The journey from Tai O Village to Tung Chung was almost an hour’s ride along winding roads going uphill. At certain stretches roadworks made it passable to single lane traffic only but they had a good system of temporary traffic lights which regulated the traffic going through. Rustic hamlets dotted the route.
On arrival at Tung Chung we headed for the cable car terminal where we purchased our tickets for the Crystal Cabin. The floor of the cable car was made of glass so that we could view what was below us as the cable car rolled smoothly upwards to Ngong Ping 360. Why 360?
We get a 360 degree panaroma from the cable car. It’s a 5.7 km ride and the cable cars were spacious. There were five of us in our crystal cabin including an American couple from Wisconsin and a guy from Kwang Chow in China.
We had spectacular views of the bay and we could see the lush green foliage of the trees below our feet.
The view of the airport made us realize how big it actually is and we could see aircraft taking off every two to three minutes.
We went higher and higher up the mountain and we could see the surrounding peaks of the Lantau North Country Park and the huge statue of the sitting Buddha in the distance.
On arrival at the Ngong Ping cable car terminal we got off and walked towards Ngong Ping village. We were greeted by a street flanked by souvenir shops and restaurants offering a wide range of cuisine including the omnipresent Starbucks.
At the end of the street was a road leading to the monastery where you could have a vegetarian meal. On the other side were the 368 steps that take you up to the sitting Buddha known as the Tian Tan Buddha. Any attempt to climb was out of the question even though my knee was recovering.
There were two attractions, “Walking with Buddha” which showcases the life of Guatama Siddhartha, the man who became Buddha and the “Monkey’s Tale” theatre highlighting a fable that teaches the value of sharing.
There are also models of cable cars from different European countries on either side of the road in the village.
Upgrading works were in progress during our visit so it wasn’t as pleasant as it could have been. We managed to get very good taufu fah ( bean curd dessert )in one of the little shacks near where digging and drilling activities were going on.
We took the cable car back to Tung Chung instead of using the bus service that was available. I didn’t fancy going down winding roads and the journey would be much longer than the cable car. From Tung Chung we took the MTR ( equivalent of the MRT in Singapore, and the Tube in London or Metro in Paris ) back to Central, much faster than going by road.
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