Lantau Island

by chris cunningham

Today was the best. I didn’t go in to Hong Kong today and stayed on Lantau which was just incredible. I have to concede I’m getting tired of cities. They’re all starting to look the same and worldwide they all have the same shops anyway. So I’m sure I’ll be back in a kayak skirting along some remote beach on the next trip. Maybe Ha Long Bay in Vietnam? Supposed to be some of the best kayaking in the world. Who’s with me?!?

Oh wait… my point was that Lantau was great! The island I’m staying on! Should have just explored this island for awhile. Got up and headed over to the bus depot and picked up the No.1 bus and up to Po Lin Monastery which was amazing and beautiful. On the hour ride over some stereotype American tourists were gabbing about how lousy their photos were going to come out because of all the fog. Just as I was thinking how great it was going to be for shooting! Couldn’t believe they actually said that when I was thinking about it. Hilarious. Anyway, the only downside was the big Buddha didn’t come out to play. Everything else about the monastery was spot on.

After lunch I took another bus down to the fishing village of Tai Po. It was the only place I actually felt a little intimidated about shooting photos. They don’t have a very high standard of living so I kept the photos as discreet as possible. Even opting not to shoot with the digital camera because it has such a loud shutter. I switched to the XPAN and grabbed a lot of good pics of the stilt houses. As I was walking through the village a fellow came up along side and started chatting. We walked around for about an hour and showed me all sorts of little things in the village and where he lived. He took me over to the school where they teach martial arts and then to the village temple. He also self described himself as a “hillbilly” which I thought was funny. How did he even know such a word. Pretty funny though.

At 5’11” I was by far the tallest person in the village. Felt like a giant. So Tai Po was great and Po Lin too. Probably going to be the highlight of the trip. Hopped the bus home and had an amazing meal at the hotel restaurant. Who knew?