Hongkong Trip – Day 1

Arriving at Hong Kong International Airport armed with nothing but print out articles and leaflets from the airport, we started our adventure on Lantau Island. I departed Singapore past midnight and joined with my wife at Manila for the 8am trip to Hong Kong.

Of course we want a smooth travel as possible. We aren’t on a tour package so we have to minimize any possible glitches on our itinerary while maximizing our exposure to as much of Hong Kong and adjacent places. While I plan our trip, Deanna does well in taking pictures. It’s good that she was able to hold the camera as I was very conscientious on plotting our schedule. And for that, we did a record of around 800 pictures in 5 days! No wonder she can take pictures like a pro now.

Lantau Island. We took a bus from the airport to Tung Chung MTR Station. Ngong Ping Cable Car is under repair so we took a bus to reach Ngong Ping. The twisty road was an experience. You’ll see most of Lantau’s mountainous view, reservoir and the breath taking sight of South China Sea. More than half of the traveled time of course was enjoyed by my wife sleeping. She has this special skill of dozing seconds after she closed her eyes ^^.

We feel a bit tired that we have missed our breakfast. Roaming around the airport with our backpack on is quit draining. Back in the Philippines, Boarding gates of domestic flights is just a minute walk from the check in counter. NAIA Terminal requires a rather extended walking time from check-in, to immigration and to boarding gates. At Singapore Changi Airport, you have to use a travelator to hasten the travel time. In Hong Kong, Automated People Mover at 62km/h, provides fast transportation from check-in area to gates. Probably, maybe the next generation airport will use planes to transport people within the terminal.

The bronze Buddha is hundred of steps up from where we are. Hungry and tired, we decided to check the Po Lin Monastery first as it was in the ground level. We’ve taken a sumptuous meal at a vegetarian restaurant to energize ourselves. It’s a very good overture to Chinese vegetarian meal and is really worth a visit. After wandering a while inside the Monastery and checking various statues inside, we proceeded to scale the steps of the largest seated outdoor bronze Buddha statue in the world.

The Tian Tan Buddha sits on a three-platform lotus altar and can be reached by climbing 268 steps up. We manage to have some fun so as to encourage ourselves into reaching the top. Good thing is, the meal we have just taken, fueled us up.

Circling the lotus gives a grand view of the Lantau peak (Hong Kong’s 2^nd highest peak) and the view of the mist touching it, confers an inner peace. It reminds me of my own Zion, bringing you closer to the presence of the mighty Creator.

Tired of the climb, we resisted the temptation of not visiting the Ngong Ping Village. There were free shuttles to the village but we opted to stroll towards the themed village. Traditional Chinese architectural design was clearly demonstrated in shops and cultural structures within the 15,000 square meter site.

There are not a lot of people during our visit, probably because it was Monday. After being shoved by exhaustion and the urge of maximizing our time, we decided to go down using another route.

At late afternoon, we reached Mui Wo. We are supposed to stay at silvermine beach hotel and have a visit on the cave and the waterfalls, but it seems my wife is not that keen spending a night by the winking seashore of silvermine beach, and the cave and waterfalls weren’t enchanting enough to convince her either. Proof of which, we haven’t taken a picture at Mui Wo. L

Half an hour later we reached the pier of Hong Kong Island after taking a fast craft from Mui Wo. It is our first glimpse of the Hong Kong Island and her forest of tall buildings. In an hour, we proceed to the ferry terminal going to Macau and have a short snack break before boarding the craft. Of course, with miss camera girl around, we haven’t missed snapping out a few shots at the ferry harbor and our first MacDonald’s Hong Kong snack.

Macau. It’s raining hard when we reached Macau. The tourist information kiosk wasn’t that helpful either. Signs are in Chinese and Portuguese. Hotel agents at the port are quite obsessed in selling splurge hotel room for us. We manage to call one of the mid-range hotels listed on my travel kit, and luckily enough (or the other way around) we found a deal of cheaper room accommodation. Instructions given weren’t that clear, probably due to accent barrier (?) and the pressure on us to find a room is killing me. Taking a bus from the Macau pier and surveying the streets for any similar or close sounded street names to that hotel (and in the midst of rain), we decided to take a walk and scout for any hotel so as to rest our very tired bodies. We ended up on a budget hotel. Only then we remembered we haven’t taken our dinner yet. A chummy fast food meal was the signature meal for the night. With a lot of kababayans scattered around (on what we later found out to be the Largo do Senado), brings a smile to our face as we exchanged greetings and good wishes before taking up our meal in our room.

We ended the day with a warm shower and retiring to sleep.