Today’s
Highlight :
·
Ngong Ping
Cable Car
·
Ngong Ping
Village
·
Giant
Buddha
·
Citygate
Outlets
We’re
going to focus our today’s trip at Lantau Island. When I looked at the map, the
Giant Buddha and Disneyland resort were just one station difference, but we’re
going to save Disneyland for the last. Our room neighbor chatted with us in the
morning, telling about his trip to Ngong Ping and Giant Buddha the day before.
Well, he said that the Giant Buddha was magnificent and cool, the cable car
ride was unforgettable too, but the BIG problem was: the queue. It felt like
hell and he couldn’t expect the second visit without thinking about the
horrible and extremely-long line. It gave us doubt for a while but my dad kept
insisting to go. We thought that the queue wouldn’t be that bad if it’s all
worth the wait. Besides, we were trying to experience as many places as we can
while being here, so there we went.
We took
the MTR from Causeway bay station (blue line) to Central station (inter-change).
We hoped on our next train which headed to Tung Chung station (orange line).
According to my travel research, there is a big, most well-known mall in Lantau
Island near Tung Chung MTR station and Ngong Ping cabe car station called
Citygate Outlets. It’s basically a factory outlet contains many stores with
cheap price and big discount. Most department stores in Causeway bay contain
high-quality branded goodies which were absolutely unaffordable enough for me,
so I was so intrigued to see what’s in this so-called-cheap mall, Citygate. Anyway,
we saved it for later.
Queue in
Hell
We hurried
to the Ngong Ping cable car station and saw a quite extreme line in front of
the gate. It was scary and plus, the sunlight was being such a killer that
afternoon. After an hour of waiting, we finally went upstairs and we didn’t
find any cable car there yet, but another waiting line instead. We waited for
15 minutes to the locket and process our tickets. Still, no sight of a cable
car, but another waiting line instead. My legs were shaky as I couldn’t stand
any longer. This was actually the worst waiting line I’ve ever been in my
entire life so far. My mom and I sat for a while at the available bench outside
the line while my dad and my bro stood in the line full time. I could feel my
hamstring falling all over the place. After 30 minutes of the final queue, we
FINALLY rode our cable car. We didn’t afford the crystal cabin type to save the
money, but if you want to try a more thrilling cable car experience, that’s
definitely a must-try!
It was a
little bit scary at first, but the views are magical! The forest, the hill, the
bright blue sky as clear as the sea. I forgot my exhaustion for a while and began to take as many
pictures as I could. I
couldn’t just stand still and let these cool opportunities passed by. I’ve been using my 95 minutes
of waiting time and 25% of my daily stamina for this experience, so I might as
well use it wisely. Twenty minutes later, we were so close to the final station.
The Giant Buddha statue could be seen clear enough already. Well, as from here,
it’s not that “Giant”, because we still had several more miles to walk and 269
stair steps to climb to reach him.
 |
| Ngong Ping Cable Car |
First we
arrived at Ngong Ping Village. You can see many gift shops and cafetaria with
ancient-China type-of exterior. There was a short martial arts show on a small
red stage in the middle of the village. All the performers were teenagers
around 10-20 I guess. They were really good and didn’t mind to expose
themselves in the middle of this UV-invasion afternoon. Yes, the sun was really
rude that day. We got to explore the village for another 30 minutes before we
reached the stair that led us to Giant Buddha mighty statue. Oh no, I didn’t
think my mom and dad were happy enough when I asked if we could come to the top
of the stairs. Those waiting line had killed us in so many levels. Thus, we just climbed several
stair steps to take our memorable photo shoots and admired the statue from far
far away. Our trip in Ngong Ping Village didn’t last long enough because we’re
afraid that if we stayed longer, means we would have to wait for longer and
more exhausting line to ride the cable car back home. And, yes it happened. I
couldn’t even feel my legs when I saw another waiting line outside the station.
A long queue outside and another longer, circular queue inside had just doubled
my worst queue experience ever! That was literally the most intense
self-endurance drill I’ve ever been, and mentally too, because if I wasn’t patient enough, I
must had lost my mind in the middle of the crowd.
 |
| Giant Buddha |
The
painful line has officially end. We rode our cable car in silent, trying to
gather up our strength that is left because we still had one mission to go : Citygate
Outlets. Usually I never had a problem walking around in a big department store
for a long time, but now with my 30% strength left, I
wasn't sure. But the mission has to be done. We
had our late lunch / pre-dinner and separated each other. My mom and I went
searching for some nice women apparel and shoes we could possibly afford. Yes, the prices were okay, but for me, most of the
clothes there were not as good as those in Causeway bay. Most of them were last
season’s clothes and if you think of it again, the price wasn’t that cheap
after all. Sure, my mom bought some stuffs, so did my dad and bro. Me? I just bought a hot Salonpas for my back and thigh. So
if you decided to shop for some new clothes or shoes, Citygate Outlets is one
alternative outlet you can pay a visit, but simply not the only best one in
town.
(to be continued)
