China 2017

The last time I saw the Buddha it was at the end of an epic ferry/bus ride. Now the MTR has been extended and you hop off that and take a 25 minute cable-car ride. Which is a high and spectacular ride over green hills covered with tropical vegetation. There is obviously a walking trail to the Buddha, far below us we saw a jogger and a strolling couple, which might not seem noteworthy but the path is tiny, remote and you appear to have to leap over a small waterfall at one point.

As it was late in the day we got a car to ourselves and at one point we were in the clouds. Soon the Buddha could be seen on the horizon. Eventually we clambered out of the car and walked through a hideous overpriced plaza of dubious souvenirs. Bizarrely thus path took the foot traffic past a set of decorative drums mounted on a bridge... Which had sharp instructions not to tap them... Why put drums if you don't want them played..... Once through the plaza we ended up on a path marked by statues of various generals associated with the Chinese horoscope years... Didn't seem very Buddhist to me. The whole thing felt fairly awful, I really liked BB last time relatively quiet, very uncommercial but the village just seemed like another money making scheme.. Wonder if the monks had a hand in it or are fuming? On the upside the cable car must bring more visitors and more donations for them. The other odd thing were the buffalo/cows ambling about on the path to the Buddha... No explanation given. The other thing going on was that ITV / Amazon Prime were filming something there... Can't remember what it was called and we were not allowed to take photos, so chances of me ever seeing it are slim.

Eventually we came to the bottom of the steps that lead to BB. A total 268 steps up... Slow and steady got us to the top. It is impressive even if it does only date from 1993. A very kind woman we had spoken to earlier decided that Dad and I needed a photo to capture the occasion... She spent an age lining us up. Photo on the big camera though so will try to upload tomorrow. We had a good admire of the Buddha, and a wander about and the we creaked Dad's knees back to the main temple. He took photos I lit some incense that hadn't caught and then we headed back to try to catch the last cable car.

Huge queues but we got on after a not very long wait and were rewarded with a spectacular sunset. (big camera). The clouds had lifted and we had great views for the whole journey. Once down we ride back to Hong Kong Station to track down the Michelin starred Dim sum that I found on TripAdvisor. We had some trouble finding it... It is tucked away in the station and looks like a fast food place in many ways, but there was a queue for a table. We were lucky and got a table to ourselves... Lots of them were long shared tables and I would have felt embarrassed wielding my chopsticks so publicly. Great food esp the pork stuffed eggplant.. Reluctantly after that we decided that it was more sensible to head to the airport as the time required to get back to the Star Ferry, ride it and get back was just a bit too cosy.

Smooth ride out, an easy passage through security and into the lounge to await our flight. Now we are at 35000 feet having dinner. The Sky Chef comes and takes your order.. 😀Read more