Hong Kong Hotels
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HK - Lantau Island
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After arriving in Lantau fairly late and being exhausted from the adrenaline high Monday evening, we simply checked into the hotel (Silvermine Beach resort - PIC) and grabbed some supplies from the local supermarket before lounging in the bedroom and getting an early night.
Day 1
As they say, 'simple things please simple people'...hands up, we're simple - the hotel came with a FREE buffet breakfast! After getting our fill of cereal, toast, sausage, egg, fruit etc we decided to walk it off a bit and headed out on a mini adventure to find the Silvermine waterfall and cave near the hotel. About half an hour later, after walking through small quiet local villages (PIC) and countryside (PICS) we found the Man Mo Temple (PIC) not as big as its namesake on HK Island but still quite quaint. Just around the corner was the waterfall, it had obviously been a dry season as it wasn't exactly gushing, but picturesque nonetheless (PICS).
The cave was a little further up a steep hill but was sadly blocked up so we couldn't go in very far. We continued up the hill in a vain attempt to find another entrance. We didn't find one, but what we did find was a 5ft long wild snake lurking alarmingly close to our ankles, which suddenly felt very exposed. After eyeing us up and deciding he was not in the mood to pose for photo's for Verdi he slithered off into the undergrowth.
Our next animal encounter was a cute little cat on the way back down the hill. Rolling around on a ledge and clearly after attention we stopped just long enough to witness him roll once too far and off the ledge (not a big drop) to our amusement - shame we weren't filming him as that would have been 250 GBP safely in the bank from You've been framed.
Lantau's main attraction is the Po Lin monastery and the Giant Budha at Ngong Ping on Lantau peak. The Budha is the biggest in the world and dominates the skyline overlooking the entire region. The bus ride up there took us over the Lantau reservoir (PIC) and was a slightly hair raising experience in itself with the bus driver doing his best Schumacher impersonation.
We struck lucky with the Po Lin Monastery as it was its 100 year anniversary so there was a big ceremony taking place inside, involving all the monks and cardinals from the local region and beyond chanting ancient prayers (PICS). The monastery also housed some of the biggest incense sticks we had ever seen (PICS).
Getting up close and personal to the Budha involved climbing the 252 steps at its base - we were forced to take a quick pitstop half way up. The Budha's enormity can only really be appreciated close up - the photo's do not seem to do it justice (PICS).
Returning to the base of the Budha we caught the next bus to Tung Chung - the main city of Lantau but sadly not the main attraction of Lantau as there is not too much to do there if you are not a huge fan of museums. Early 2006 will see the completion of the cable car there, which will allow an easy and presumably stunning journey up to the Budha.
Stopping just long enough to pop into a local supermarket to check out their weird and wonderful array of fruits and meat, and try a freshly squeezed sugar cane drink, we then left Tung Chung and braved another seat-of-the-pants bus ride back to Silvermine.
Day 2
Our impeccable planning skills had ensured we could get ready at a leisurely pace and have a bit of a lazy morning. This entailed staying in bed until 9:15 (a veritable lie in) then tucking into (and making the most of once again) the FREE buffet breakfast (including stir-fry noodles and spring rolls for Andrew!?!), back to the room for a shower and to pack and then finally onto the Internet for a couple of hours to keep you guys up-to-date.
Early afternoon arrived as we boarded the bus (with another kamikaze driver!) to Tai O fishing village (PIC).
An hour later and our finger nails removed from the seats in front, we alighted at Tai O and headed straight for, and promptly through, the fish market - with it's manky dead fish sprawled everywhere with either it's eyes, guts or heads hanging out.
A quick browse around the village and across the water to the houses on stilts over the water, lead us to...more food! We happened upon a crowd gathered around another street seller, cooking something which smelt infinitely better than the fish. On closer inspection he seemed to be churning out small hot balls of sweet dough. After a 10 minute wait for our portion, they were indeed mini warm balls of loveliness. If it weren't for the bus being due to leave we would have queued for another portion....or two! Best HK$10 we'd spent.
Yet again the bus hurtled us back to Silvermine where we collected our bags and jumped on the next bus out of town - to the airport. Check-in and immigration were quick, efficient and painless, with the added bonus of not having to pay the HK$160 exit tax we had heard about... now Oz was waiting.
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