Our third day in Hong Kong brought more adventures, in the form of a day trip to Ngong Ping on Lantau Island and a crazy and tiring visit to the Food Expo. We've been packing the days so solidly with activities, trying to see as much as possible, that we're utterly exhausted by the time night comes. This time, once dinnertime rolled around, we were tired, our feet hurt, and we just wanted to go to bed. But it didn't feel like we'd done that much!
Lantau Island is the home of the Po Lin Monastery and the Tian Tan Buddha statue, the world's largest outdoor Buddha (I think). I'd never been to Lantau Island, and we were really looking forward to it. It also gave us the first opportunity to pick up our Octopus cards (these electronic touch cards that you use for public transportation, among other things) and ride the MTR.
I love HK public transportation. (I think I'm going to devote a separate entry to transportation.) It's clean, efficient, quick and air conditioned. We took 2 different train lines, passing by the Disneyland connector station in the process. In about 30-40 minutes, we arrived at Tung Chung, near the HK airport, from which we would catch our bus to see the Buddha.Currently, there are 2 ways to get to the Buddha. You can take a ferry from HK Island to a port on Lantau, and take a bus. Or you can take the MTR to Tung Chung
and take a different bus. Both average a similar amount of time, I think. But starting next year, they're putting in a cable car system that will take only 17 minutes (instead of a 40-50 minute bus ride) and goes directly from Tung Chung to the area. They're also planning some sort of themed village, signs say. I really hope it keeps to the character of the area though. The cable car will be shorter, and probably a great view, but I actually kind of liked the bus ride (and I hate buses).
We took our bus up to the monastery area. It went up and down through the mountains, and much of the road was only wide enough for one bus. It was a crazy ride, and frankly, I'm amazed at the driving ability and rule observance of drivers on that island. Even though there's only room for one, I think there would be so much more "me first" here that just wasn't there out of necessity. At some points, it was pouring rain.We got to Ngong Ping and while I knew the Buddha was big... it was HUGE. Definitely a sight to see. We bought tickets for our monastery lunch, and trekked
up the stairs to get to the Buddha. At the top, there is a gorgeous view of the island - the lush green mountains, monasteries tucked into the hills, inlets down below. It was so different from the frenetic pace of HK Island and Kowloon, and very peaceful. Despite the many tourists that were there, it was a calm and welcome change of pace. Although there was an odd little annoyance... when we would ask 
English-speaking (we heard them on the bus) visitors if they could take a picture for us, they blatantly ignored us and turned their heads the opposite way. It was done in a pretty rude way. What was up with that?!Besides the Buddha, a lot of people head to Ngong Ping to see the Po Lin Monastery, which also has a vegetarian restaurant. You could either pick the main dining hall (communal, about $8 each) or the deluxe lunch (in a VIP room, separate tables for each party, about $13 each). Since there wasn't a big difference, we went deluxe, figuring that the money was going to the monastery anyway, so that was good.
The lunch was huge and there was no way we could even try to finish it
all. (I'll post pictures of all the dishes on the photoblog, because they won't fit here.) It started with a soup, and then there were 4 more courses: a spring roll, some other fried thing that was great but I don't know what it was, an asparagus and other vegetable dish, and mushrooms with green vegetables. It was a pretty good lunch. I was satisfied.
After soaking in some more of Ngong Ping, we took the bus ride back to Tung Chung. (We decided to take whichever bus left first - the ferry or TC.) This time though, we sat in the first row because Alvin is too tall to fit comfortably in the other seats. We got an even better view this time!In Tung Chung, we spent some time at the mall and found the Park n Shop, a mega grocery store. I was so excited, because I love grocery stores. We had to go in
... and Alvin found the fruit he had been looking for the whole time, red rose apples! I got myself some Sugus and Alvin also got himself some Yakult. But it was so much fun just looking at everything they had there. They also had a lot of brands we can get here, like Celeste Pizza (and with that, more varieties than the Jewel by the apartment)! Why can't we have a grocery store like this?
We made a pit stop at the hotel and then took the Star Ferry over to Wanchai to go to the Convention Centre for the Food Expo. I don't know exactly what I expected it to be, but I didn't expect it to be as crowded as it was (why not, I don't know, considering everything is crowded). Maybe it was the pouring rain, which started as soon as the ferry docked. I found out later it was squall lines passing over the area.The Food Expo was insane. It only cost about US$2.50
to get in, but it was just a sea of people. Constant pushing and shoving. Around all of the samples, just a mob of grabbing hands. Lines everywhere. Lots of shouting. I think the first few things I tried were all forms of vitamin drops, then there were some mooncakes. There was a really good dried scallop sample. And then... where there was much less pushing and shoving... and a much more pleasant atmosphere... the alcohol section.The lines were manageable, you could actually get samples, and everyone was nice to each other. And there were more samples available here than anywhere else! I tried a couple of things, but my favorite were these Jade drinks. They mixed green tea with scotch/whiskey or vodka. They were actually really really good!
Extricated ourselves from the madness, took the MTR back to Tsim Sha Tsui, went for dinner at the same place we did the first night (and this time, got some different noodles), and then had a nice and relaxing sleep. Sightseeing can be exhausting!
1 comment:
I don't know how I forgot about that guy... he smelled so FOUL.
So, we were at dinner and last time the restaurant was not very smoky, so I didn't think to ask for non-smoking. So we were in this cozy little booth, and the guy across lights up. Now, I don't like cigarettes, but like Alvin said, these were worse than normal cigarettes.
I don't know how to describe the smell, but it made me want to vomit. And often I'll put up with the smell of cigarettes, but I was so disgusted and nauseous from it that I had to get them to switch us to non-smoking (which they gladly did).
But the smell of those cigarettes lingered in my nose... it was so gross. And it was crazy, as soon as we stepped out into the mall (the "outside" section of the restaurant was in the mall and thus, non-smoking), it was like I could breathe normally again. How disgusting. I really want to know what kind of cigarettes those were. They should be banned.
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