Last day - Lantau and Lamma Islands

An entire shark skin for sale at Tai O on Lantau Island
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This is my last full day in Hong Kong and Gwyn and Connie have a busy day planned for us!  We planned to have dim sum before catching the ferry to Lantau Island - unfortunately dim sum doesn't start until 11am on a Saturday so we had a quick snack at the ferry terminal instead.

Lantau is Hong Kong's largest island (twice the size of Hong Kong Island), although is it much less populated.  The ferry arrived at Mui Wo and we headed to Tai O - known as Hong Kong's Venice because all of the stilt houses that stand along the waterfront.  A fire in 2000 destroyed many of the houses, and we were surprised to see some of the mansion-like dwellings that had sprung up amongst the shacks since then!  We wandered theough the village and saw stalls selling all manner of seafood - both dried and fresh.  There was even a whole sharkskin for sale!  The area is famed for it's shrimp paste, which we also saw in abundance.

'Hong Kong Venice' - stilt houses in Tai O
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Our next stop was the Po Lin monastry, and the huge Tian Tan Buddha statue.  The monastry was quite remarkable in itself but the buddha statute is enormous!  Then we caught the cable car down to Tung Chung - a 5.7km cable car ride which was a bit much for a wimp like me in the wind and rain.  When I managed to prise myself off my seat and look over the side, the views were incredible - my photos really don't do it justice.

We caught the MTR back to Hong Kong Island, then boarded another ferry for Lamma island.  We didn't have time to do Connie and Gwyn's usual walk along the island but settled for dinner at one of the many seafood restaurants at Sok Kwu Wan.  I tried Gwyn's favourite, mantis prawns...absolutely delicious!  Sort of like crayfish but with the texture of crab.

Some really lovely houses have sprung up since the fire in 2000!
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All in all it has been a manic week but I have absolutely loved Hong Kong and I will definitely be returning!   It is such a vibrant city and while the swarms of people felt claustrophobic sometimes, it was an amazing experience.