HK: A day in Lantau Island

Many people including myself had always thought that Tai Yu Shan is a mountain as 'Shan' in Cantonese is referred to mountain. Actually, Tai Yu Shan aka Lantau island is hong kong biggest island, with famous attractions like Disneyland and Tian Tan Buddha. For this Lantau island trip, we followed the most popular route suggested by one of the hong kong blogger. The route was Tung Chung --> Ngo Ping 360 --> Tian Tan Buddha --> Tai O --> Tung Chung.

I had a lot of photos for this day, so will let the photos to do the speaking. We took MTR from Jordan to Tung Chung. Next to Tung Chung Station was this Citygate Outlets where you could buy a lot of off season branded products at great discounts! Will come back to this one later. Ngo Ping 360 cable car station was right here too!



We bought our one way cable car + one day bus pass package for HK$76(HK$98 for Sunday) at the small counter next to the escalator leading to the cable car station. This package was provided by third party, not Ngo Ping 360.


After the escalator,we still had to collect our cable car ticket at the counter. There were many packages available for selection.


Luckily the queue at the station was not long.


The first scene after the cable car took off.


Captured a return cable car.


Not long later, the cable car stopped at Ngo Ping Village.


Ngo Ping Village was very much built for tourists. There were souvenior shops and restaurants. To get to the Tian Tan Buddha, we had no choice but to pass through all the shophouses. Business Strategy.


I noted Honeymoon Dessert branch in Ngo Ping too.


We started with Po Lin Monastery(寶蓮禪寺). It was a sunny day, so you could see people carrying an umbrella.








Then, we visited the Wisdom Path. It was a very large wooden inscription of the Heart Sutra set within a figure 8 to symbolize infinity.






Before entering the Tian Tan Buddha, we pay HK$60 per person for the vegetarian meal. Vegetarian snack was also available at HK$23. Since it was almost lunch time, we decided to take the vegetarian meal. Without the meal/snack coupon, we could not enter the Buddhist relics exhibition hall.


The long staircase to the Tian Tan Buddha. I counted, it was less than 300 steps. But now I can't remember the figure. Maybe around 280 steps.


It was very hazy, this was the best shot I had.


The view at the top.


She took off her high heels.


We returned to Po Lin Monastery for vegetarian lunch. Outside the vegetarian restaurant, that was the place for the vegetarian snack. For each snack voucher, they were giving a plate of vegetarian fried bihun, 3 pieces of different vegetarian snacks and one bowl of tau fu fa. Looking at them made me feel more hungry. So, I entered the vegetarian restaurant.


One good thing was the restaurant was very spacious. We did not have to share tables with others. I even saw one person occupaying one whole table. Immediately after we sat down, the waiter brought us one bowl of soup. I was delighted with the hot soup as my stomach was already growling.


Four vegetarian dishes were served and they were all very delicious. The one covered with the colorful mixed bean was smooth tau fu, and the rest were fried spring roll, braised mushroom with vegetables and fried dried bean curd.


After the hearty lunch, we took bus from bus stand No 21 to Tai O.


There was a Tai O map. But even without a map, we were fine as Tai O was a very small fishing village.


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The was a permanent exhibition showing some the fishing equipments ...


...and some old stuffs.


Then, we crossed the bridge to another part of the village.


There was several boat services providing boat ride and dolphin watching trip. Even though I did not believe we would be able to watch dolphin in a 20 minutes ride, but still we went for it. It was only HK$20, so why not?


The houses were partly built on the water.


As we went deeper to the sea, the wave were stronger. But still, there was no sign of dolphins. I was only able to watch dolphin after taking more than one hour of boat ride at Monterey Bay. So, I was not hoping for anything.


Getting down from the boat, we started our slow walk again. In front of this temple, I overheard the conversation between a local and an outsider. The outsider was saying that she has to leave before the glutinious snacks(茶果) were sold out. Oh! We better act fast too! ;)


Turning into Shek Tsai Po St(石仔埗街), we managed to find the little wooden house selling glutinious snack. There was no sign board, so not everyone will know it. I read it in a Hong Kong blog.



They were still using charchoal to make the glutinious snacks.



Uncle Choy(财叔) was selling glutinious snack to the customer.



The one with a lot of flour was Lor Mai Chi(糯米滋) and another one was cha gor(茶果). There were two type of fillings, sweet red bean or salty coconut flakes and peanut fillings. There were sold at HK$3.50 per piece. They were about a fist size and tasted warm and good. Come and grab some if you happen to be here.







After that, we took bus back to Tung Chung. The bus station was very near to the Citygates Outlets and Tung Chung MRT Station. We shopped for about 2 hours and left Tung Chung around 6pm.

Glutinious Snack Choy 茶果財
G/F 106 Shek Tsai Po St, Tai O 大澳石仔埗街106號地下

2 comments:

soo sean

Not bad. But if you didn't go there, then no need to purposely make it a trip. But if you are in Tai O, make sure you go and get it. :)