Hong Kong Day 3 - Peaking Lantau & Victoria

Day three in Hong Kong was mainly about peaking...first peaking Lantau by foot, and later to Victoria Peak by Tram.

I had planned to do some running at Lantau, the initially idea was to start at the MTR base and run up to Ngong Ping to visit the Buddha and return, but things changed halfway through my run.

It took awhile finding the opening to the base of Ngong Ping, but after referring to online sites and asking around for help from the locals, I found myself slowly climbing up the mountain via the Ngong Ping Rescue Path.

Midway through, and you can already tell the view is magnificent.

You can also tell that there were a lot of stairs...plenty, it was like a staircase buffet.

From the picture above, you can tell that I ran through a few cable car towers, of which one had three dogs sleeping lazily at the top as the cable cars move by. They were pretty harmless, and from the looks of it, they've seen one human too many to care about seeing me there wielding a camera at their faces.

The run took quite a bit of work, and before long, I reached Ngong Ping Village, I think I had taken about 2 hours getting there, what with the stairs and me stopping to take photos, plus not to mention the trail thus far made MacRitchie seem harmless.

I was about to turn around and head down when I noticed Jacky from the NB Runners had suggested going all the way to Lantau Peak...the words used were "it's worth it".

So I took some time to ponder, and decided heck, lets do it. I need to add that I had very little hydration, and as usual my tripod was tucked in my hydration bag along with my camera at my side.

The section to Ngong Ping was hard, but I wasn't ready for the run/hike from the village to the peak...more stairs buffet, and this time really steep ones! I struggled quite a lot, and close to the end I was almost about to give up and turn around, but I couldn't forgive myself if I did, so up I went...100 steps each time before sitting to rest when the hearts started to pump too fast...then another 100 once I've calmed down. This went on for quite awhile.

I think I've never been so relieved before to have see the top of a mountain. I was so tired and trying to catch my breath. I looked around and damn, what a sight! Pictures can't really do justice.

Standing at the top, there's this sense of accomplishment, even if you weren't doing it for that feeling, it'll just hit you, and you'll feel really happy you did it.

Of course, the next thing that hits you would be getting down. I wasn't ready to go down the steps, it was bad enough going up, I never thought I'd dread it so much. But walk I did.

My run ended back at the Giant Buddha, I don't think I wanted to walk down to the MTR again, so a cable car it was.

By the time I was done, it had passed 8 hours (5 hours of running, 3 hours of traveling + lunch). I reached the hotel at 3pm, rested, washed up and headed out to walk around and what not, visiting the usual sneakers street, Mongkok area, Sim City etc.

At night, I decided to try my luck for a cityscape sunset once more but nope, no chance, skipped the idea and went to the Peak instead.

When I finally got to the top, it was crowded with tourists...it's a Sunday after all, and apparently since it was Easter Sunday, Monday was a holiday, so no one was leaving early!

I found a spot and set the camera up, it took a bit of patience, I wasn't the only photographer there. A couple were enjoying the view when the guy proposed to his girl, wow! I wished I had a photo but it was just too damn dark to snap any. She said yes of course.

It took awhile, but I managed to grab what I came for. The sky was pretty polluted, I had to do quite a bit of clearing up in PP, especially the background. But overall I'm happy I took this shot. Scratch off night landscaping in Hong Kong from my list.

Day three was awesome. Good fun, I was about to miss the last tram ride. Headed back to the hotel and called it a day.