Monday, October 16, 2006
I have been so lazy these days... I suddenly realised that I haven't been blogging for more than two weeks.21 September 2006, ThursdayIt was Day 2 of the trip. After a tiring Day 1, we recharged ourselves and ready to go for another long tiring day ahead of us. We planned to wake up early, but I eventually got up at 9++a.m. not because the room was super nice to sleep, but because of the hectic Day 1. The first thing I had to do before going out was to change my room!! We were given a very small room on the first day, because the fellow backpackers, who were staying in the room that was supposed to be ours, didn't check out on time. The room was so small that I knocked into something whenever I turned around.
Taken by me from the bathroom, in order to fit in the two beds into this pic
OK, enough said about the room. Our first destination was the Big Buddha in Lantau Island. By the time we got out of the hostel, it was already about 11a.m. So instead of a nice dimsum breakfast, we headed to the MTR station right away. From Causeway Bay, we gotta take a train to Central before moving on to our destination, Tung Chung.
MTR System Map
Since we bought the Tourist Octupus Card, we were entitled to enjoy three days of unlimited rides on MTR and also a one-way ride on the Airport Express. From the MTR System Map (as shown above), we can see that there are two ways to get to Lantau Island. So I
pandai-pandai suggested that we take the Airport Express to Tsing Yi and change to normal MTR to Tung Chung. Little did I know that the Airport Express stops Kowloon and Tsing Yi to pick up, but not drop passengers. That means we can board in Kowloon and Tsing Yi, but not alight from there. We got out at the Tsing Yi station anyway, but got a warning from the station warden. I'm sure not everyone of you can get this kind of experience. Wahaha~!
Some of the seats were wet
Looks similar to KLIA Express
We had some very nice rice balls in Tsing Yi
After arriving in Tung Chung, we headed to the newly opened Ngong Ping Skyrail station (Grand Opening: 18/9/2006). Ngong Ping Skyrail is a 5.7km long cable car system linking between Tung Chung (where it connects the MTR Tung Chung station) and Ngong Ping (where the Po Lin Monastery and Tian Tan Buddha are located). It is probably the longest cable car system in the world (to be verified) and the entire cable car journey to Ngong Ping Village takes about 20 - 25 minutes, much faster than a bus.
In the cable car
Silhouetted Buddha
Ngong Ping Village
We were like traffic lights as we stood together...
...to be continued
