Throwback Thursday's: Hong Kong // Part 5 (Final Part)
Hello Steemian friends,
It's another Throwback Thursday's!
This is the last part of our Hong Kong/Macau trip that we did at the end of January! For those of you that missed out on the previous parts, please find it below:
Throwback Thursday's: Hong Kong // Part 1
Throwback Thursday's: Hong Kong // Part 2
Throwback Thursday's: Hong Kong // Part 3 (Day in Macau 1/2)
Throwback Thursday's: Hong Kong // Part 4 (Day in Macau 2/2)
Tuesday 30th January - Hong Kong
We woke up and we couldn’t believe it was already our last day in Hong Kong! Don’t you hate it when time flies when you’re having fun? Our long weekend boiled down to this last day and what we wanted to do. We had two options, either head into Central and see all the sites we did not see on Saturday (including Victoria Peak) or roam around Lantau Island, which would consist of seeing an old fishing village and checking out Tian Tan Buddha. We opted for the latter as the weather had been the same it had always been throughout our time in Hong Kong – grey and cold. Therefore, if we went into Central and took the tram to Victoria Peak, we wouldn’t have been able to see a good view of Hong Kong from the top. Waste of time and money getting there. There will be another time.
Tai O Fishing Village
Netty (our host) had her Filipino maid take care of her youngest daughter whilst her eldest got picked up by the school bus. She had the time to take us to see Tai O Fishing Village. The sleepy and almost abandoned looking village looked like it was living off its final legs. The houses looked unloved and there was a feeling in the air that everyone was just getting by. Most of the fishing boats were in and only a handful of shops in the markets in the village were opened. The markets had anything from live fish to preserved ones as well as a few exotic things. As we wandered through the village, we came across an old gallery with paintings of when the fishing village was ‘alive’ and ‘active’. These paintings could have depicted life in the village years’ ago or maybe we just came on an off-day and the village is heaving with people on any other day part from the day we came. Becca and Netty decided to get a few postcards from the elderly lady who ran the gallery’s shop as she kept on talking in Cantonese and was quite a persistent salesperson (even if she was talking in a language we couldn’t understand). Further along the trail through the village we came to an end, where there was a typical Chinese temple. Nothing special at all, but probably where the fishermen came to make an offering for a successful fishing day, week, month or year. As we came out of the temple, we saw a local searching along the beach at the daily rubbish that washed up that morning for anything valuable. Nothing, but rubbish for all we can see.
Tian Tan Buddha
Not too far away from Tai O fishing village, and a few miles drive up into the center of Lautau Island, is where Tian Tan Buddha can be found, which is a large Buddha statue (34 metres tall). The statue was completed in 1993, so not that old. It was still such a misty day that we couldn’t get a clear view of the statue. However, as we got closer we saw how big this statue was. It was immense. Living in Thailand, we have seen a lot of Buddha statues in temples, but we are always impressed at any big projects such as this. Tian Tan Buddha is the main highlight of this area, but we roamed around the Po Lin Monastery checking out the various buildings on the ground. Ngong Ping is a small village nearby, which is dominated by souvenir shops, restaurants and the cable car station linking Ngong Ping with Tung Chung (near the airport).
Finally, Cantonese Food
As the misty rain and cold winds weren’t going away, Netty proposed that we have a Dim Sum lunch in Ngong Ping village, which was right next to Tian Tan Buddha. Finally, we were getting some Cantonese food. We let Netty pick a few dishes to share and this is what we got:
Travelling Through Mist
After the delicious meal of Dim Sum, we were suggested by Netty to take the cable cars from Ngong Ping down to Tung Chung (airport area), where she would pick us up. Seeing that the weather was super foggy and misty, so we knew we wouldn’t see anything, but we went for the experience and we quite enjoyed it.
The cable cars did not have any heating and the cold winds were seeping into the cars, which made any part of your body that was exposed all frozen. The views became clearer after we passed most of the interesting bits and we were coming towards the end. The one-way journey down took twenty-five minutes. We were luckily that the queues from Ngong Ping were relatively short as in Tung Chung the queues were long to get up to Tian Tan Buddha.
Netty picked us up from a nearby shopping center as well as some sushi to take home for dinner. Which was accompanied with a Tsingstao (local beer)! After we had a simple meal of sushi, we were off to the airport.
