Exploring Lantau island

Our good friends Raphaelle and Olivier recently moved to Hong Kong. In addition to that, Mathilde's cousin Emeric (whose wedding we attended just before starting our Asian adventure) also lives in HK. So, it was pretty obvious that a visit there was on the cards.... Since we have a one week break in our language school schedule, it was a good time slot to go for it.

Our flight to HK went smoothly enough. We took a bus from the airport to Raphaelle and Olivier's flat, which was located in Discovery Bay (aka. DB to locals), actually on the same island (Lantau) as the airport. A short hike uphill led us up to the wonderful flat (the view from their balcony really is impressive - and gives immediate proof for the fact that HK is much more than just highrise buildings).

We immediately headed off to explore the island. Lantau is actually a quite undeveloped island (although that is apparently about to change...), with plenty of hiking trails to explore. Discovery Bay is a bit of an expat enclave, very few locals to be seen (unless you count the mostly Philippine maids who live on the island). Anyway, we had quite a nice introductory walk around DB - I even made it up to a Trappist monastery! (which was closed, unfortunately)

We finished in DB for a couple of well-deserved drinks, followed by a rather non-Chinese dinner in an expat restaurant. It was kind of a nice change to actually have non-Asian food for a change (after two months of pretty much exclusively Japanese food).

The next day, it was time to head off for some serious exploration. Our first stop was at Tai O, a rather curious Chinese fisherman village located on Lantau. It's very Chinese and very authentic indeed, with wooden houses built on wooden poles, and some real fisherman actually seem to live there as well (judging from all the fish drying outside the houses, and the smell of fish that prevails). Definitely not what I expected to see in Hong Kong!

One of the touristy things to do in Tao O is to take a boat tour around the village and out in the sea as well, in the hopes of spotting some dolphins. Cynical as we were, we didn't expect to see any dolphins, so imagine our surprise when we saw not only one, but several dolphins. And our surprise was even greater when we realized they were pink!  We were also treated to the impressive sight of the ongoing construction of what will be the longest bridge in the world (a bridge that will connect Hong Kong to nearby Macau).

The boat tour done, we had a walk around Tao, very much enjoying it. It's a very buzzing place, with loads of busy shops lining up the roads (selling mostly dried fish, which didn't really tempt us, to be honest). It was very touristy in a certain way, but since nearly all of the tourists were Chinese, it didn't actually feel that touristy, somehow. The plan was to have some local Chinese food, but we found a lovely place located by the water, with great views over the village, that we decided to lunch there, even though they only served pizza (and the pizza wasn't all that good, to be honest).

Chinese fishing village ticket off the bucket list, we carried on to check out THE major tourist attraction on Lantau, the Big Buddha. The Buddha, sitting on a hilltop, watching over the surrounding lush countryside (including the majestic Po Lin monastery), measures an impressive 34 meters. It's not actually a historic attraction as such, as construction of the statue was completed in 1993! (it took 12 years to complete).

Before walking up the 286 steps up to the Big Buddha, we decided to visit the aforementioned Po Lin monastery. It was a pretty impressive place, even if a bit overran by tourists (like us). The monastery dates back to 1906 (it seems older than that). The big hall housing loads of Buddha statues behind the main temple was particularly impressive. We were also treated to the spectacle of some monks chanting in the main temple building... Before tackling the Big Buddha, we decided to have a few refreshments and sweets at the temple's veggie restaurant.

We then walked up to the Big Buddha. The views from up there were predictably stunning, especially since we were lucky enough to have sunny weather. After enjoying the views for a bit, we made our way towards the cable car station, checking out a rather uninteresting street full of tourist trinket shops.

So far, we've very much enjoyed Hong Kong, even if what we have seen so far (nature, a fisherman village, a Big Buddha statue) doesn't really correspond to our image of HK!