21 March 2010
Cable Car and Buddha statue
This morning I decided that despite the smog ruining the view, I would go on the cable car to the monastery where you can view the buddha statue after climbing lots of stairs. The stairs help achieve enlightenment, and after all the build up theres less than 300 stairs and it takes like 2 minutes to get to the top. I was dissapointed in this, but it was shocking to see lots of skinny chinese people who could not handle it, they must be so terribly unfit.
The ride to get there is on a big cable car thats really impressive, it goes very high and the view is awesome despite the smog. It was amazing to see the number of concrete/stone walking tracks criss crossing lantau island through the forest, there are no roads or houses anywhere to be seen, just jagged mountains with steps and boardwalks over cliffs. I really want to walk on these but am not sure how to get to them or if I have time.
The actual buddha was only constructed in the 90s, and is impressively large. There were normal people genuinely praying when they got to the top of the stairs, I was prepared to see cool stuff inside, but disappointingly theres only tourist shops and ice cream vendors.
I should have left this photo out since its boring.
My cable car.
Me.
Swinging from a wire.
1 wire moves, and 1 stays still, I never realised how they work until now, maybe they dont all work that way.
It takes about 30 minutes to get there.
The village the cable car arrives at, all tourist shops and a starbucks, however the shop selling every kind of ornate chopstick sets was interesting.
The disappointingly short epic staircase.
They chose to remember buddha as skinny, kind of like how we remember elvis.
The view back down the stairs, it was concerning to see so many people grabbing their chests and choking.
High 5.
On the way back I got a cable car to myself, so I laid down and had a snooze.
Descending into the ocean.
The best shot I could get of the airport, it was disappointing there was so much smog as I could see a hundred planes in there somewhere.
My lunch, chicken biriyani, when in Hong Kong, lets eat Indian food.
The tragedy that is a Porsche Panamera.