Saturday, July 31, 2010

Of Lantau Island and Tai O

It's the famous Lantau Island and Tai O. If you are a big fans of TVB drama, I bet that you are familiars with the name above. :)
To go there, you need to take MRT to 'Tung Chung' station, walk a little bit and you will see the long escalator which will guide you to the ticket counter. We bought the package which includes a one-way cable car ride to Ngong Ping, a return bus ride and unlimited bus ride to other tourist spot at the Island. If you only interested at the Big Buddha, then I will advise you to take the local bus up. Bus tickets are cheaper than cable car.

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This was taken at the ticket counter where we got our cable car ticket. There's two types of cable car, one is the normal one and the other one is the crystal cabin. It was known as crystal cabinbecause the floor of the cabin was transparent so you can see the scenery below you. Not a good idea for those who are afraid of heights. The tickets are pretty expensive too.

If you think of going to ask for tour guide for the itinerary below, I will strongly advise you not to do so. Don't waste your money on unnecessary expenses. lol. Because there's nothing at Ngong Ping Village. Well, it is not a village, it is a place where they build oriental style building to con tourist. I expect something like a flee market there or something local. But, what I saw was starbucks coffee, a few western restaurant, souvenir shop and a few shows. It was very disappointing actually.
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The crystal cabin
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Near the Big Buddha
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on the way up.
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and reached ! Here's the thing. There is a ticket counter near the entrance where you can buy lunch coupon for vegetarian food. It is a fix price and it is rather expensive. I dont remember the exact price but it is expensive for vegetarian food. There's also a museum thingy under the Big Buddha. You have to pay to enter the museum. It is a small museum which display the history of the place I guess. I didn't go in hence I can't provide any information about that.
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Statues around the Big Buddha. It look very Thai right ?
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This was taken in front of the Po Lin Monastery
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A medium size temple but they are building something behind it. Nothing much there but you can go there to have a look since it is very near to the Big Buddha statue.
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After that, we walked to the bus station near Ngong Ping Village to take the bus to Tai O. We waited for an hour and we discovered the fake wishing tree at the same time.
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Tai O remind us of Pangkor Island but Pangkor is much better. They offer rides to the middle of the sea to watch the pink dolphin. We didn't go for it as we had seen those pink dolphin before. We explored around. There's a main street where the local will sell local seafood product.(like the one in Lumut/Pangkor) The YWCA hostel is there. We wanted to book that hostel at first but luckily we didn't as it is very far from other places.

Salty fishes at one of the floating house.
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The fisherman.
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I would advise you not to visit Tai O especially if you have been places like Lumut, Kuala Selangor, Terengganu and etc. They are much better compared to Tai O. Our reaction was =.= after exploring the places there. In my opinion, I think the Big Buddha statue is the only worth seeing place. And if you dont want to take the bus/cable car, you can hike too. They have special path for people and it was well maintained. (I saw it from the cable car)

That's all for now! will update soon :)

4 comments:

Loo Yi Han said...

Nice pictures (:

taker said...

I walked all the way up to the Big Buddha when I visit HK last time. The Buddha is actually smaller than what I expect from the movies though. And inside if you noticed there is an altar dedicated to Anita Mui. Btw, nice blog ;)

Ken Wooi said...

the place is very nice.. =)

IuhniX said...

thanks for the comments. :)

I like my HK picture the most as they look really nice and no editing needed :)