Tai O and the Big Buddha

Today IASP had organised for us a tour to Lantau Island to visit Tai O village and to have a vegetarian lunch at the Po Lin Monastery. We had to meet at the Pi Chu Building at Central Campus (a 10 minute walk from my dorm) at 9am, which was not so easy for a Saturday morning. All the tours organised so far have used consistently nice coach buses (sometimes the air-conditioning can make the bus resemble Antarctica) but this time our tour guide talked REALLY loudly on her microphone the whole 1.5 hour trip to Tai O (our first stop) so only the very determined managed to catch up on some sleep.

Some things I learned from Hilary-the-tour-guide's LOUD talking.

1. Lantau Island is where the Hong Kong Airport is, and where the world's smallest Disneyland is (actually, I knew this already. Actually, we all knew this already. Tour guides just like to remind us.) 

2. Hong Kong comprises 236 islands - Lantau is the largest (which I found surprising because I thought Hong Kong Island was the largest... but I was wrong)

3. Statues of the Buddha have him with one hand facing palm outward (like waving 'hello') which means "do not fear", and the other resting on the knee with palm up meaning "peace to all the people of the world".

4. There is only one bridge going to Lantau Island, and even the Airport Express has its own area of the bridge. If there is a typhoon, the upper level of the bridge is closed (because cars can get damaged) and only the lower level is open. If the typhoon is category 10, then the whole bridge is closed and the only way to the airport is on the train!

Tai O is a tiny tiny fishing village on the west coast of Lantau Island. Here are some photos.

The residential area of Tai O, where people live in houses on stilts because they feel closer to the sea (says Hilary)

Korean Megan (민경) who is also my neighbour at Morningside, and Finnish Katrin.

We had about an hour and an half to look around, so we did, but didn't buy much. There was a lot of live seafood, and a lot of dried seafood, and a lot of pickled seafood... you get the idea.

Trying to be artistic, I took this photo because I liked the contrast of the 50s-style glass engraving on the window as contrasted against the iron sheets.

While walking through the market I heard some distinctly French piano-accordion music, and when we investigated we found a cafe - "Cafe Solo" 86 Kat Hing Front, Tai O - with some tables looking over the water.

I had the red bean and green tea cake, and Katrin had the cheesecake.

The view from the cafe. Because Chinese New Year is in less than two weeks time, there are red lanterns and red banners everywhere.

After Tai-O we got back on the bus to go to have our lunch at the Po Lin Buddhist Monastery. It was quite nice - typical banquet-style vegetarian Chinese food, but with circular tables of about 12 people and no lazy susan in the middle to move the food around, it was kind of awkward. 

At the monastery there is the Big Buddha.

And yes, I did walk all the way up there, but I don't have any good photos closer to the Buddha because the sun was behind the statue.

This is one of the six smaller statues facing the Big Buddha.

There is a 3-level exhibition hall inside the Big Buddha, and many old doors leading inside that are no-longer used.

Although there was a ton of people all visiting the Buddha, sometimes you get lucky and get a photo that makes it look like you are the only one there. (Thank you Megan!)

By 3pm we were all exhausted, and thankfully Hilary didn't talk on the bus on the way back to the University. Most of us slept.

So, although it was a little touristy, I did enjoy today's excursion. I also highly recommend that if you do want to go to Tai O and the Monastery, go with a tour because the area is really isolated and there isn't much public transport.