November 25
Bond goes biking up north of Kowloon. Reports back that it was delightful.
When the 3 of us meet up again in the afternoon, we take the Star Ferry across with the intent to go up to Victoria Peak by tram. We start our "urban hike" (as Bond called it) and follow the signs, but it seems we were destined to be made fools of by pieces of metal and poles. We ended up having to traverse backwards much of the altitude we had gained by going straight up! When we finally reached the tram stop, it was absolutely ridiculous to try to go up at that point in time. There were lines, monster out lines. It was impossible to sort out where the end of any of them were. Were these lines ticket buyer lines? Tickets purchased lines? Were they all going to Madame Toussaud's?
We gave up and decided to go to a vegetarian restaurant that was at 51 Garden street. Should have been just a little ways up this ridiculous hill. We were going up and up that hill for what seems like forever, and no restaurant. When we were traipsing to and fro looking for a continuation of the street as if it magically split off from the map, we were reduced to asking parking garage attendants, no luck, hotel concierge, minimally better. We were about to call it a night, and start back down the hill toward the tram. When we see 51 Garden street on the side of a building, we walked right by that! We had gone into a supermarket and exited further up the hill and never bothered to look to our left!
We find the restaurant, which is still no easy thing, and it is absolutely vacant, not a sole in it to dine. We are shown a table and start to wonder if this is going to be a good idea! They had a vegetarian hotpot, but only if you made a reservation...which we did not! The food was very good. Different and delicious.
Feeling sated, we head down the hill and decide to go up to Victoria Peak because there is no line. Up we go, and it is so fabulous, the tram right it great, the view is excellent. You can't beat it, except it was cold and windy, but not raining!
November 26
We 3 headed over to the Macau ferry terminal to try to catch a boat over. It was a kind of crappy day, over cast, a little chilly, just generally not good for sight-seeing. When we got to the terminal, we figured out that we had limited choices as to which boat we took over. We could get tickets on the 1:30 boat, but that would leave little time to explore the island, so we opted to push Macau to Sunday.
We then decided to go to Lantau Island to see the Big Buddha. We took the metro almost to the airport and then opted to get a cable car up to the monestery. It was really cool! Literally and figuratively. It was very overcast, you couldn't see very far in front or below your cabin. Cars coming toward us on the reverse journey just appeared out of the mist like a mythical creature. After disembarking from the cable car, we had to walk up to the monestery. That wasn't so bad, until you get to the stairs,which seemed to go upward for ever. Once on the top, again the weather took its toll. The cloud cover was so low that you could not see the entire Buddha! The wind was fierce and it was very misty as well.
The trip back down is shared in our little cabin with 3 other people, all of whom are cold and underdressed. One of the guys was wearing shorts!
As you can see, you can't really see the top of the Buddha, no matter how I adjust the distance! The wind was also just ripping around at this point, so we hustled down the stairs and back to the cable car.
This is just the 2 or 3 levels of stairs as you approach the Buddha. That's Bon'd in the pink jacket, and Bill in front of her in the black jacket with a red stripe on the sleeve.
Cable car views. This is the return trip and Bond looking a bit disappointed or cold...not sure which!
Bond goes biking up north of Kowloon. Reports back that it was delightful.
When the 3 of us meet up again in the afternoon, we take the Star Ferry across with the intent to go up to Victoria Peak by tram. We start our "urban hike" (as Bond called it) and follow the signs, but it seems we were destined to be made fools of by pieces of metal and poles. We ended up having to traverse backwards much of the altitude we had gained by going straight up! When we finally reached the tram stop, it was absolutely ridiculous to try to go up at that point in time. There were lines, monster out lines. It was impossible to sort out where the end of any of them were. Were these lines ticket buyer lines? Tickets purchased lines? Were they all going to Madame Toussaud's?
We gave up and decided to go to a vegetarian restaurant that was at 51 Garden street. Should have been just a little ways up this ridiculous hill. We were going up and up that hill for what seems like forever, and no restaurant. When we were traipsing to and fro looking for a continuation of the street as if it magically split off from the map, we were reduced to asking parking garage attendants, no luck, hotel concierge, minimally better. We were about to call it a night, and start back down the hill toward the tram. When we see 51 Garden street on the side of a building, we walked right by that! We had gone into a supermarket and exited further up the hill and never bothered to look to our left!
We find the restaurant, which is still no easy thing, and it is absolutely vacant, not a sole in it to dine. We are shown a table and start to wonder if this is going to be a good idea! They had a vegetarian hotpot, but only if you made a reservation...which we did not! The food was very good. Different and delicious.
Feeling sated, we head down the hill and decide to go up to Victoria Peak because there is no line. Up we go, and it is so fabulous, the tram right it great, the view is excellent. You can't beat it, except it was cold and windy, but not raining!
November 26
We 3 headed over to the Macau ferry terminal to try to catch a boat over. It was a kind of crappy day, over cast, a little chilly, just generally not good for sight-seeing. When we got to the terminal, we figured out that we had limited choices as to which boat we took over. We could get tickets on the 1:30 boat, but that would leave little time to explore the island, so we opted to push Macau to Sunday.
We then decided to go to Lantau Island to see the Big Buddha. We took the metro almost to the airport and then opted to get a cable car up to the monestery. It was really cool! Literally and figuratively. It was very overcast, you couldn't see very far in front or below your cabin. Cars coming toward us on the reverse journey just appeared out of the mist like a mythical creature. After disembarking from the cable car, we had to walk up to the monestery. That wasn't so bad, until you get to the stairs,which seemed to go upward for ever. Once on the top, again the weather took its toll. The cloud cover was so low that you could not see the entire Buddha! The wind was fierce and it was very misty as well.
The trip back down is shared in our little cabin with 3 other people, all of whom are cold and underdressed. One of the guys was wearing shorts!
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