Lantau is the biggest island in Hong Kong so we couldn’t really come here and not see it. So we got the ferry from Central to Mui Wo to start our adventures in Lantau. We started the day by catching a bus to Ngong Ping which is the location of the Ngong Ping Cable Car (which is currently shut for 6 weeks maintenance) and the Tian Tan Buddha. The Buddha statue is set atop a mountain with a crazy amount of steps leading up to it. The complete tour required us to buy a meal or a snack ticket. As we didn’t think much of the menu, we bought snack tickets for HK$23 each (approx. £2). This allowed us to walk around the inside of the Buddha and see the museum.
Having done this, we headed back down to the Po Lin Monastery to claim our snack. This turned out to be a plate of fried noodles, a drink, and 2 small snack items, some of which were rather interesting looking. For HK$23 we were quite impressed. The next stop on our island tour was Tai O which is a traditional fishing village come tourist hot spot. We walked around the village for a bit and picked up some waffle thingys that were really nice. Our wander took us out of the tourist swamped areas and into the quiet part of the village where we actually saw what the village was really like. The people seemed to live in metal boxes painted silver to reflect the light and many also appeared to fish for their food. It was a very interesting experience.
After our unorthodox tour of Lantau Island was completed, we got the MTR back to Kowloon and went for a swim in the local pool. As we were about to get into the first of the outdoor pools, we were ushered to the other pools because pool 1 was closed for disinfecting following the discovery of a dead bird. It was ok though, as there were 3 other outdoor pools, and 2 indoor pools for us to enjoy. So we did for the next couple of hours :D. We finished the evening off with a quick tour of the Temple Street Night market, which, this time, was fully set up.