 |
| Cable Car Through The Mountains |
For my final full day in Hong Kong I decided to play tourist and go and take in some of the cultural attractions. So early in the morning I caught a train and then took the 6km long cable car across the bay and over the mountains to Ngong Ping to visit the Po Lin Monastery and the Giant Buddha statue. I have to say it was fantastic, wandering around the village which is packed to the brim with souvenir shops you can waste a great deal of time browsing through chopstick gallery's and other such unique shopping delights.Eventually I made it to the monastery grounds, which are PACKED with incense sticks, you can buy incense sticks to burn yourself, some of which are about two metres in length and the width of a CD-ROM. Oxygen isn't plentiful there... Nonetheless the monastery had everything you would expect, chinese style architecture, tons of ginormous golden statues. Unfortunately I was too early to see the finished construction of the temple being created behind the original monastery which is twice the size, it looks like it's going to be spectacular!
 |
| Po Lin Monastery |
However, despite that disappointment it's hard to not be satisfied with a giant 112ft tall buddha statue on a hill. Coming over in the cable car you could see it from MILES away. Although don't let them fool you into thinking it's some ancient statue, it was unveiled in 1993 so even I'm older than it.... well it took them 12 years to create but you get what I mean. It is very impressive and definitely worth a visit, just be careful of the buddhist monks, they may seem friendly, but just because they're in a religion where they've given up all their worldly possessions apparently doesn't mean they don't want your money. They're exceedingly good at convincing people to 'donate'.
 |
| The Giant Buddha From Cable Car |
As one of the side attractions in the village there are performances by Shaolin Master Monks every day. They are to say the least, preeeeetty skilled. I managed to waste most of the remaining battery on my camera filming their antics. It was worth it.
 |
| Master Shaolin Monks |
I then decided to get slightly off the beaten track and took a bus to Tai-O a tiny fishing village on the coast. It's surreal, like a poor man's Venice, everything on stilts, endless fish markets which quite frankly, stink. Because of the temperature they can't preserve dead fish wet, so you have two options, buy live fish or sun dried fish. Honestly the stench is quite something to behold! I took a 30 minute boat trip around the bay for an equivalent of £1.20, we didn't see any of the promised dolphins but it was nice all the same making our way through this village of stilts. Definitely try and give one of these fishing villages a visit if you ever travel here, it's quite the experience!
Once back in the city I took the chance to see the city at night, and in particular the famous Symphony of Lights. But that deserves a blog post of it's own! ;-)
However, despite that disappointment it's hard to not be satisfied with a giant 112ft tall buddha statue on a hill. Coming over in the cable car you could see it from MILES away. Although don't let them fool you into thinking it's some ancient statue, it was unveiled in 1993 so even I'm older than it.... well it took them 12 years to create but you get what I mean. It is very impressive and definitely worth a visit, just be careful of the buddhist monks, they may seem friendly, but just because they're in a religion where they've given up all their worldly possessions apparently doesn't mean they don't want your money. They're exceedingly good at convincing people to 'donate'.
