Today feels like it was a massive day. I got up early-ish and headed to Lantau Island - an island to the West of Hong Kong.
To get there, you have to take a series of subways and a cable car, but the views were spectacular. The area was very touristy, so I tried to find things that had more locals, or just less people, but all in all it was a good day.
The cable car drops you right in the centre of the island, Ngong Ping which has some shops, and a temple. It was all nice enough, but I think I might be templed out. Their 3 meter incense sticks were pretty great though.
The real highlight and draw-card though is their Big Buddha. Standing at 30-something meters, it was actually bigger than I expected. Even the smaller statues around it were intimidatingly huge!!
After the Buddha, I headed to "Wisdom Track" which was only about 10 minutes away. I was feeling sort of energetic though, so I decided I was going to conquer the summit of the island.
It was literally stairs the whole way, and 2 hours later, I still hadn't reached the top and I was hot and sweaty, so I just turned back. Great views from up high though.
There is also a small fishing village on the island which has been taken over by tourist organisations. It was kind of sad seeing all of these poor people living in tiny little huts huddled around small open stoves on the water, with rubbish everywhere, and then a woman screaming "$20 for boat ride through village".
It didn't sit right with me, but I suppose it was kind of cool to see. Hong Kong is just so rich, but this little area was just so so poor. It felt more like China.
There's not many times I've feared for my life, but the breakneck bends the bus was taking down the mountainside was genuinely terrifying for the vast majority of the ride.
I took a ferry back to the main Island, and wasn't quite ready to call it for the night, so headed to the world's longest escalator. It isn't just one escalator, it's actually a series of dozens of them, but it goes for literally blocks and crosses roads. I was very impressed.
The walk home was less fun though, but I got to see some cool sights, like trees growing in the most improbable places.
Tomorrow, Kowloon xx