I had one last trip to take before ending my time in South Korea and Hong Kong seemed like a good choice. That’s the greatness of Asia, everything is so close together, flights are always going to be fairly cheap.
My first adventure was riding a 3.5 mile long gondola over the mountains.
It was real high folks. It’s $255 HKD to ride the Ngong Ping 360, which is about $32 US dollars. The exchange rate made me feel like a Queen.
Ngong Ping Village is host to many tourist traps (yes, there’s a Starbucks), but its main attraction is the Po Lin Monastery.
I loved listening to the monks chanting and singing. So soothing.
It is home to more than 10,000 Buddhas, including Tian Tan Big Buddha, which rests atop Mount Muk Yue and standing 34 meters high (111.5 ft). I saw the golden room of Buddhas and it was breathtaking, but photos weren’t allowed. (cough-google-cough)
No, it wasn’t fun climbing 268 steps.
But the view overlooking the monastery was beautiful.
You can go inside the structure and learn more about Tian Tan and its history. It’s not that old, finishing construction in 1989.
The Big Buddha is surrounded by six smaller bronze statues known as The Offering of the Six Devas. They represent the six perfections: generosity, morality, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom.
I didn’t fully grasp just how big it was until I saw it from the gondola.
This turned out to be my favorite part of the trip. I prefer seeing the nature/architecture of a city, rather than the city life, but for the first time ever, I was just along for the ride and the itinerary had other plans. But, lucky for me, our next stop was Hong Kong Disneyland Park!
Fighting Fernweh 