The most confronting experience on my trip to Hong Kong took me so far out of my comfort zone that I can still feel the terror. I have always been nervous around heights and since having children a fear of heights has become a real issue for me if ever I was exposed to such a situation. I have spoken to many mothers and know I am not alone in this experience.
On this my first solo trip my trusty Lonely Planet guide book had listed as one of the 'don't miss' things to do as the Tian Tan Buddha. I didn't know anyone who had ever visited this site and had no idea what to expect. I made it easily to the right train station and lined up for an hour to enter this attraction.
What I hadn't anticipated was the height of the mountain and the distance the cable car had to travel to reach the largest outdoor Buddha in the world. I hopped into the cable car already giddy with the height of the cable car station and when the doors closed I panicked. I was on my own, unable to get out and going up a mountain side for what turned out to be a 20 minute journey. I sat down grabbed a pole to steady myself, put my head down and shut my eyes. There were only 6 or so other people in the cable car and I quickly realised how bizarre my behaviour might appear. I opened my eyes put my head up saw how high we already were and knew I couldn't look out of the cable car and make it up the mountain.
I explained to my fellow passengers that I had a fear of heights, asked everyone to ignore me and resumed my brace position. I was met with a very puzzled response. I remember realising that I had assumed that everyone in the cable car with me spoke English. An embarrassingly arrogant western thing to do. I occasionally opened my eyes and as we reached the top of the mountain and over the forest the view became less about height and more about the extraordinary statue that Buddhists from all around the world come to worship at.
This Buddha according to my Lonely Planet guide 'is the world's tallest seated bronze Buddha statue' and at 23 metres high sits 500 metres above sea level. It was extraordinary.
On the trip back down the mountain I was in a cable car with 4 Canadian young women who were university students taking one of many trips together. They happily let me chat away about my life, travel and expanding my horizons and with the gaiety and honesty of chatting to these young women at the start of their young adult journey I opened my eyes and looked out at the magnificent statue, mountain and Lantau Island.
It was to be an experience that changed who I was and how I would travel forever. As Brene Brown says 'courage is vulnerability' and that life lesson was learnt here again in a way I couldn't have ever foreseen when I made the decision to take this trip. It is to this day one of the most extraordinary experiences I have ever had on my travels and one that was totally unexpected and unanticipated. Which is of course the gift of travel. #robynlovestotravel
'The Ngong Ping Cable Car in Lantau Island is "the" way to get to the Ngong Ping Village, which is the home of some of Lantau's main attractions, Tian Tan the Big Buddha, and the Po Lin Monastery.' www.hongkongtraveller.com
