Day 1 - Lantau Island

Today I embarked on my holiday! Woke up at 3.30 am and reached the airport very early about an hour later. Bummed around with my mommy at Burger King before Shin arrived with her mom. My first time taking a budget airline and I was so shocked that my boarding pass was a thin receipt-like piece of paper. The flight was ok, the pilots were very skilful and the ride wasn't as wobbly as I thought it might be. Just that there really was very little in the way of entertainment, virtually none I would say, and I even took out the safety information to read :p Both there and on the way home, I found the seats impossible to sleep in. They're comfortable enough to sit in, but somehow I just couldn't sleep in them. Upon arriving in Hongkong, we walked around to find our way to the bus that would take us to Tung Chung City, where we take the bus to Ngong Ping. The sky was soooo hazy! Couldn't see anything. But the bus ride from Tung Chung City to Ngong Ping, where we would be staying for the next 2 days, was pretty exciting cos the drivers hurtle down the mountain roads like nobody's business. What's amazing is that some parts of the road have only one lane so vehicles take turns at passing those sections. Yet the drivers can still speed haha. Skill!


The start to a trip which had a lot of unexpected turns. Pictures from my plane window, kinda futuristic looking cos of the "multiple moons". Haha. 


 


 


We managed to waylay Cai2 Shen2 Ye2 and his entourage to take a photo with us before they escaped. Sun nin fai lok! (Happy New Year in cantonese) 


Here's a colourful statue at the airport. 


Nice stretch of beach we passed while passing through the mountain roads to Ngong Ping. 

After reaching Ngong Ping, we tried to check in at the hostel but there was nobody there. So we had to lug our backpacks and assorted barangs with us to explore the area and the Po Lin monastery first.


In Ngong Ping, in front of some incense burner with three fake joss sticks in it. 


The Po Lin Monastery. Po Lin is precious lotus in cantonese. 


On the steps of the Po Lin Monastery. 


Roarrrrrrrr. 

After finishing our tour of the temple and inhaling a lot of smoke, we had a vegetarian lunch before going back to the hostel to wait for the caretakers to arrive. So strange... There aren't any people there in the day from 10 in the morning to around 3 or 4 in the afternoon so there's no way you can get in then. Shin left her stuff outside the gate with me while she went off to find some alternate way to get in.


From the bus station area to our hostel. Must walk along some very ulu paths later on. 


This old looking house is on the path back to where we stayed. So small! 


We walked back to our hostel.  


A picture of the deserted hostel gates and our barang. I really thought we were going to be stuck there with no place to stay. 


This turned out to be the office building of the hostel where the caretaker stays. 


This is the building in which the rooms are located. 


I was very bored while waiting for Shin to come back from her explorations so I took some pictures of tiny flowers by the hostel gates. 

Now it was my turn to go exploring and I went a long way to find the Pillars of Wisdom and the start of the Lantau Peak ascending trail.


Along one of the trails. 


People gathering at the entrance to the actual ascent of Lantau Peak. 


The pillars of wisdom I came to while exploring the trails around the area. 


People appreciating the writings on the pillars. 


There is no time what is memory. Er... yeah whatever. 

After that we checked in. Haha I was quite appalled at the place. Our double room was so small, the walls were mildewy and there was a resident spider. Shin stepped on a cockroach nymph as she went out of the room door, and the shower room floor looked like it would give us ringworm if we stepped on it. It was truly an experience :) As I sat on the bed, closer inspection revealed that there were hairs on the pillowcase and bedsheet of different lengths and curliness. Yeaaap. We came to realise that the bedsheets in the place don't get changed, but you're supposed to get this long white sheet from the caretaker and sleep in that, on top of the never-changed bedsheets. Lovely!

We didn't want to waste the rest of the daylight hours so it was back out to the Tian Tan Buddha. You need to climb a lot of steps to get to it (looking up at it from the bottom of the steps is quite daunting) so it wasn't feasible to do it earlier when we still had our backpacks.


Picture taken while just below the huge Buddha.  


As you can see, the instruction clearly states: Don't throw coin. 


And yet... haha. 


Sky was always rather hazy while we were there.  


Us at the viewing platform by the Tian Tan Buddha. 


Nice mountains behind! 


Windswept. 

By the time we were done, the sky was dark and we tried to get some food at the stalls by the bus station. Didn't look very hygienic but no choice. Tasted ok though! Then we walked back to our hostel. Seriously, it gets very creepy at night. Walking along a deserted path with no one around but lots of trees and rustling is no joke! There was also this flickering lamp post that gave me the creeps. There's no one around in Ngong Ping after dark and there's absolutely nothing to do after nightfall. The only people around seemed to be in the hostel where we lived and it was a long and lonely walk there. Despite its griminess I was glad to be back inside the compound :) End of day 1.