Riding High in Hong Kong

Our ride

Hong Kong seems to be a city that could take weeks to fully explore, but we were on our last full non-travel day.  With everyone worn out from a long day at Disney, we wanted to do something closer to the hotel that wouldn’t take up the entire day.  Since we are on Lantau Island, we decided to try to the Ngong Ping cable cars that take you to Ngong Ping village.  

We lucked out with great weather for Disney.  It was unexpectedly sunny and I have the sunburn to prove it since we forgot the sunscreen.  But today’s forecast was calling for overcast and possible rain and the forecasters were accurate.  It was cloudy and foggy when we woke up and the mountain peaks were obscured with fog.  It was pretty, but not the best for sight seeing. But since it was our last day, we figured we’d give it a try anyway.

When we arrived at the cable car station, the lines were longer than expected and while waiting in line it started to rain.  We bought a few ponchos as insurance and hoped for the best.  When we boarded our cable car, it was raining again.  We were nice and dry inside, but our view was obscured by the rain and clouds.  We had opted for a crystal cabin, which meant the floor was made of see through glass.  It was neat to see the rain falling below us.  About 1/3 of the way up, we heard a couple rumbles of thunder and then the we stopped briefly.  I’ll admit, I was a bit nervous and things got awfully quiet in the car.  We resumed our ride soon enough but then the wind picked up.  The cars are designed to allow the natural breeze into the cabine to keep the ride more comfortable without using A/C, but when the wind starts whipping around, it makes a lot of noise and the mood in the cabin was definitely a bit more tense until the wind died down a bit.

Looking down at the street

View of trail from the bottom of our cable car

On the top of the mountain, there is a gift shop and they have the photo you took when boarding already printed out and ready for sale when you get off the cable car.  After you leave the gift shop, you enter a tourist village filled with shops and restaurants.  We stopped at a martial arts show before making our way to the Big Buddha statue that is the main attraction on the mountaintop.  Apparently it is the second largest Buddha statue in the world.  To get to the statue, you need to climb over 250 steps and Dana did that with Alex strapped to her back on wet cement – impressive!   While the rain had stopped, the foggy/cloudy skies meant we couldn’t even see the Big Buddha from the bottom of the steps.  We all climbed the steps and took some pictures at the top.  Even with the fog, it’s a gorgeous view from the top.  It did feel a bit odd making the journey to see a Buddha statue since I’m not a Buddhist.  

Ngong Ping Village

Ngong Ping Village looking toward Buddha

Steps up to the Big Buddha

When we got down the steps, we stopped for lunch at a noodle place.  Then we watched the Motion 360 movie about Lantau Island that aims to make you feel like you’re actually riding in a helicopter by blowing wind at you or spraying you with water and moving your seat.  It was a nice way to explore the whole island in a limited time.  I wouldn’t mind doing the actual island tour if the opportunity were to arise again although I’m not sure I’d make the trip to Hong Kong just for that – it’s a long flight!

As we queued up to go back down, it started to rain again, but it didn’t last for the whole ride down.  There wasn’t any noticeable wind on the way down and since we survived the trip up, we were less nervous on this leg of the journey.  After we disembarked, we stopped at a grocery store near the metro station and picked up some noodles, drinks and snacks for dinner since the kids wanted to get back and swim.  

Once we returned to the hotel, we went swimming, then ate our dinner and packed up our stuff.  Tomorrow we’re heading home.  

One last swim in the pool