What a day!!!!
We woke up before 7am and set off out toward the ferry on pier 6 headed for Lantau Island.
By 8.30 we were onboard and on our way, the trip to Mui Wu would take around 40 mins by catamaran. At a cost of 11 HK dollars each (about £1.05)
When we arrived we got a bite to eat and then a white knuckle cab ride to Tung Chung to pick up the Ngong Ping 360 Cable car up to the Po Lin Monastery and the Big Bhudda. There was already a queue when we arrived for the cable car. A return ticket cost us 107 dollars return ( around £10 each) but was well worth it as the ride over the island was breathtaking!!!. A personal triumph for me as i'm not particularly good with heights!!. But within a few minutes of being up there i was clicking away so as not to miss a thing....And WOW!!!...my first ever cable car ride and it was a biggie, 25 minutes in all across some of the most beautiful sights you could imagine.
When we arrived at Po Lin (precious lotus) we had a little mill around the stall's and i had a coffee, meanwhile Em had sloped off and when she came back she'd brought me a 360 cable car key ring which i LOVE!!!. Then we walked up toward the monastery and the big buddha, which we'd already got a glimpse of from the cable car.
The Buddha came first, and we made our way up the 260 steps toward the 85ft (26m) seated bronze statue. By the time we got to the top i could hardly fit it in the viewfinder of my camera!!. I also liked the bodhisatvas surrounding the statue, supposedly deferring heaven in order to guide mortals to enlightenment. It is said that to toss a coin into their hands is good luck, but there were signs asking people not to do this, no doubt due to past incidents of people trying to make their way up to the statue being knocked cold by pound coins or similar!!!.
I got lots of pics here, so if you think there's a lot in the gallery then think again cos i took lots more i didn't want to bore you with!!.
After spending a good hour up at the statue we made our way back down towards the monastery and had a good walk around, we were both a little jaded by our late night and early start today but it was still awesome. And strangely enough neither of us got approached by a single buddhist!!!, just goes to show......
After a further hour of exploring and photographing the monastery we started off back toward the cable car for the 25 minute journey back to Tung Chung, and from there it was a 40 minute MTR jaunt back to Hong Kong Island. All in all an inspiring if somewhat shattering day!!!.
Think we'll be taking it easy tomorrow.
PICS HERE
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