over the hills and far away (28 Sept)

This morning, we HAD to wake up 2 hours early before mass. Cos the other groundsman, Yang Shu (Uncle Yang), had to leave at 7.30. Sooooooo we all dragged ourselves out and parked outside the school bench for quite awhile before deciding to follow Ruiming to Jevois St (something about dried ham) for awhile - cos he has to cover Sheung Wan for an article.

Walking down streets took us a little faster since, ALL shops were closed at 8ish on a SUNDAY. Finally, when 9am came by, Peter and I decided to walk through the different small lane paths parallel from our usual to get to church.

I passed my guidebook to Ruiming since I presumed he'd be walking around Sheung Wan and also cos that silly one left his in office. That gave a slight whiff of trouble.

If youve been to Sheung Wan/Lan Kwai Fong/Soho area, the steep small alleys around here and there, linked here and there, suddenly appearing from some corner, can SERIOUSLY do not look like the map as remembered. So in any case, we found ourselves a little off the usual route (but in the end was actually just diagonally away) and with time not in our control, we went to St Joseph's Church in the end.

It was packed. Full stop. It was pretty much spilling out. This church had 95% (maybe closer to 99%) Filipinos and already had 3-4 masses back to back. We had to QUEUE up to get into church; going in and up a staircase to the main hall, Peter said it was likened to a stampede. I only thought you had to queue up to get into heaven.

In it, we were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder, or worse, we kinda had to take turns leaning forward or behind so as not to squeeze through. And we couldnt lean back cos there were MANY people packed behind us (we were at the last row). I felt mass was a little rushed for my liking, though everyone was singing in chorus that it was just so cohesive and strong - with the voice of the Filipinos. But somehow, both of us felt that we preferred the Cathedral. He liked the space and I preferred the pace there.

We walked allllllllllllllllllllllll the way back to meet Ruiming who wanted to eat at this place called Big Mushroom, which didnt have any mushroom in any of our dishes.

Peter trying to view the last night's soccer highlights and results.
They all came out in traditional mandarin characters and he was so annoyed.

Making an informal impromptu decision to take the tram to Wan Chai just to randomly explore a new place, Peter makes another sudden decision to find where Jeremy and Uncle Yee Shang were and that made a quick turnaround on the tram back to where we were: Central, to meet them.

We were a little wary to meet him cos he'd end up paying for all our stuff again and bringing us to dinner at some restaurant, paying for dinner. It was terrible. But he still wanted us to come cos he wanted to bring us together with Jeremy to another place.

Taking the Tung Chung yellow MTR line from HK station, we took to Tung Chung at Lantau Island, to sit the cable car to Ngong Ping.

Reaching there about slightly past lunchtime, there was already a queue to get onto the cable car.

The boys: Jeremy, Peter, Uncle Yee Shang and Ruiming

The cable goes on a 5.7km ride through 8 points, across the Tung Chung Bay and giving you a 360 degrees view from the clear cabins.

I have to say there are points that can be a littttttle worrying and get my tummy a little jumpy, especially since there was an accident that happened in 2007 that made them close the place for awhile.

Even lonely planet said, "the attraction was shut after a 2007 accident, but should have reopened by the time you read this".


And also since Jeremy was the excitable one thinking of trying to make the thing more thrilling: like shaking the cable or almost prying the door open - at mid-air!


But I'm safe and sound so it's ok :)


Yes the view was pretty spectacular. There's a whole range of things you see up there: Forests, trails, trees, fishermen, graves, waterfall, creek, high-rise apartments, the airport, etc.

The big bronze Buddha, from afar.

It was pretty awesome to get a chance to see all that, thanking the great estimation by Uncle to bring us now while the visibility was good. Autumn/Winter might not bring such views.

Wandering into the now-touristy Ngong Ping village, it leads us towards Po Lin, a apparently huge Buddhist monastery that was built in 1924.

But you see the main thing that brings most people over to this island is this huge, gimongous heavy bronze Buddha, Tian Tan Buddha, there. It is said to represent Lord Gautama, about 34m high including the podium and weighing 202 tonnes.

We climbed up the 260 steps to get a close up of this:

the many many steps - something common in HK i think

Well, good i was wearing a tshirt and JEANS on a super darn warm day, cos it is said that it is good to "observe some decorum in dress and behaviour".

Some bronze Buddhistic statuettes at the top, facing the Buddha - offering and praising apparently

I really kinda like this picture, but not sure how Ruiming does

After that, since the boys were visibly tired from the early wake as well as the bad bout of headache the day before from possibly, heatstroke, we made our way back to HK island.

View back was pretty great, especially with the setting sun. Credit goes to Ruiming for some of the pretty great shots too :)

Dinner was at some chinese restaurant at Tung Chung mall (not sure what the name of the place was, wasnt in the guidebook either), apparently normal and mid-priced according to Uncle, where we met his longtime friend and wife who lived just 10 mins away from the mall.

Dinner was quite a wide spread I must say:

Salted egg-marinated fried battered prawns

Chunky jellyfish appetiser

Ham in some honey sauce, suppose it with crispy beancurd in some mantau

Xiao long bao

Pekking duck skin

Red bean-egg white, with sugar power

Cooling-herbal jelly

Three of us have agreed that if every week we have to end up meeting people who just refuse to go dutch or take at least SOME of the money we are offering, it can make up for the meals for the week! While these people's generosity paints us as rather pathetic horrible people, I thank you at the same time for the hospitality :)

OH and i was a really good girl. At that mall, it was basically ALL outlet stores: Pedder, Burberry, Polo Ralph, CK Jeans, Puma, Nike, etc. Prices are cheaper, though a little off-season and I didnt buy a THING at Esprit there. I was resisting buying all the spags again or pants and also cos the sizes, some are like S or XL :(

So the boys have promised we'd go back there again (and again and again..).

Alright, I really should go to bed, it's monday tomorrow. Hope this week has big big news, like the last :) Goodnight all!