8 days in the East - Trip Report

[Aussie Wendy]

Day 5 Saturday “The whole world at your feet”

Once again I lamented not having even just one extra day to spend poking about the markets and shops in our local area, going to the museum or the Chi Lin nunnery and gardens, or up the peak etc. But I didn’t want to leave Lantau and the Big Buddha which were on my “must do” list til our last day as I knew DH would be stressing constantly about getting back in time to catch the plane.

So we had a light breakfast and were out by 8am with a plan to reach Lantau by 9 am to beat the crowds as I hadn’t prebooked our cable car, not being sure what day we might do this. It was about a 45 min trip and we changed lines at Lai King for Tung Chung. The queue for the cable car was short and we booked a combi with a crystal cabin with the see through bottom over and a normal cable car back.

We shared the cabin with an excited young Thai couple. One thing that surprised me was the number of people lugging big suitcases with them-I know lots of people do this trip in combo with their flights but there were lockers you could pay to hold them in. Luckily the couple only had smaller cabin size cases which mostly pushed out of the way but I would have been cranky if we had had to share a see through cabin with someone whose cases took up most of the floor. (DH says I am turning into a grumpy old woman – lol!)

The see through cabins were great fun as you soared over the sea and then the mountains looking down at the pathway that follows the cars below – looks like a crazy long, hot walk though there was a stream in one place. We took it in turns to take pics sitting on the floor and of each other.

"Off we go"





What the crystal cabin means - every cable car should have these as an option, they are great fun to those of us who love heights.





View of the airport



You can be crazy to walk up or down



Trying out the floor

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Part 2

Actually, looking at the pics, I think DH might not have been as comfortable as DD and I were!

A glimpse of the airport from even higher



Passing over the hills of Lantau North Country Park





Passing over a ravine



Waterfalls taken through the floor (being one of the first cars for the day we also figured it might have been the cleanest and clearest though they do clean them inbetween)



First view of the Big Buddha



Another waterfall



Nearly there



Arrival

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Part 3

Up top it was very quiet so we took our time meandering through the village and up to the Big Buddha first.









The Bodhi Wishing Shrine. There is a legend that says that wishes made at this shrine under the Bodhi Tree will come true. The Bodhi Tree is the 'Tree of Awakening'. It was the tree under which Siddhartha meditated on "Who am I and why am I here?" He eventually attained enlightenment and became Buddha. Hung with wishes the shrine will deliver blessings and happiness to prayers.





They had some 3D scenes set up for pics.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Part 4

The Pai Lau or ornamental archway built in the northern architectural style of the Qing Dynasty (1644 to 1911-consistent with Po Lin Monastery).



The Bodhi Path lined with statues of the twelve divine generals, protectors in Buddhism and each responsible for 2 hours of the day; they also correspond with the Chinese zodiac but where is everyone?



Lots of dogs here



General Vikarala 11pm-1am and the Rat (my zodiac - see on top of his helmet) armed with a varja.



General Kumbhira 9pm-11pm and Boar (DH zodiac) armed with a boardsword



General Anila 1pm-3pm and the Sheep (DD) armed with an arrow



Not sure if these were local or feral dogs but plenty on site lying sensibly in the shade

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Part 5

The 240 steps leading to the Big Buddha who faces north to mainland China to look over the Chinese people



A large group of Buddhists were making their way up, chanting and kneeling every few steps which added a very evocative atmosphere. The elderly gent was amazing - he seemed so old and frail yet stretched his hands to the step at each stop



Looking back over Ngong Ping Village



The Buddha rests on a 3 tier podium and is made of bronze 34m high; took 12 years to build and was finished in 1993.



The Buddha has the Swastiki symbol on his chest (one of the oldest symbols for good luck, peace, prosperity and fertility and used by peoples including the Mayan, Navajo, and ancient Indians). On his hand is a chariot wheel with 8 spokes (the Dharma Chakra) or wheel of life representing Buddha's teaching to the path of enlightenment.



The Buddha is surrounded by 6 Bodhisattvas made of stone (or the offering of the Six Devas with flowers, incense, lamp, ointment, fruit and music respectively symbolising charity, morality, patience, zeal, meditation and wisdom), which are all necessary to enter into nirvana.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Part 6

Heading back down.



