Saturday 3 January

Another day tour booked and today we head off to Lantau Island. Great weather again too so we are very fortunate. We head to the Tung Chung Cable Car terminal where we have to queue to board the cable car. The Ngong Ping 360 cable car is the longest bi-cable ropeway in Asia. It is 5.7km. High rise apartment buildings galore.

It isn't a long wait as in a tour group we get priority. Fabulous views along the way!

Once we are all at the top of the terminal we head through to the bus park where we now have a20 plus minte wait for 2 Russian eomen, members of our group, who speak no English and have managed to get lost between getting off the cable car and walking to the bus park.

Our guide,Ben, keeps going to look for them with no success so eventually as we beat the 25 minute mark he phones his office to get permission to go on without them. You can guess how long I would have waited!!! Anyway, we now head to visit Tai O fishing village which is the oldest fishing village in Hong Kong.

No way Im trying any of the good on offer. Nope, nope nope. However we do take up the optional boat ride around the stilt houses.

Our little boat then heads out to see in the hope that we might see some of the local white dolphins. There are apparently about 20 in the pod but we don't get to see them today. It was still a lot of fun looking for them and bouncing around the waves in our small craft!

Time to head back to the coach to take us back to the big Buddha.

We have booked the tour that includes lunch so Ben takes us with 4 other women to the dining hall. Lunch is a very simple vegetarian affair and we thought we were being given a pot of tea which turned out to be just hot water.

Lunch is a quiet affair and reasonably quick. In hindsight we wouldd have done better buying our lunch at one of the numerous eateries nearby. We now have about 45 minutes to get to the Buddha and climb the 268 steps. Somehow we manage to do it without needing resuscitation! This Buddha is the second largest outdoor seated bronze Buddha statue.

Some lovely statues up the top and good views.

Time yo head down again which is much quicker but not good for the knees.

We then make our way back to the designated meeting spot. Where we now have a further 10 minute wait for an Indian fellow who never had the good have to apologise for keeping us all waiting. Still not sight of the Russians.

Now back in line for the cable car and our ride back down

Back on the coach and to our bemusement, the Russians are already sitting on board. WT? We set off thinking we are heading for our hotel but instead we are taken to the same jewellery store we went to yesterday. I tell Ben that I will stay in the bus as I don't want to go there again and put up with hard sell, but he is most insistent that I have to go in or he will be in trouble with his boss for not taking people into the store. I can't be bothered arguing with him, especially as 3 other people didn't get off the bus. Unsurprisingly no one bought anything so we were able to get back on the bus fairly quickly. Time to head back to our hotel and bid farewell to Ben.

Another great day had and now time for a cuppa and feet up for a while before we head to compulsory happy hour. We settle in for happy hour and are feeling a bit peckish so J orders fish and chips while I decide on a seafood pizza. My pizza was delicious but as there was no way I could eat it all, I discarded crusts (my hair is curly enough) and then just ate the toppings when I could eat no more pizza base. I was stuffed but well satisfied. J is a bad influence on me as we had 3 wines (the lovely male attendant let us share the second round so we could have a different wine each) and she argued convincingly for a fourth. I acknowledged that I wouldn't be driving or operating heavy machinery so bowed to her insistence and we had another wine even though we were well outside happy hour times. Our barman gave us happy hour rates and we were very happy and slightly inebriated customers. So it became time to head for our room and bed! Yet another lovely day in HK. We certainly have the tourist personal down pat...