First stop - Hong Kong

Well I'm off on another adventure. The destination is Thailand. More specifically, Northern Thailand. This time I am not traveling alone. Vanessa, a fellow student who I met in my MBA program, said she was going to Thailand to volunteer at an elephant sanctuary for a week so I asked to join her. Vanessa and I had previously traveled together as part of a group of students who went to South Africa in 2012, to work with several small businesses in Alexandra Township just outside Johannesburg. We are going to spend a week touring the area around Chiang Mai and then a week at the Elephant Nature Park http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/ Hopefully it will be another experience of a lifetime.

Start of the ride

We left Chicago Thursday Dec. 18 at midnight, well technically 00:15 on Friday, for a 16 hour flight to Hong Kong where we had a 9 hour layover before our connecting flight on to Chiang Mai. We arrived in Hong Kong about 06:00 on Saturday Dec 20. Don't ask me what happened to Friday. We took advantage of our long layover to leave the airport and visit the Ngong Ping 360 experience. http://www.np360.com.hk/en/ It's on the island of Lantau right next to the airport, about a 10 minute bus/taxi ride to the cable car which takes you to the top of the mountain and the "Big Buddha".

Over the water

Up the mountain

The cable car ride was awesome. It's a 25 minute ride over water and up the mountain side. Of course we had to take the "crystal car" which has a glass bottom. For those of you who are afraid of heights this might not be for you. One slightly anxious moment happened on the return ride when the car suddenly stopped and we hung motionless over the mountain. It probably lasted only a minute or two, but it felt much longer.

Don't look down

How strong is glass?

Heading back down

The Ngong Ping 360 experience is a crazy combination of religion, culture and Hollywood. You have religion, with the Big Buddha and a temple/monastery; culture, with a real life, working, Tai O fishing village; and Hollywood, with a Hong Kong, kung fu, action extravaganza. It's a crazy juxtaposition of entertainment that I think you would only see in China.

View from the gondola

The big Buddha is BIG. Over 100 feet tall and very impressive.

A bit of a climb

Welcome

The fishing village was fascinating because it is an actual fishing village.

Men and women going about their daily lives of catching, gutting, drying and selling fish.

Dun dun dun dun dun dun.....A dried shark

One interesting observation was that we didn't see any young people. It was a Saturday so you would expect so see some younger folks out and about, but we saw none. It made me wonder if it is a dying lifestyle.

It certainly looks like a hard way to earn living. 

Houses on stilts

Hauling in his catch

Then there was the Hollywood Kung Fu style live action show. We didn't have time to take in the show, but saw several of the actors taking photos with the tourists.

And the Oscar goes to......

They would get into various martial arts action poses for the photos. It was amusing, somewhat comical, to watch. And what would Hollywood theme be without an Oscar statue.




Put all this together and you have the Ngong Ping 360 experience.