Feb
09
2011

Hong Kong – Day 5

Today the Mister and I went to Lantau Island to visit the Tian Tan Buddha, aka the Bronze Buddha or the Big Buddha. The Buddha is 34 metres tall and weighs 250 metric tonnes. It is surrounded by six smaller statues known as “The Offering of the Six Devas” The statue was finished on 29 December 1993 and is one of the tallest seated Buddhas in the world.

To get to the Buddha we took the MTR underground train to the island. London could seriously learn something from the HK underground line, it is incredibly clean and fast and easy to use. No smelly carriages with rubbish everywhere, these are pristine!

From the underground station we took the Ngong Ping 360 cable car to the top. This was a bit of a challenge for the Mister as he isn’t too keen on heights – he couldn’t be persuaded to try the crystal cable cars which have a transparent floor. The trip is 25 minutes each way over some truly stunning scenery. You get a brilliant view of the airport on the way up and can see the planes taking off and landing. As you come over the hill the Buddha comes into sight – standing (or sitting as the case may be!) tall on the landscape, looking down over the island.

To get to the Buddha itself you have to climb 284 steps and visiting the outside is free but you have to pay to go inside it, but the ticket does include an ice-cream and a bottle of water! The view is awesome and well worth the trip. Next to the statue is the Po Lin Monastery, and there were many people there lighting incense sticks and offering gifts at the shrines. We also had lunch at the monastery café. Of course it was a vegetarian meal, which cost us about £5 each. It was nice, but it has reinforced the fact that I really, really dislike tofu. It is revolting and has the consistency of slugs, Bleurgh!

This evening we had a wander around Temple Street Night Market. I have rarely seen so much crap that I don’t need and don’t want. However, some of it is really funny, especially the t-shirts with spelling mistakes. We also had dinner in a diner-style Chinese restaurant. It seemed none to clean to be honest and this was confirmed when the Mister returned from the toilet and declared that there was an overflowing urinal which was drowning the cockroach on the floor. Nice!!!

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Written by Anna Williams in: Uncategorized | Tags: ,

2 Comments »

  • Auntie Cath

    Hi Anna and Paul,

    Loving the travel log, and great pictures too! Looks fantastic trip and we are enjoying sharing some of it!

    Love AC and my Mister N

    Comment | February 9, 2011
  • Pants

    It *was* there we went. There’s a Youth Hostel literally 100m behind the Buddah, hidden in the trees!!

    Comment | February 9, 2011

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