Hong Kong Day 3: Ngong Ping and the Big Buddha

Tuesday, January 21^st, 2014

On my 3^rd full day in Hong Kong, I stayed up late and woke up late again, then had a relaxing early-afternoon while waking up. I found an outdoor market and bought some fruit, then caught the metros to Lantau for round two of island exploration.

I decided to “go American” and splurge on a ribs lunch. Ribs, honey mustard, fries, salad, baked eggplant with cheese. The meal was delectable—this was vacation in a meal. When it came out, the only thing I could say was an excited and amazed “Oh, wow!” I took home the other half for dinner.

Sated by delicious flavors, I headed to the cable car to go to Ngong Ping—I had heard about and seen the incredibly long line for the cable car, but managed to both bypass the line AND get my own cable car (which usually costs 10 times what I paid for my private ride). Being alone in the car meant that I could un-self-consciously run around like a loon while taking pictures of the breathtaking views (holy crap, it was a beautiful ride).

Once I arrived in Ngong Ping village, I wandered around for a bit, taking pictures of and with the cute mascots and statues, then headed over to see the Big Buddha. I walked up to see him (and took a ton of pictures and “selfies”), which was so cool—he’s HUGE!

Soon after hanging out with the Big Buddha, I went back down to catch the cable car back (it was a pretty short trip because the cable car stops at 6pm and I didn't catch the cable car to Ngong Ping until 4:30pm), but I was distracted by cows. Cows! There were also dogs who shepherded the cows back to their area and away from the tourist street.

I got to the cable car on time but by now the line was horrendously long—good thing I had my Kindle. Also, it was pretty dark by then so I couldn’t get any good pictures of the sunset or of the ride back, but this wasn’t a problem. One awesome thing—by the end of the ride I could see Lantau on one side and Hong Kong International Airport on the other side, and both were lit up magnificently.

After debarking from the cable car I went back to the metro—it was only about 6:30pm but I was tired and hungry, so I went back to my host’s apartment and had a quiet solo dinner of ribs and happiness.