the train back to our station and grabbed some lunch in a food court. I had some roast goose and BBQ pork with rice and Chinese spinach and Shannon had ramen. We both thought our food was very good.
I bought a dress at H&M for New Years and Shannon tried on some shirts but didn't buy anything. We arrived back at the hostel around 5pm and had a bit of a rest.
We had decided to go to the Butcher's Club NYE party that was in a warehouse so we got ready and left at around 7pm. We had to take a train and a bus to get there. The venue was in Aberdeen which is an industrial section of Hong Kong. It was a bit tricky to find the entry because we had to enter from the back of a building. Fortunately when we got off the bus a security guard noticed us and pointed us in the right direction.
It was pretty cool because we bought our tickets and then got hustled into a very industrial lift and directed to the roof top. On the roof top there were lines of wooden tables and chairs with a few people scattered about. The ticket included wine and beer and also a roast dinner. We grabbed a drink and then had a pulled pork and beef brisket roll. The food was really good and I even went back for seconds. We sat at a bench and chatted away. We had hoped we might make some friends but it never eventuated so we just enjoyed each other's company.
At 10pm the warehouse party opened up a few floors down. We went down into the smoke and lasers and spent the next two hours down there. The music was alright but it was all beats and no lyrics so I soon tired of it. There wasn't even an official countdown which was super disappointing and we only knew it had clicked over because of (a) our clocks and (b) the DJ started playing an anthem sounding song.
We left pretty much as soon as New Years had hit and attempted to catch the bus back to the metro. We got a bit detoured though and caught the wrong bus which took us to a depot. Then we ended up getting a taxi back to a station and finally getting a train from there.
Once back at our stop we had a slow wait in a kebab shop for Shannon to buy a kebab before heading back to the hostel.
It was a good night. I'm glad we went out and tried the Butchers Club party but the music kind of let the night down. Either way, Happy New Year!
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