This sign amused us.



The San Men mountain gate leading to the Po Lin Monastery



We followed the pathway to the Po Lin Monastery.



The reunification cauldron commemorating the return of Hong Kong to the PRC.




The entrance courtyard to the Hall of the Skanda Bodhisattva, the main entrance to the monastery.



Inside are a gold Buddha surrounded by the four heavenly kings.

GuangMu, Heavenly King of the West, with his dragon who when released mounts the clouds and rides the mists and spurts out water to disperse the enemy.



Duowen the Heavenly King of the North; when he puts up his umbrella the sky over the battlefield turns dark and a cyclonic storm hits impairing the eyesight of his rivals and allowing him to catch them in his umbrella when he shuts it (here he holds a stupa instead of an umbrella).



Chiogu, Heavenly King of the East. On the battlefield he plucks the musical instrument and gives his enemy a headache and so wins the battle (I love this one!).



Not sure why we didn't get an individual shot of ZengZhang but he is on the far left. ZengZhang is the Heavenly King of the South; when ghosts and monsters step in he chants an incantation and throws his magic sword up in the sky. The sword flies down like lightening hitting or killing the intruder.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Part 7

Buddha



Reverse side



Entrance to the main hall that enshrines the Buddha's of the Three Worlds.



The Buddhas are in stunning gold but no pics allowed now so this is borrowed from a friend. The ceiling detail we could photograph though.








There was restoration work going on in the hall and many areas were closed off with hoarding. The bell was still visible, used to remind everyone that they should be aware of illusions and must help relieve all beings in the netherworld from suffering.



Looking back at the courtyard

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Part 8

The new Grand Hall of Ten Thousand Buddha's has been built up hard against the Main Hall which felt like it was crowding it. It glitters gold with 3 seated gold Buddha’s and 1000’s of tiles of mini Buddha’s around the walls. I got in trouble taking photographs of the ceilings – I thought this would be OK but I was directed to the doors and if you stood on the perimeter you were then allowed to photograph all of the inside.





Details









View of the five gold Dhiyani Buddha statues within



and the small plaques that make up the 10,000





Ceiling detail

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Part 9

As we crossed the plaza on the way to finding the route to the Wisdom Path several cows, possible feral, made their way across the plaza – cows always seem to hone in on DH!











On the way to seek wisdom.



Perhaps a spider knows



Or this odd sculpture marking the junction of several trails and the Wisdom Path.




DD who is a PhD student in a dengue lab (though her research isn't on dengue) approved of all the warnings.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Part 10

As we had already discovered “10 min” walks in Hong Kong seem to take us twice as long and it’s not as if we are slow walkers so it was more like 25 mins from the plaza that we arrived at the hillside.

There were lots of trails that led from here up and over the mountains and we saw the usual sight of seemingly frail-looking elders striding off across the hillsides. It was far too hot and exposed for us to have contemplated a hike today. Elderly Asians always seem to be so fit compared to us soft westerners (or maybe I should just speak for myself) but hiking in Canada years ago we found the same thing – they easily outpaced us every time.

View of the Wisdom Path, a series of 38 wooden columns with calligraphy inscriptions of the heart of the Sutra. The columns are arranged within the figure to symbolise infinity.





A hazy view of the other side of Lantau, which I had hoped to explore but not this trip.



Having looked our fill we headed back to the village for a rest and icecreams and DD and I shopped. I had already decided my original plan to end the day at Mui Wo with a ferry ride back to central would distress DD; for that matter so would the windy bus trips around the island. She could take Kwells which help but they also upset her stomach a little so she only takes them out of necessity. Given we had lots we hadn’t explored close to home and it was hot and we were tired, we decided to call it a day and head back to our apartment.



We caught a normal cable car back and had one to ourselves. It was very quiet this direction.

Hikers cooling off at the stream



There's the airport again



View of Tung Chung



Closer



The queue for the cable car up was humongous (we should have taken a pic). It wound down and around so we were pleased we had planned an early start to the day.

When we got back around 2 pm we enjoyed relaxing in the apartment for an hour or so in the air con, catching up on FB and reading.

