Pania Rides the Cable Car

Wednesday July 7th

Hello. it’s Pania here. It is my turn to be the reporter today.
I was the lucky little kiwi to go out and about in Hong Kong today. We all set out for breakfast quite early and then Mary and Alan decided that today would be a good day to buy a travel pass for the MTR and go a bit further away. So having bought the pass we hopped on the train and went for a long ride out to Tung Chung to get the Cable car to Ngong Ping. After a long wait in a queue we finally got into our car and took the 5.7k ride to Ngong ping Village. While waiting in the queue Mary saw a wonderful sign which said, Very hot weather warning is hoisted. She just had to photograph it.

A photographer snapped every person, couple or group as they boarded the car. When we reached the other out jumps a girl with the photo of Mary and Alan already printed and mounted very attractively and just in case they wanted them, 2 key rings with their photo in. They bought the photo; it was actually good of both of them and passed on the key rings. Later they saw a couple of people dismantling premade key rings to recycle. You wonder if anyone buys them and why they bother.
The views from the cable car are stunning and a great opportunity for photos and videos. At the top is a lovely little village that has been purpose built for the tourists. But it was a real pleasure to be able to walk around and stroll through the shops and look at things without being pressured to buy. People were buying and the shopkeepers were polite and helpful. Such a contrast from the experience in China yesterday.
This village is plastic bag free and there is a wonderful work of art made from plastic bags at the entrance. Alan took my photo by it.

After a slow walk down the avenue and we made our way to the foot of the Tian Ran Buddah Statue. He is Asia’s largest seated outdoor Buddah, 34m tall sitting atop a mountain on Lantau Island. It was very hot, (but they had been warned) so Mary and Alan wisely decided that a photo taken looking up from the bottom of the steps would be fine. They then wandered through the Monastery Gardens and they were lush and beautifully kept. There were people lighting incense sticks all around the temple. The temple itself was magnificent. They are building an even grander one in behind and fund raising to do it.

After buying a really cheap lunch at the vegetarian cafe in the Monastery grounds we took the cable car back down the mountain. The ride down was more impressive than going up. You get a real sense of the height and steepness of the mountain coming down.
We then took a long MTR ride to Kowloon Bay where there was a $20Hk is about $4 kiwi money. The line we were on took us right back to where we were staying so we went back for a much needed rest and a chance for me to write this.