Hong Kong

A Little History

Britain defeated China in 1841 and occupied the island of Hong Kong. It was used as a military staging post. In 1984, Britain signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration that would keep Hong Kong unchanged for 50 years and upon expiration, the British government agreed to transfer the entire territory back to China. The transferred happened in 1997.

Population of Hong Kong 7.4M.

Ngong Ping Cable Car

Awake at 4:00 am. I didn’t fall asleep until midnight and the body clock is definitely off. I’m sure I will catch up soon enough. The morning started out fine. We had a lovely breakfast in the hotel cafe before we decided to use our Octopus card and head to see the Big Buddha on Lantau Island.

Navigating the MTR (Metro) is quite easy. I’ve been coughing at the most inappropriate moments, such as on the Metro. The poor passengers are moving away or looking at me. I decide to wear a mask until it subsides. They must be shell-shocked from Covid. It took us about 45 minutes to get there from Tsim Tsa Tsui station. Everything is so clean. They frequently sanitize the handrails on the escalators and they have a lot of escalators! Along the way we come across a Croatian woman. Mia works as a health inspector for cruise lines. She was on leave and doing some shopping and sightseeing before her next cruise. She was full of energy and as we were all heading in the same direction, decided to become a group of 3.

First stop was the Ngong Ping cable car. Our Go City pass gave us free entry but we had to queue up with the rest of the tourists. Opening at 10:00 am, we were already in a 30 minute line up.

Our pass was for a standard cable car versus the crystal, which is the glass bottom floor. We boarded our car with another 4 people and off we climbed. OMG as we climbed higher and higher my mouth went dry, my palms were sweaty and I couldn’t feel my legs. Mia was howling and I just practiced deep breathing. The cars hold 15 people! I can’t imagine 15 people. We saw a maintenance car descend and the gentleman was standing up with only a short metal grate between him and sheer doom! The cable car climbs and climbs for a distance of 5.7 km and changes angles twice as it rises over the mountains. We had an amazing view of the airport, landing planes and all the construction. The airport is on a landfill site.

When we were flying into Hong Kong airport, I was wondering where we were going to land as we flew over and between green, lush hills. It was neat seeing it from this vantage point and it distracted me from dying.

There was a young couple sitting across from us. I recognized they were speaking Spanish, and asked them where they were from. They were from Columbia and so we spoke a few sentences and laughed how my 1198 days of Duolingo was paying off.

Meeting the Big Buddha

I like to challenge my fears. I’ve done Peak2Peak at Whistler, Lake Louise Gondola and the CN Tower, albeit facing the elevator wall. I think I’m doing well.

Arriving at the Ngong Ping Village we wound our way past quaint shops, statues and food and beverage kiosks. We are pointing and clicking at every turn. Mia regaled us with her shopping deal stories and Yordie and I agreed to check out Sneaker Street and the Mong Kok Women’s Market the next day. Apparently Mia picked up a pair of the new QC sneakers for $50. I have been wanting a pair. Hopefully, it will be worth the trip.

To our left, we spy the Big Buddha up on a hill. He is 34 meters tall, made of 250 metric tonnes of bronze pieces. He is a BIG fella, and is sitting on lotus leaves. It is quite the sight. If you want to get close to him, you must scale 268 steps. Yordie and I looked at each other as Mia was practically running up the steps. Yordie said, “Well there he is. We’ve seen him.” Then out of pure stubbornness, we began the climb. Maybe it was the 80-year-olds with canes and little children giggling their way up that shamed us into it. At the top, there is a monastery (Po Lin Monastery) and people were praying, lighting incense and making offerings. It was beautiful but in all honesty, I kept thinking how are my knees going to handle the descent? They were fine.

We had passes to go to the fishing village but it would have required us taking a bus down the mountain and back up again. We needed to be back at the hotel to get changed for the Wine and Dine Festival. We said goodbye to Mia and headed back down on the cable car and managed to get back to the hotel in time for a nap.

Wine and Dine Festival

I was excited about going to this event. Over 300 worldwide exhibitors of wine, whiskey, gin producers, celebrity chefs, mixologists, etc. and we had VIP passes and free coupons.

We all met in the lobby at 4:00 pm, and within the first half hour of arriving at the event, we discovered this was not going to be what we thought it would be. It was more like a marketing segment for the Hong Kong Tourism Board. They tried to group us with a larger one. We told Tim, our leader, that we would like to go off on our own and move away from the broader group which he agreed to. Yordie and I wound our way through the different booths, had our faces painted with a French theme, ate raclette, and within an hour decided we had had enough. Of course, we had already had a very busy day with over 14,000 steps in the heat.

What I did enjoy was the fresh air with it being an outdoor event. It was on Hong Kong Island, overlooking Victoria Harbour. It was a warm evening and the view was spectacular and even more beautiful as the sun set.

There is a giant observation wheel on the waterfront similar to The Eye, located in London, England. We decided that we would give it a try. My last Ferris wheel experience had me in a puddle of tears on the floor of a saucer at the Canadian. National Exhibition with my kids laughing at me. No wonder I’m triggered. lol. My thought process was if I could conquer the Ngong Ping Cable Car, I can do this.

We slowly went around a couple of times looked at the beautiful Victoria Harbour while enjoying the warm evening breeze. We decided to call an Uber back to the hotel. While waiting for it, I had a call video call with my son Phil and his kids. They were getting Henry ready for school. It was nice to see their faces. We made it back to the hotel with no issue and fell asleep so quickly. I don’t remember saying good night to Yordie.

Summary

It was disappointing and unfortunate that the Wine and Dine Festival was a bust, but the day was fabulous. We navigated the MTR system quite effortlessly and we rode the cable car, the Observation Wheel and got to meet the Big Guy.

All in all, I’d call it a good day.