Walking on misty Ngong Ping -- including close to the path of
the Ngong Ping 360 cable car
A little while (and bus ride) later, there we weregazing out to sea at Cheung Sha Beach!
As Americans celebrate their country's independence day, I find myself looking back to one of the best days I've had in Hong Kong thus far -- one that took in both a hike in the clouds and a walk along a beach under beautiful blue skies.
On a day when the temperature rose above 35 degrees Celsius in parts of the Big Lychee, the Ngong Ping plateau that's home to The Big Buddha was experiencing temperature in the low 20s Celsius. So I figured that it'd be an okay area to hike -- only my regular hike companion and I got a bit more than we bargained for as we encountered quite a bit of mist on our hike this afternoon so that at times, it got rather eerie even while other times we happily decided that it all added to the sense of atmosphere and made things cool (in more ways than one).
Still, when coupled with some superb views and welcome glimpses of startingly blue skies, we were happy enough with that part of our day out. But then the icing on the cake came when we decided to proceed with our plan to cap things by heading down to Lower Cheung Sha Beach for a seaside stroll, followed by early dinner at The Stoep, a South African restaurant whose back opens right onto the beach.
Suffice to say that it really was beautiful out there -- so much that the photos in this entry can't really do either portions of my day today justice even while giving people a nice idea as to how amazing Hong Kong, and a single day in this part of the world, can be. :)
On a day when the temperature rose above 35 degrees Celsius in parts of the Big Lychee, the Ngong Ping plateau that's home to The Big Buddha was experiencing temperature in the low 20s Celsius. So I figured that it'd be an okay area to hike -- only my regular hike companion and I got a bit more than we bargained for as we encountered quite a bit of mist on our hike this afternoon so that at times, it got rather eerie even while other times we happily decided that it all added to the sense of atmosphere and made things cool (in more ways than one).
Still, when coupled with some superb views and welcome glimpses of startingly blue skies, we were happy enough with that part of our day out. But then the icing on the cake came when we decided to proceed with our plan to cap things by heading down to Lower Cheung Sha Beach for a seaside stroll, followed by early dinner at The Stoep, a South African restaurant whose back opens right onto the beach.
Suffice to say that it really was beautiful out there -- so much that the photos in this entry can't really do either portions of my day today justice even while giving people a nice idea as to how amazing Hong Kong, and a single day in this part of the world, can be. :)
9 comments:
There's something spectacular about being able to go from one extreme to another in the course of a day.
That restaurant sounds like it might be worth a special trip to Lantau. How's the food?
Your pictures and words took me from a misty mountain to a sunny seaside. Sounds like a great day!
It was an awesome day!
Funniest moment was at the viewing compass and it was essentially all gray.
hear hear. The Stoep is a great location, and their freshly baked brown bread is probably amongst the best in HK.
you seemed to have had an awesome day!!!:-)
Hi duriandave --
Yeah, what made the day seem so super awesome was that I got to experience both "extremes". Re The Stoep: the food is good but wish it could be better. OTOH, the location really is hard to beat!
Hi Maya --
Yes, indeedy, re it having been a great day.
Hi Live (aka Olivia aka the Fuzzyflyingbunny ;b) --
Re the viewing compass and the gray in front of it: yes, will definitely put up a photo of it. Only since I'm like 15 hikes behind at the moment in terms of my photo-essays... ;(
Hi "Anonymous" --
We had the farmhouse bread last night. I think it and the dip that we ordered to go with was the best part of our dinner. Oh, and the scalloped potatoes too. ;b
Hi hcpen --
It really was an awesome day. As I've said to more than one person, the Hong Kong Tourism Board should contact me to hawk the possibility of such a day to people! :D
hi ytsl,
I like the juxtaposition of the solid walkway with misty gondolas and the beach scene is great too.
Hi sbk --
Thanks -- and yes, I took a whole bunch of cool photos that day. Hope to share them some time... but first, have to put up photo-essays of many earlier hikes!
Nice view. Like the one with cable cars. Thanks for dropping by :)
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