Ngong Ping

Arriving in Ngong Ping, the first order of business was to find some food but it seems like the restaurant was still deeper into the plateau so I went where my eyes took me. The imposing giant Amitabha Buddha statue which was one of the main sights to see in the whole of Lantau Island. Climbing up the stairs required a lot of extra work especially after I had just finished hiking the day before, I was also able to snag a food ticket to cash in at the Po Lin Monastery where they had a restaurant.

I hiked up and took in the amazing view of the surrounding mountains and appreciating the intricately made Buddha statue, it was a crowded holiday but I had fun, I enjoyed seeing these tiny lotus ponds on the way up. I went to the Po Lin Monastery's restaurant before exploring some more as I was so hungry already, they served an all vegetarian meal with hot water again. It did it's job and I was stuffed and ready to do some more exploring. At that time, there were two exhibitions on the life of Amitabha Buddha, in one of the booths it said that simply reciting the mantra "Namo Amitabha Buddha" within a temple's premises can already make it so that you escape Samsara. The monastery itself had really ornate designs and covered a huge area, with plenty of Buddhist deities to pray to.

After exploring the temple compound, I made my way to the backside where there was a forest path leading to Lantau Peak, I had originally wanted to hike up this one today but it seems like my body wasn't up for it nor did I have the time, it was also cloudy anyways, I'll go for it next time. The one I wanted to check out was the Wisdom Path near the trailhead. It had these wooden planks in the shape of infinity with the parts of the Heart Sutra written on each. It was also very crowded here with plenty of people going over the fences. I found a pretty good spot from behind that I had to climb up a huge boulder for and the views were absolutely perfect. Going back to Hong Kong Island was the issue as the line for the bus was already a kilometer at that point I think. I was checking Google Maps and it seemed like there was another bus I could take that went somewhere else in the middle and I could switch one that took me back to the main station. There were several problems with this idea, the first was the bus went pass the station I had wanted for several kilometers and I had to spend a half hour backtracking. I waited for the bus to take me back and this was also a mistake as it seems like all the buses ended up passing me over as it was already full so I was stranded again in the middle of nowhere. The original bus I was on would have taken me to the pier and I could have taken the ferry back to Hong Kong Island but that ship has already sailed so I backtracked a bit more to a station where more buses were heading back, there were several people there so it was a bit of relief but the buses were still passing as by. The only consolation I had at this time was the beautiful sunset. Eventually, I did make it back to the station thanks to a miracle bus and off I went back to the same restaurant near my hotel before retiring peacefully for the night.Read more