Hong Kong Trip Day Three

Day #3 Causeway Bay - Lantau Island

26th December 2008 (Friday) 17-20°C

 

It's Boxing Day! We were too tired from the past two day's walking that we decided to sleep in a little longer. As usual, we took the hotel shuttle bus to Times Square for breakfast. Since we had no idea what to eat, we headed to the Macdonalds opposite Times Square and luck is with us, we managed to get the last 2 sets of big breakfast. Taste totally like Singapore's one.

After breakfast, we took a long MTR ride to Tung Chung MTR to take the cable car to Lantau Island. The queue was even worse than the one at the Peak Tram. We queued for 2 hours before we boarded the famous Ngong Ping 360 cable car. Good thing was the weather was cool with ocassional strong wind, making the wait tolerable. However, there was this stupid woman (dunno what dialect/nationality) talking non stop loudly right behind us. 

The long queue before we even manage to get the tickets

The colourful ticket pass for the cable car ride to Lantau

Upon reaching Lantau Island, we went for lunch at the Ngong Ping Garden Restaurant

(昂坪膳坊).[Address: Shop 3 & 4, G/F, Ngong Ping 360 Theme Village, Lantau Island, HK]

We ordered 星洲炒米粉， 杨州炒饭,蜜汁叉烧。

The restaurant was obviously short handed. The char siew was not bad but the rice and bee hoon is normal. Bee hoon was in fact quite tasteless except from the curry powder. The portions were enough to feed 2 pigs! Didn’t finish both the rice and bee hoon. Cost a freaking HK$283! [Rating: 3.0 / 5.0]  

 

After lunch, we went for the "Walking with Buddha" tour where we were given headsets. While we go through the short walk, we were enlightened by the voice recording which teaches us not to greed, learn to forgive and to accept. No phototaking was allowed though. 

We then proceeded to Po Lin Monastery for a short prayer and more phototaking before approaching the long stairway of the Big Buddha. The climb up the stairway was a tiring one. All for not exercising for a long time. I was panting like a dog when i reach the top! (But at least i managed to reach the top somehow) 

Praying at the Po Lin Monastery



Finally made it to the top where the Big Buddha (Tian Tan Buddha Statue - 天坛大佛)is!

After completing the phototaking at the Big Buddha, we rushed back to take the cable car back to Tung Chung. The queue was horribly long AGAIN! We decided to go for the express queue which requires us to stand throughout on the cable car. But we figured we'll have to wait for another 2 hours anyway if we don't take the express way out...

We then proceeded to Citygate Shopping Mall where the branded outlets were. Both me and hubby got some clothes at good discount.

Dinner was at Food Republic. Exactly the same as the one in Singapore. Hubby had Pork Chop Rice (again) with cheese while i had Teriyaki Beef  with egg. Both came with ministrone soup. Nice and cheap dinner at only 78 HKD.

As I started having a bad tummyache, we decided to make our way back to the hotel early today to rest. Lucky enough, we managed to catch the last shuttle bus back to the hotel from Times Square.

A while later, hubby was feeling hungry again. We decided to order room service instead since it was already late. I had Club Sandwich while hubby ordered Beef Rice Noodle. The sandwich was nice with fries but the Rice Noodle turned out to be very oily. And of course, it came with a "nice" price tag. Total bill came up to 316 HKD excluding a 15% service charge. Oh well... it's a holiday anyway....