Our Hong Kong Adventures: Ngong Ping

I've been talking about taking the girls to Ngong Ping for ages - months in fact. But we had summer - was far too hot too go. So Sunday, made the decision and went. The girls and I went on an adventure. It wasn't a great clear day so couldn't see too much but figured it was more about the experience. Plus about a 300m walk from the entrance to the cable car is Citygate Outlet stores - so wanted to pay that a visit.

Ok, Ngong Ping is on the top of a big hill. Best way to describe it. It's a little village surrounding a huge statue of Buddha - it's commonly known as the Big Buddha. It's a very cute little place and the best way to get there is by cable car. This cable car ride takes about 25 mins as it's 5.7km long and it goes up, up and up.

To get the cable you need to head to the airport - it really isn't that far from there. You have to catch the MTR and it's the last stop - which just happens to be the stop after Disneyland. The girls know the name of the station and when they heard it thought they were going there. I said to them that Mickey wasn't expecting us today - he's abit like Santa Claus he know's what's going on. Hannah accepted that - luckily for me!!

I knew going on a Sunday would be busy - and it was. I think we queued for about 15 mins to get our tickets and then for another 45mins (maybe more maybe less) to get on the cable car. This photo of Hannah was taken while we were waiting to get on the cable car. We were just in a standard cable car but you can get ones that have a glass bottom - that line was moving alot quicker. I do have to say though that when we came back the queue for the tickets was even longer - it was down to street level so the morning was the better time to go.

Waiting for our turn to get on the cable car. We were the next lot to get on.

There are 7 towers in total and this view is looking back at 2A. As you can tell it ain't the best day for a view. Where we got on the cable car at the end of the first bridge that you can see on the right. The girls were interested in the boats that they could see and weren't impressed with the rubbish in the sea either. No-one else spoke English in our cabin - it was full !!

At Ngong Ping - our final destination. The first view of the buddha.

I am the first to admit that it's very sad - as it goes to show how often they frequent it - when your 2 year old recognises the Starbucks brand and tells you what they would like from there BEFORE you go in. Having a lunch break.

Ngong Ping Village

All through the village are these pictures with the face cut out. The girls just loved them. Getting them to look at the camera at the same time was fun. Made even more fun, when they got an audience of others taking their photo.

This is as close as we got to the Buddha. There are some stairs that you need to walk up but since I was planning on wandering around shops felt that we could do that another time - and maybe Paul could join us...... and Hannah hasn't let me forget that we didn't walk up the stairs to it !!!

Heading back to the cable car to go down. It wasn't busy so we got our own cable car back. The trip certainly went alot quicker going down than going up. To pass the time I suggested to the girls that they wave to the others going up and I only saw 3 people wave back !!