So, we're up relatively early and we try to get our act together, taxis are sorted and we're on our way to the Outlying Islands Ferry Terminals. Once we get there I cant rememeber which ferry to go on, thankfully Jayne has retained more brain cells than me and says it's the Mui Wo terminal, so it's another 5 minute walk down to the right ferry terminal. It's not a long wait and Clive asks the lady in the ticket booth which bus we need to get on in Lantau to go see The Big Buddha - "Number two bus, number two bus!!!" she shrieked at him. "She's being polite to you.." I said to a bemused looking Clive.

We're on the fast ferry and it's snoresville, I hate to hark back to the old days but you could sit outside on the top deck and take in the scenery but for whatever reason, there's no open deck on these ferries anymore - well some have, so we're told, but not this one. So you just sit in rows unable to see out, which is a bit of a shame. The ferry arrives within 25 minutes and we disembark, it's a bit quieter in Mui Wo than days gone by, it used to be packed with people heading up the Po Lin Monastery and The Big Buddha - apparently there are other ways to get there now, more of that later. I've always enjoyed the bus ride to Mount Muk Yue though, as it does get a bit "Italian Job" on the higher parts of the trip. Our Bus Driver was a real pleasure to deal with, he might have been rude to us "Gweilos" but he was truly horrible to the Mainland Chinese Visitors, shouting at them and berating their children for not sitting down properly on the bus. Manners Maketh the Man but our Reg Varney really was a piece of work.

Anyway, Reg throws us off the Bus and we now see the Monastery, Buddha and the surrounding area, they've now got a very big paved area around the Monastery and there's a lot of people here, there's even a few water buffalo lounging around the place and being treated like cats by everyone. The big deal is to walk up the steps to pay our respects to Buddha, Jayne decides to sit this one out and so had I, but then I thought, I'd come so far it would be rude not to. I've been here many times over the years and it has changed a lot - to be expected though as it's now a major tourist attraction. Many Moons ago before The Big Buddha was built, we used to go up to visit the Monastery and believe it or not there used to be an old English Tea Shop on the monastery grounds run by some British Women, of course now long gone and in it's place is a quasi Chinese Village, but before we visited that we went to the Po Lin Monastery and it is still an impressive building - we dont get to see any of the monks unfortunately, it may be their work hours as they do run a dairy farm up in the mountains. After taking in the ambience, we then head to the Ngon Ping Village, some of the crew opt for some grub and once we're all ready we head back to the bus stop. It appears we've got a long wait. Now I did say there are other ways to get to this attraction, and the big one is this, they've now got a massive Cable Car system that connects Ngong Ping Village to the Airport. I took one look at it and decided you'd have to be insane to go on it. So here we are waiting for the bus and it's decided that we'll go on the cable car to the Airport instead. I must admit I did hesitate but soon ran behind the crew and said "Okay, let's go for it..." Now I've got a bit of a fear of Cable Cars and this comes from about 25 years ago when I foolishly got aboard the Ocean Park Cable Car system with a bunch of Hong Kong reprobates who shall remain nameless (Charles Peat, Steve Robertson, Ian Kirkpatrick ...amongst others) ...it was the first time I'd been on one and it looks like it's only 30 foot above the ground.....which it is until it reaches the peak of the mountain, you are then faced with a 600 foot drop....which saw me go grey, then white...as if that wasnt shocking enough, the cable car then stopped and we fluttered in the wind. I began sliding to the floor - then the reprobabtes thought they'd have a bit of fun by bouncing up and down and swinging the cable car back and forth. I was on the floor of the cable car clinging to it and blubbing like an infant. So a big thanks to the guys for that one. Funnily enough I havent been on one since until today. Thankfully these cable cars are a bit bigger but here's the killer, you can actually pay more to go on one that has a glass floor!!! Anyway we all fitted in after a bit of a wait and off we went. I knew it was going to be mental. The mountains are very high on Lantau. I knew the drops were awe inspiring by the "oohs" and "ahhs" coming from the crew, I was just looking upward and praying. Grant had almost had a freak out at the start...but had managed to calm down, thank God, imagine the two of us having the major league panics in there.......what seemed like 10 years eventually passed and just when you think you're safe and it comes to a docking station, it laughs at you and spits you out into another 700 yard cliff drop.....Jeezus. We did however come to a safe landing......where pictures of you getting on the other side are ready for purchase. Clive bought them, purely for the vision of my blood drained face.

From here we then jumped on the fantastic MTR back to Causeway Bay, this is a new part of the MTR and it's grown a fair bit over the years. It's cheap though and in no time we're out in Causeway Bay walking back to the Hotel. Things have picked up since yesterday when it was quiet and now everyone is getting ready for Chinese New Year and there's a buzz in the air and there's great displays of flowers, lanterns and Orange trees. It's impressive. For us it's back for a shower etc and then we're heading off to Temple Street in Yau Ma Tei in Kowloon. We're trying to get on the Star Ferry by 8pm so we can catch the light show that they have here. We end up being a bit late as Clive had checked in online and when asked if he and Gail were carrying any dangerous items to New Zealand, he'd said yes! which sort of threw a spanner in the works. Clive had tried to call the airline, we told him he could sort it tomorrow in the Airport Express and not to be too concerned. So we did catch some of the light show and we then attempted to get a taxi to a curry house in Yau Ma Tei - this was a right laugh as no one knew where we were going and the usual happy go lucky, joyous manner of the Kowloon Taxi Driver became evident - much cursing and waving of the arms towards the foreign devils....but eventually we got it sorted. So after a fantastic Nepalese Curry, we went to Temple Street but it was getting a bit late. There was the usual tat to ogle over and eventually the chaps got thirsty and decided to let Jayne and Gail indulge in some retail therapy on their own. We headed back to the Island and the girls joined us later at Bar 1911 - as it was getting late we then decided to head to Wanchai and stayed out til 5.00 am - as you do.