So, after calming myself down with some awesome baked seafood rice, and seeing that it was an absolutely beautiful day, I decided to get yet another tourist trap out of the way - the 360 tram to Ngong Ping on Lantau Island. From what I heard, people are generally afraid of this tram because it fell down once during testing, and stopped in mid-air for a couple of hours once. So I figured it shouldn't be that crowded.
However, I shuddered once i got off the MRT at Tung Chung station. The line was HUGE. It winded around and around and around up some stairs and past the ticket booth. Finally, i got on. The view was okay, there wasn't anything particularly spectacular, actually...
Once i got to the top, i was greeted by a gift store and a whole fake village selling tourist amenities. There was a bizarre "Walking with Buddha" interactive exhibit complete with a neon boddhi tree. And of course, you have to pay to learn about Enlightenment. There was also a equally bizarre"monkey king" performance for a younger audience. All that just to sell a giant buddha! Guess he'll be needing the cash.
I rushed out of the fake village into Po Lin Monastery. This place was quite unimpressive, but i've probably seen too many temples to give it a fair judgement. At some point they stop looking special to me. Same as cathedrals, they are all built so similarly that they dont really wow me anymore. And I saw monks chatting away on quite new-model cell phones. Yes, the price to Enlightenment is high.
However, i discovered ... the god of rock!!!
Despite the giant crowd slowly trudging its way up the stairs, the big buddha was worth seeing. Amidst all the chaos and extravaganza, he remains peacefully seated upright and looking straight forward. Whereever one may hide on this mountain — into the woods, on the cable car, in the fake village, his towering presence looms, keeping a sense of dignity and reminding people what this place originally meant.
I trotted into the woods, and came upon another monument of religious kitsch - the Wisdom Path. Numerous havled tree-trunks were erected on a loop around a hill, with the "heart sutra" carved into each one. The heart sutra preaches emptiness. And this is as empty as a tourist attraction could ever be. However, I genuinely enjoyed it, again proving that not all touristy sites are evil. I had a nice stroll along the path, with the silhouettes of the tree trunks moving amongs each other - it was quite refreshing and a great view of the dam at the top.
It was getting dark, and I did not feel like lining up for the cable car again. So, i took a bus to Mui Wo - where I could transfer to the ferry back to Central. Once I arrived at this charming, sleepy fishing town, I had 40 minutes to spend. I took a stroll along the shore - and encountered what was to be one of the most magical moments of my trip - Sky Lanterns.
Though not nearly as large in scale as the massive Sky Lantern festival in Taiwan, it was a treat to watch. People would write their wishes on a massive lantern, and they would light it and send it up to the sky, and about 5 minutes later, (presumably after the wishes are heard) crashes back to the ground in a fiery fury. I decided to stay and skip to the next ferry. They started by lighting off the lanterns one-by-one, and gradually increased to three at a time. When I finally found the perfect spot to balance my camera to snap as shot of the three lanterns - my camera went out of battery.
So I sat down and enjoyed the rest of the show, packed up and went home.
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