Friday, January 17, 2014

Hong Kong travel diary day 3

Day 1 and Day 2 in Hong Kong showed us the daily lives of your average Hongkie living in a metropolitan area. For day 3, we decided to venture out to see the famour Big Buddha Statue, Ngong Ping, that is located on an island far away from the central districts. We hitched a ride on the efficient and popular train station, making our way to Lantau Island. It is a bit of a journey (about 30 minutes at least?) but there should be plenty of seats assuming that you are not travelling during peak holiday seasons.


We had to purchase cable car tickets to get us across to the island but as an alternative, there are boat and bus services available. We choose the cable car as it would probably give us a better view of the island and takes less time to get there. A bit more expensive though.

The queue was really really long and we literally had to queue up for 40 minutes. Tour groups and people who had booked in advance were allowed through easier. A good tip to book ahead :/



The view was amazing and there were definitely a lot of oohs and ahhs in the cable car. I must have snapped about 20 pictures :/



Once we arrive on the island, we were greeted by this little village that houses a lot of tourist attractions such as a tea house, souvenir shop and some local bakeries.

Walk a little further more and you'll be greeted by the huge Buddha statue that you surely cannot miss. At the bottom of the statue, you have a choice of entering the building under the statue as well as have a meal at the monastery's cafeteria (vegetarian food fyi) at a small price. It was not expensive so we decided to give it a go. Think of it as helping the business to sustain:)







So we had our vegetarian meal which came in a set. A plate of noodles with a choice of 2 types of dim sum and a bowl of tau fu fah aka soft, sweet tofu. We ordered a plate of sweet and sour vegetarian meat and curry meat.

Overall, we were pretty pleased with the food we bought. It was not bland or soggy as we expected but instead, quite wholesome. We were so full after that to the point that we decided to skip binge shopping at the souvenir shops. Would I go there for meals again? Definitely!




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