 

[zanzibar138]

Finally made it over to your TR and read through all 5 pages There's too much to comment on individually, but I'm glad that your bug didn't last too long. I know how disappointing it is to not be able to eat all the yummy food surrounding you - on our last trip to Vietnam I arrived with a slightly upset stomach

We accidentally did the trip to Mui Wo on our first trip to HKDL It was our own fault - we just asked for the ferry to Lantau Island, and didn't specify exactly where we were headed. It was a pleasant journey anyway, but yes it was fairly long and a bit choppy. And the bus ride to Tung Chung was extraordinarily beautiful, but very hilly and windy. Although we regard it as one of the best mistakes we ever made, it probably would have been too much for your DD.

Looking forward to the rest of the trip!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Catching up!

Looks like you had a great time at Ocean Park and at Stanley Market. I was sad to read that Murray House now has H&M in it....but I guess the restaurants that were occupying the building when I was there weren't busy at all; so it's no surprise that something else needed to fill in the gap.
Love the pictures of the Giant Buddha and the gondola ride (and all the commentary). And YAY for heading to that enlightened path of Wisdom. I completely forgot about it....so I was very pleased to see your pictures. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Douglas Dubh]

Planning on taking my family in May so really enjoying the trip report.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Finally made it over to your TR and read through all 5 pages There's too much to comment on individually, but I'm glad that your bug didn't last too long. I know how disappointing it is to not be able to eat all the yummy food surrounding you - on our last trip to Vietnam I arrived with a slightly upset stomach

We accidentally did the trip to Mui Wo on our first trip to HKDL It was our own fault - we just asked for the ferry to Lantau Island, and didn't specify exactly where we were headed. It was a pleasant journey anyway, but yes it was fairly long and a bit choppy. And the bus ride to Tung Chung was extraordinarily beautiful, but very hilly and windy. Although we regard it as one of the best mistakes we ever made, it probably would have been too much for your DD.

Looking forward to the rest of the trip!

Thanks Zanzibar - hope to get DL done over Xmas. Yes next visit will likely be me and DH and we can ferry and bus to our hearts content without pesky motion sick accomplices!! Actually DD and I just had a couple of girls days away at the beach before her birthday and sitting contemplating the ocean she said if she could change one thing about herself or her body - it would be that she didn't get motion sick - it gets in the way of so many things given her love of travelling and exploration!

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Part 11

It was getting on to 4pm when we headed out again, up to the Flower and Bird Markets. To save our legs we took the MTR two stops to Prince Edward and walked from there. The flower market occupied several streets and included shop fronts spilling out along the footpaths. The smell was gorgeous. We spent much longer than I expected and it seemed lots of locals were busy buying flowers for the weekend. If we had the room there were lots of interesting pots and other garden ornaments and implements I would have loved to have brought home.

Not sure about the "hourly" hotel though?






Very large Bonsai



Pots



We were fascinated by the way flower blooms were wrapped in gauze or tissue paper to protect them.









A street viewed from above

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Part 12
Nearby are the Bird Markets. This grew out of a dim sum restaurant where in the 1960's bird lovers would bring their birds to listen to while dining. Hawkers selling bird feed set up nearby. Later this moved to a side street and the number of hawkers grew to over 80; it became a popular tourist destination. In December 1997 as part of urban renewal, the hawkers were relocated to the new Bird Garden on Yuen Po St.

DH was not keen on this area; we are not keen on birds being caged, preferring to see them flying free and I think he was wary as the air was thick with the smell of birds and feathers and dust and thinking of avian flu.

Entrance to the Bird Market



Locals with their little birds



There were some big parrots here too.





From here we headed south down Tung Choi St past the Goldfish Market, lined with lots of shops selling fish and aquarium products.



Nemo anyone?





Cooking up some street food for the evening

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Part 13

We caught the MTR down to TST, and I have just realised I have overlooked last night before we caught the bus, we had a look at the lantern festival lights we had noticed earlier. So here are those pics now.



My favourite rabbits







The infamous Peninsula Hotel at night



Today however, we walked across to Harbour City for dinner. We enjoyed Crystal Jade Xiao Long Bao so much decided to visit the one in the Harbour City Megamall (it stretches half a mile along Canton Rd by the waterfront and the cruise terminal).

We didn't have long to wait but were amused to find prices were dearer than the Time Square location, probably because if you had a window seat, and it wasn't dark, you had views of the ocean.



