July 25: Suspended

From Hong Kong Island take the green line on the subway, past Disneyland, to the Tung Chung terminal on North Lantau Island and there, for twenty bucks, you can enjoy a great ride for a half hour (or more) covering the distance of three and a half mile on the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car. The view is fabulous and, as we found out, the weather in Hong Kong (and the nature of the ride) can change very quickly. When we climbed into our “private” cable car the sky was cloudy. Within a few minutes we are in the clouds -- and soon in a thunderstorm. All the cabs are stopped and for fifteen minutes we are suspended in another world.

When we move again and arrived a bit late to Ngong Ping Village we are greeted by the huge statue of the Tian Tan Buddha, also in the clouds.





















Once the fog lifts we find ourselves in Ngong Ping Village, where the giant Buddha shares the real estate with a mythical monkey, various souvenir shops and some fast food places. After a stroll and a bowl of soup at Zen Noodle we climb back into a cable car to enjoy the panoramic view on the way down. Below us one hardy soul is making the trip up by foot.