Day 133: Exploring Lantau Island

Last full day in Hong Kong today. One of the things that has really surprised us about Hong Kong is that it's far larger than either of us expected. Although you tend to think of Hong Kong in the same breath as Singapore (both small city state island nations in SEA), but Hong Kong is actually 2800 square km in area, while Singapore is only 700 square km. The difference is that most of Hong Kong's population is crammed into Kowloon peninsula and the northern coast of Hong Kong island, but it's still very surprising to find that huge areas of Hong Kong are ruggedly mountainous and very undeveloped.

So today we decided to explore one of the much less developed islands - Lantau. Another late start for us, leaving the hotel around 11am though not on the shuttle this time. We walked over to Olympic station and grabbed a train out to Tung Chung, end of the line and close to the airport and Disneyland. From here you can get a cable car up to the top of Lantau island where there's a beautiful monastery and a large Buddha statue. This was to be our outing for the day.

After disembarking the train and sorting out our water and bathroom situations, we walked over to the cable car station only to discover an hour long queue for the ticket office. Sigh. Again we weren't up to paying the double-price for skipping the line, so queue we did. At least we'd brought some supermarket sushi that we intended to eat in the parkland up top of the mountains - it didn't last through the line!

Finally we bought our tickets, rounded the corner and joined the 30 minute wait to actually get in a cable car! I guess we should have expected something like this as it's the second-most popular attraction in Hong Kong (behind the Peak tram), but it was still a bit disheartening.

Eventually we boarded and climbed into the mountains where we had a great view, though the weather was a little hazy and overcast. It was nearly 2pm by the time we got to the top, so it had already been a long day to this point! At the top I was a little disappointed - there was a very fake looking Chinese village, essentially a theme park version of what you might expect to find in Chinese mountains. I'm guessing the authentic versions wouldn't hold Subway, 7-11 and fancy souvenir shops though.

Walked over to the Big Buddha, which although looking very classic and regal was actually only built in the 1970s. It was definitely big, probably 15-20 metres high, and imposing on a hilltop that required 250 steps to reach the pedestal. We had a good look around and I filmed some hyperlapse footage while I'll get around to compiling one of these days.

Back down the Buddha steps and we went over to nearby Po Lin Monastery, which was actually old and authentic. This was the highlight of the day for me - the buildings were beautifully preserved and maintained, brilliant colours shining in the sun and monks inside chanting away. It was exactly the mental picture I had of a monastery that isn't in the Himalaya or something.

As the afternoon had mostly gone we decided it was time to head back down. Another 20 minute wait for a cable car and off we went. There are walking trails all over the island (Lantau itself is almost as big as Hong Kong island) - you can even walk up to the Monastery yourself if you felt so inclined. There looked like some great places to discover out here, but they'll have to wait for our next visit to Hong Kong.

We got back on a train fairly quickly, and hopped out at Olympic around 6pm. On her way back home earlier in the week, Shandos had discovered the local pub street, so we figured we should head there and celebrate the end of a successful week in Hong Kong. One of the bars served local craft brews on tap, so we shared a few pints and a big bag of free peanuts. Then while tipsy we discovered the giant burgers restaurant a few doors down, even though I was hoping to find some char siew (honey glazed) pork. Burgers won out, and they were very good too. Topped off the evening with some Portuguese egg tarts from the bakery opposite the hotel, before crashing out fairly early by this week's standards.Read more