Our choices



We skipped most of the shops after dinner as they are the ones you find everywhere.

Examples of the good signage everywhere.



The crowds out and about; this is on Haiphong Rd



Stairs leading up from Nathan Rd into Kowloon Park

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Part 14

We made our way up Nathan Rd stopping to buy odds and ends from shops like an excellent tea shop and investigating others like this interesting store



We also had a good look in Yue Hwa Chinese Products shop that several people have recommended but found nothing we liked in our price range and again the emphasis was on winter wear. I would have liked to have visited the Argyle Centre after the goldfish market which has cheaper fashion apparently but somehow walked past and missed it and we were getting too hungry at that time to detour back up.

Tonight we detoured so as to continue home via the Temple St markets. Food stalls at the entrance.



We actually found more stalls to stop and browse in here than the ladies market though the better stalls seemed to be at each end.



Good way to attract would-be buyers. Isn't he/she gorgeous.





While we were walking through sections of the market DH instead choose to walk for a while along the outside edge behind the stalls to escape the crowds but he quickly rejoined us saying it was very sleasy back there, with unsavoury characters, dodgy youth scuffling, prostitutes etc and he didn't feel at all safe...just steps away from the busy crowds. We didn't find this anywhere else in the back streets further up in Yau Ma Tei where we wandered various streets each night to reach home but they had local families gathering chatting in the 'rest areas' or kids playing so felt like a local residential area.

We stopped for a sit by the entrance to the Yau Ma Tei Tin Hau Temple (the entrance side).



The renovated Yau Ma Tei Theatre, the only surviving pre-war cinema building in the urban area of Hong Kong, built in 1930. It closed in 1998 but was listed as a historic building and reopened in 2012 as a venue dedicated to Cantonese opera.



Home to our bed here for the last night and a night time view out the windows.



Tonight DH took the spare bunk bed and I slept very well with an open window and no noisy air con in our bed.

Highlights of our day: Ngong Ping crystal cabin cable cars, Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery, walk to and on the Wisdom Path, Flower Market, Dinner at Crystal Jade, embroidered piccies we bought in the Temple St markets. Downsides: missing out on seeing the other side of Lantau Island with its supposedly good beaches, no time (or energy this arvo) to return to the Jade Market. Steps walked 24,920, around 16.8 km.

 

[PrincessInOz]

What a great day indeed! You hit Lantau and all those markets.....Well Done! That's a real jam-packed day indeed.

I didn't wander on the outskirts of the markets. Glad I didn't after reading what your DH thought!! YIKES.
Love your night time shots! Lovely.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Day 6 “I’m where I’m meant to be”

We woke up at 6.30am, packed, had breakfast and were on the way to the MTR station by 8.30am, farewelling our home for the past few days.

Farewell to Yau Ma Tei





Before I start the Disneyland section and to conclude with Hong Kong central, on our second day at Disneyland we slipped away for a few hours in the morning to go up the peak, bowing to pressure that we can’t visit Hong Kong and not actually visit this icon. We caught the MTR into the city; it was quicker on the Aqua Hong Kong Line rather than the Red Tung Chung Line we were used to, but we exited in the IFC Mall and took a while to get our bearings as we hadn’t come out of this station before. Eventually we worked out North from South and navigated our way to pop out of the transit corridors just where we planned on the Battery Path with a short walk uphill to the Peak Tram Station.



Interesting displays while you wait. A conductor's uniform and old tram tickets





There was not too long a queue yet for the tram but we just missed out on one so were squished at the front for the next arrival. Learnt our lesson – hang back - as by the time we were able to enter through the narrow front door behind a slow group of only a few, people had surged in from the back and filled all the seats. We had to move down and stand near the back of the first tram section and I can say that it is VERY hard on the knee joints and arms to hang on while you tilt vertically upwards!

The tram arriving



Crowds



At the top we took a while to find our way out of the actual building – it was one of those mornings!! Stopping in a convenient café with a view, for a coffee fix to wake up those brain cells, helped.



Then we went to the Lions Monument first as it was right by us for photos – this was very crowded. Given the haze we had decided the Sky Tower viewing platform wasn’t worth the extra $ but in retrospect it would have probably been better. Never mind.