Hong Kong: Houses on stilts and drawbridge in Tai O

Tai O is home to a community of fisher folk on Lantau Island, making it a possible detour if the intention is to visit the Tian Tan Buddha. Contrary to most who are travelling to HK, my main reason to commute to Lantau Island was actually Tai O instead of Tian Tan Buddha. Reason being I have been to Tian Tan Buddha in the past albeit not via those flashy cable car. It was in S's list of places to visit, I have no qualm of re-visiting so we made our way to Tian Tan prior to Tai O.

Whilst I didn't expect Tai O to be totally serene, secluded and quiet, I was still surprised to see the crowd at this fishing town. I wonder if it would be quieter if we were there in the morning but it was after we have visited the Big Buddha. I guess everybody else shared the similar travel plan.

The houses on stilts, drawbridge and fishing village charms are still present, regardless of the busy human traffic in this little fishing town.

Our first stop was lunch, which was a bit more miss than hit but definitely very filling. Somehow I managed to find a spot in my tummy to fit in an egg waffle / eggette, whatever you call it. Yumm... though they are at least double the price here in Melbourne so I am exercising my very best restrain to curb my cravings.

After lunch, we basically just walked around. There is option of taking a boat trip if you want to. Once you are out of the main streets, the crowd was a bit more spread out.

Maybe all the food did get to my head because I can't understand why I didn't just buy this cha guo to eat later that I did not come across again.

and shame on the blurred photograph too :(

After making a round, we made our way back to the bus station. If you try want to take a scenic route back to HK Island, you can take bus #1 to Mui Wo (about 40 mins) followed by ferry back to Central. By taking this route there is an option to see some beaches, as well as Mui Wo or Silvermine Bay.

We took the faster route of bus #11 back to Tung Chung then transferred to MTR. The queue though was snaking long! The queue moved quite fast though, and I think they organised more buses as it was a public holiday. The queue for bus #11 moved faster compared to bus #1 and it reaffirmed our decision to just head back to Tung Chung.

Yup, that was the bus queue

On a sort of unrelated note, I find the foot pedal on the bins a great idea! I saw them in Tai O hence the sort of...

Side note: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

Hong Kong: Crystal cabin cable car to Tian Tan Buddha

The last time I travelled to Tian Tan Buddha, I took a bus from Tung Chung. I think the cable car wasn't running then. As S wanted a visit there as well, I proposed that we take the crystal cabin cable car. Technically just means glass bottom cable car, a bit more expensive than the normal cabin car but I like it! A little girl in the same cable car as us wasn't too keen though. She refused to stand on the glass bottom. It almost feel like I should photoshop the pictures to make it appears to have crystal-like sparkles.

I bought a ticket off Klook as it has a different queuing line and slightly cheaper. I also found a discount code being a first time user (yes, from googling).

For comparison purposes, for one adult single trip crystal cabin fare.
Official website: HK$200 / ~AUD 33.75
KLOOK: ~HK$183.08 / AUD 30.90
After discount code: ~HK$168.27 / AUD 28.40

Not earth shattering kind of discount but any little savings is better than none and could get me a snack.

It also did shave off some waiting time as the line to exchange our voucher with the ticket was shorter. That said, we did have to queue for awhile, I didn't keep check of the time but the longer queue was the one getting onto the cable car. In the time where everything needs a disclaimer, nobody ever sponsor me to write anything ok. Grin.

It is a good 25 minutes ride which to me is just right. I don't feel like it is too short nor prompting me to ask, "are we there yet?". I enjoyed looking down at the top of the trees from the glass bottom too.

I wonder what this is.. I saw this from both my flight into HK and on the cable car

If my memory don't fail me, this Ngong Ping Village wasn't there during my last visit more than a decade ago. There were some souvenir shops and restaurants along both sides, oh and many humans.

We both got a snack before walking over to Po Lin Monastery first. This was where S' choice of egg waffle and my tong chung peng came into picture... and no, tong chung peng doesn't really keep hunger away. Haha.

Just before I took this shot, there was a girl attempting some yoga pose with her partner taking shots of them. I could imagine one of the many pictures would be somewhere on instagram on that day. I didn't linger long and S wasn't hungry anymore so we didn't go for the vegetarian meal.

As we climbed up the steps, there was a little girl doing the same with her father by her side. She counted as her little legs moved one step up, in Japanese. For some reason, it annoyed S to no end. She even stopped till the little girl was out of earshot. Ha. Maybe it was the heat, or it was just the staircase.

I totally forgot about the Wisdom Path which houses 38 timber columns containig verses from centuries-old Heart Sutra. So the Tian Tan Buddha was our last stop. We made our way back towards Ngong Ping Village and hopped on bus #21 to Tai O. There was a queue to get on the bus but there were still standing spots. It was between standing in the sun with limited shade for 15 minutes for the next bus or standing in the bus for about 15-20 minutes. We picked the latter, and arrived at a very busy Tai O.


Side note: Should I or should I not let my landlord know that there is a small hole on the electric switch?