Hong Kong; The BIg Buddha

After spending time at Tai O village we noticed that there were bus loads of tourists starting to arrive. So we decided that it was time to head off to the next part of our walkabout. We were off to visit the Big Buddha, Molly had told us that we must visit the Big Buddha.

"Make sure that you buy a ticket forthe meal. too," Molly said.

We took another local bus up to the Buddha. When we got off the bus we seemd to outside a very busy tourist type area with modern shops. Not what I expect, there were commercial signs about walk with Buddha. I let the bus take off and turned to take in my surroundings. Suddenly looking up I saw a large Buddha floating among the tree tops on the skyline. So we headed off away from the tourist spot to the Big Buddha.

This is supposedly the biggest bronze Buddha in the world. I would say that more than likely it is. Set at the top of a very high set of stairs it is overpoweringly large. Up close it is immense.
There is a museum inside the base of the Big Buddha. It has a number of interesting and historically important artefacts relating to it. Much of the detail is written in Chinese. However it is worth having a look to marvel at the mural on the wood work around the centre column.
Back down at the base is a large temple and monastry. As with such places there are various shrines where incense is burnt. I was captivated by this area with the Big Buddha at a distance.
You can't smell the smoke but you can see how it floats off towards the heavens.
The day we were there, the whole area was full of life. It was an interesting place to people watch. The temple in the background was large and interesting. The size of some of the incense stick burning here was amazingly large. This child used up a lot of energy running up and down to get her windmill turning.

We found the restaurant where the meal was served around the back of the temple. The meal is completely vegetarian, it was very tastey with a range of interesting dishes. Ruth and I were seated at a table for two. We struggled to eat all our meal even though I washed it down with copious cups of tea. Molly told we if we had been seated with a larger table we would have been given more to eat.

After our delicious meal we headed off to the Cable car to take us back to Tung Chung. This meant a walk through the tourist part. This area was OK but no competition for what we had just seen and prices were inflated for fat tourist pockets. We were shocked by the numbers of people lined up waiting for their cablecar ride. We went to get our tickets where we noticed for an extra $10 we could ride down in the crystal car. What's the difference? "It has a glass floor. Today, you wait 45 minutes for the standard car or you take the next crystal car." Well we paid the extra and in less than two minutes we were in the crystal car on our way down.
The views were fantastic the ride was worth it. It is quicker than the bus but I think it is worth travelling up one way and down the other.

Hong Kong has some beautiful rugged wilderness places.