Overall, we had a fantastic time in Hong Kong and Macau! We got to see some of the sights as well as spending time catching up with old friends. Like any bustling city, there is a lot going on in Hong Kong and maybe this is why our holidays felt like it went quite quickly – the fast-pace life caught up to us. Macau had a more cultural feel with its old colonial buildings and influences from the Portuguese. We are craving some of that Portuguese food now! We can see ourselves stopping by Hong Kong again and hopefully next time we’ll visit Victoria Peak.
Thank you for reading our Hong Kong/Macau series! We hoped you’ve enjoyed it!
What’s coming up next week? Find out!
Stay Classy Steemians!
Throwback Thursday’s is a post written by the @travelling-two every Thursday to inform their followers and readers about their previous travel experiences.
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Hong Kong is such a great city. We never been there during teh winter months though... cold and mist. Brrr.
Hong Kong reminded us of a mixture of London and what we would think New York would be like. It's an interesting city for sure, but the weather did get to us as we weren't prepared. We'll remember to go in the warmer months next time. :)
During summer it is quite nice. So many beautiful parks and things to see. I hope you find the time to go back there. I am usually not a city person but love HK.
We think anywhere in the summer (with sunshine) is quite nice. We emphasise on the sunshine as we were going to say anywhere in the summer and then realised our summers in England...it's getting better with global warming 😜
In time, we are sure we'll pass by HK. Becca is also not a city person, but enjoyed her time there and we're looking forward to our next trip to Singapore in 3 weeks.
Enjoy! For some reason we were always lucky with the weather in the UK and we have been there a lot when we lived in Belgium ;) Even sunshine in Wales ;) Have a lovely day!
We're just pulling your leg :p hahaha as loads of Thais think that it rains 24/7 in the U.K., so we play along with it. The U.K. can get really nice summers almost as good as the Mediterranean. Though, there was one summer a few years ago, where summer came in June only and July/August was a whitewash. Sunshine in Wales...you must have seen a lot of tanned sheep. :) Have a good evening in Kampot! :)
Lol... not only Thai. Everybody thinks so!I come from Belgium so we have more or less the same crapy summer there! Another strange thing about Wales. Didn't see one sheep... slept a bit in the car though! So might have missed it... but once we drove back into England there they were...sheep!!!! Strange world! Have a lovely day!
Such is life that you miss out on the sheep in Wales, but see it in England. We think the one place where you won't miss out on one sheep is New Zealand. Haven't been, but with a sheep population higher than the human population we're sure at least ONE sheep should be seen!
Have a lovely day too!
hong kong looks beautiful already. you guys rock
Thanks @tennysonck! Hong Kong was beautiful despite the weather and you rock too! :)
really good..pleased to upvote and follow.
Thank you @yankee-statman. We're glad you liked it and thanks for the upvote and follow. Will have a look at your profile now :)
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Man it looks cold!! We went there over 10 years ago. The gondola was broken so we took this super scary bus ride up. So we decided to walk down. It was sparking our hunger for traveling. On the way down we bathed in a little pools .. had lunch with monks. And nobody was around. This was the beginning spark of For 91 Days!
It was VERY cold @for91days! We had to borrow those jackets you can see in the photos, otherwise we would be icicles. We guess HK can change a lot in 10 years (especially being an Asian city where development is happening so often), but often many things don't. Ah, was the bus driver driving at insane speeds around bends up the whiny roads? We saw this quite often driving with Netty. Scary stuff!
What a surreal moment having lunch with monks and thank you for letting us know this was the place 'For 91 Days' was born! Maybe the monks guided you in some way (if you're spiritual)...who knows?!
Not so spiritual .... BUT we see hint when we see one!
Foods look very delicious "dimsum"👍 you both managed to bear the shivering cold and u enjoing chilled bear?...
It was the perfect amount for lunch. Enough to fill your stomach, but not too much to bloat it. And it was delicious!
Sam always has to have a local beer, it's his holiday thing now. Some buy fridge magnets, some take a photo in a certain pose (handstand or 'dab') and some like to drink a local beer.
👍 ...swag
You certainly did get around!
When you only have 2-3 days in one spot, you have to great around. We knew we weren't going to be back for sometime, so we had to make sure we saw as much as we could - 2 countries in 4 days. :) it was hectic, but fun!