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One of my favourite days so far!
Today I decided to explore Lantau Island. i took the MTR from Hong Kong to Tung Chung and then took the Ngong Ping Skyrail cable car up to the village where the big buddha is.
The cable car was amazing, giving views of the airport and the whole island. Ngong Ping Village is a little surreal, looks a bit like toy town, all very clean and new. i ate wan ton with noodles, the chopstick werent working today! it wasnt that nice anyway. The Po Lin Buddha is supposedly the largest sitting buddha in the world. I walked up the million steps ( 268 really, felt like more) to the Buddha at the top. It is quite an amazing sight, definately worth a visit.
after looking inside and browsing the shops at the top, I climbed back down and found the bus terminus, to get the bus to Tai O. Tai O is an old style chinese fishing village where the houses are on stilts.
Got the bus fine, took around 20 minutes to get to Tai O. I took a boat ride out to sea which cos $20, about £1.80 to look for pink dolphins, which are endangered and can only be found in the seas off Hong Kong. i didnt think id see any, I was hoping to but I'd heard not many people do see them.
The boat was small, i was a little unerved by the life jackets and the reckless man driving the thing. we got quite far out off the coast when all on a sudden a pink dolphin stuck its head out of the water!!
the boat stopped and the engine was switched off. the dolphin moved through the water then went. then about 5 minutes later 3 appeared on the other side of the boat! the 8 or so passengers on the boat and me jumo to the right hand side of the boat to see the dolphins, the boat nearly tips up!!!!
we watched the dolphins for about 15 minutes then had to go back to shore, as we sped away, i looked back to see the dolphins jumping out of the water. cheek of them, as if they knew we'd gone, they could have done that when the boat was stopped there!!
It was really amazing!
I then explored Tai o. The Markets sold everythin, dried fish, octopus, see cucumber, weird eggs, im sure they were the foetus eggs like on idiot abroad, There was a sting ray hung up on the end on one stall, live fish and crabs everywhere, was just mental. i kept walking, saw some women drop a buckets and all these cockroach type insects ran out!
Tai o was an experience!! I headed back to the bus terminus to get the bus back to Tung Chung. Half way through the journey the bus was stopped. The police got on and demanded to see everyones id card!! i had nothing on me but my drivers licence, they said i should have my passport with me. The marched 3 people off the bus, and told me to make sure i keep id on me next time!!
All Hong kong residence have to carry a HK ID card with them at all times, i think similar to those they were trying to bring in in the UK. From now on i'll make sure i have my passport.
Took the MTR back to Hong Kong and walked back home, stopping for tea in Shelley's yard, just off the escalator.
it was a good day :)
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