New Year’s Day on Lantau

We decided to give our stomachs (inner ears) a rest from the ferry today, and spend the whole day exploring Lantau. We started with a good, very cheap dim sum breakfast at the blandly-named Mui Wo Cooked Food Market right next to the ferry pier. (It cost $56 HK, or about $7 USD, which is perhaps a third or a quarter of what it would have cost in Oakland.) Then Pollo went for a ride, and I sat in the sun on the pier and caught up on some internet stuff, posting photos to picasaweb and using Skype to call home and wish the family a (early) happy new year.

I noticed, while hanging out at the pier, that there are a lot of Filipinos, and maybe other southeast Asians, here on Lantau. There’s even a store selling “Philippine goods” on the street across from the bus terminal.

Around noon, we caught a bus from Mui Wo pier to the other (western) end of Lantau Island, where the fishing village of Tai O is found. The bus took the only road out of Mui Wo, and the scenery (steep hills and lush vegetation) was gorgeous. However, I was too sleepy to appreciate more than a few glimpses before I dropped off and was out until we arrived. Once there, we walked from the pier along the narrow little market alley, where Pollo bought some candied kumquats and some kind of syrup he’d thought was honey. He was hungry so we stopped at the first restaurant we saw. I had realized that we were running short on cash (and wasn’t sure whether I could get more in Lantau or whether I’d have to go to Hong Kong Central), so we ordered the cheapest thing on the menu, called “Garoupa Cutlets” in the English translation. What eventually arrived at the table was some fried dough. I seriously doubt there was even a sliver of fish inside; and this crud cost over $7USD! Then, when we went downstairs to pay, they tried to charge us extra for tea (which we hadn’t asked for, but had arrived at the table and summarily was drunk by us thinking it was complimentary, as it had been at every other eating establishment we’d frequented). I told the guy we had not ordered tea, and I thought it wasn’t right to charge us for it. He eventually revised the bill, but we left feeling rather disgruntled and like we’d been cheated, for the first time this trip. (Oh, and there was a service charge of 10%, which is very unusual here; I wouldn’t have begrudged it if the service had been even halfway decent or friendly.)

We left Tai O on the next bus for Ngong Ping. This plateau, just below Lantau Peak in the middle of the island, is the site of the Po Lin monastery, a Buddhist retreat. It’s best known, since 1993, for a giant bronze statue of Buddha. Possibly partly because it’s vacation time here in Hong Kong, the statue and monastery grounds were absolutely flocked with tourists. There were all kinds of people: old ones walking with patient and resolute steps up the hundreds of steps to the statue; young ones snapping photos and laughing with friends. There were certainly some devout visitors, bowing low on their knees to the statue; however, most people seemed, like us, to be standard-variety tourists.

I liked the temple building, with intricate carvings of dragons and fish, the stones worn smooth in spots from the passage of many hands. I was also fascinated by the incense sticks being lit constantly from huge braziers: handfuls of the little yellow joss sticks, and enormous sticks the size of my forearm, covered with decorations in red velvet-looking fabric.

Pollo and I walked along the “Wisdom Path” to a figure-eight of huge slabs of wood; carved with the Heart Sutra (one of the best known of the Buddhist sutras, according to the informational plaque at the site), this sculpture is, like the Bug Buddha, a relatively recent addition to Po Lin.

We waited a long time for the bus back to Mui Wo, which seeemed very expensive ($25HK, or over $3USD each) since we were running low on cash. Once we got back to Mui Wo, I went to see if I could get cash from the HSBC ATM. It was the simplest thing in the world, and I felt jubilant to a) have had the foresight, way back when I moved to NYC, to pick an international bank, and b) now have enough money to eat dinner!

After our meal, we walked slowly back in the dark across the bridge, behind the beach, and along the funky little canal path to our mini room. Tonight it seemed more homey to me, and I was glad to get there and curl up for the night. But wow – the bed is so hard! I don’t even know if what we’re sleeping on can properly be called a mattress; I tried to see what was inside it by pulling at something that was poking out, but I couldn’t pull enough of it to see what it was. It really looked like plastic-wrapped wire, and it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s what it was. It’s so hard you could bounce a basketball on it. Sleeping on one’s side for more than a few minutes is impossible, as shoulders and hips dig relentlessly, with nowhere to sink into. However, I’ve been tired enough that it hasn’t stopped me from going to sleep…