Lantau Island – Pink Dolphins, a giant Buddha and another ferry ride
July 8th, 2007 by Zofia
Sunday we had an early start, we were picked up for today’s tour at 8am! We went through the same process of stickers, other pickups, and bus swapping, then with Kimmi as our guide (she told us all about the man shortage in Hong Kong and how women such as herself have a hard time finding a man and that men should go and live in Hong Kong!) we headed off to the Avenue of Stars (for a day-time view) and then went to another jewellery manufacturer’s.
We then headed out to Lantau Island to a small pier near the Skyrail. Here we got a Lantau tour guide, Tony, we hopped onto a boat and began a cruise around the island, past the airport out into the South China Sea and saw all the fishing vessels at work and were treated to the experience of seeing the pink dolphins which are only found here! We then arrived at the Tai O fishing village which is full of stilt houses.
From here we boarded a bus which took us up into the hills of Lantau and up to the Po Lin Buddhist monastery.
Here we experienced the joy and wonder of visiting the world’s largest sitting Buddha statue - what an incredible sight that was, just amazing! After wandering around this site we went down into the Monastery where we were treated to an amazing Buddhist vegetarian lunch - this was one of the most delicious meals I have had! It was so tasty, I was most impressed.
We spent a good couple of hours here and then went down the road for half an hour to wander around the Ngong Ping Village. This is a touristy shopping centre at the top of the Skyrail. The Skyrail was not working while we were there so we missed out on going on that (apparently the government closed it down a few weeks earlier because there was a safety incident but it is expected to be open again by the end of August).
Instead of the Skyrail, we went for a drive further around the island and ended up at Silver Mine Bay to catch a ferry which took us from Lantau Island to Hong Kong Island. This journey took over an hour to complete and if it hadn’t been for the good company (we met some really nice people on these tours - Aussies, Scots, Kiwis, Mexicans, Chinese…) the trip would have been unbearable! By the time we got dropped off back at our hotel it was 5pm! What a long but wonderful day 