The Big Buddha

After a long sleep, we went down for breakfast at around 08:30 and enjoyed the enormous buffet on offer.  Afterwards, we hopped on a tram towards North Point terminus.  We wondered why everyone got off at the stop before the end, then, when the tram turned the corner, in front of us was a mass of people shopping at the street market!
The tram driver rang his bell and shouted obscenities, whilst driving at about 1 mph through the crowd.  Great fun to watch, better then being outside!
We strolled along the main road, which was, in Hong Kong terms, deserted as we only bumped into people every now and then.
We hopped back on a tram and alighted at Patterson street, finding ourselves at the World Trade Centre building where we had a cup of tea.  Pressing a random button on the lift saw us enter a complete floor of gaming machines! We resisted the temptation to try them and rapidly left to make our way to the Excelsior hotel, where we had to rendezvous for our afternoon excursion.
After a tour of Hotels, we eventually headed off on the expressway towards Lantau Island, where we were put on the cable car to Ngong Ping.

The ride took 25 minutes and involved three separate sections of cable, the longest one scarily stretching unsupported right across the bay.
Eventually, after two changes of direction, we arrived at our destination and were able to see the big buddha towering above us.  We collected a new tour guide who had arranged a coach ride instead of our having to climb up all the steps! (Alison breathed a sigh of relief after her climb the day before).
Once at the top, we were able to go around the museum, as well as appreciate how big the buddha really was (34 metres tall and 23 tonnes of bronze).

We then made our way to another monastery, where a new temple of ten thousand buddhas is being constructed, on our way to the fishing village of Tai O.
The fisherman's houses are built on stilts and amongst the dried fish in the markets was a whole dried shark!
Then another coach trip to the other side of Lantau to catch the "de luxe" high speed ferry back to Hong Kong Central.
Alighting from the ferry, we made our way towards Lan Kwai Fong, where we found the Hard Rock cafe in  its normally seedy surroundings. Not far away was a very attractive Thai restaurant where we enjoyed a  tasty meal, before heading off again down the hill and catching the tram back towards the hotel.
The area around the hotel was packed as everyone was heading towards the Victoria Park fair, which was continuing on into the night.
And so to bed for our early start tomorrow.