The Long Trip to Lan Tau Islands – Big Buddha

We woke up a little bit earlier this morning in hope of reaching our final destination before noon, when the sun would become very Hot. We kind of made it!

Not before our morning breakfast of Chee Cheong Fun and Porridge and this little store, along Stanley Road (Central) – WAI KEE CONGEE SHOP (威记粥店)

Chee Cheong Fun – HK 8

Carrot Cake (Very very good!!!) – HKD 6

Century egg and sliced pork porridge – HK 8

It was cheap and good food.

To get to Lantau island, there a number of choices – take the train (MTR) or take the ferry. We chose to take the ferry. We took the ferry from berth 6, other berth brings you to different islands, or to different parts of Lantau, i.e. nearer Disneyland, or Ocean Park.

The ferry ride was comfortable and takes about 40 mins. On arrival on the island, there is a bus terminal where you can take different bus routes to where you wish to go to. Bus 2 brings us to the Big Buddha at HKD 25 per pax (weekend pricing). The ride, winding through the islands takes about 25 mins.

On the ferry

Big Buddha on the top of the Hill

Before climbing the hill, we went to the nearby temple and they serve such interesting snacks and bean curd.

The bean curd was delicious.

On top of the hill, there sits the Buddha. It was Huge and there were lots of people there – tourist to look and see, locals praying, etc …

That was about as much as we did on Lantau Islands, most touristy thing. We did the reverse of our route – bus back to the ferry terminal, sat the ferry back to Hong Kong Island and went to “cool off” at the nearby Financial Centre. They had very interesting shops there … Mango and Zara are both there. A very interesting thing to note is the number of Filipinos in Hong Kong. Even in Singapore, I have not seen such a huge congregation of them at one pace. They line the entire pathway and walk ways of the pedestrian bridge to the Financial Centre. They were also all over the streets and roads outside the financial district. It was a weekend, so most of the business buildings were closed. Yet, it seemed strange that they were seated on the pavement right outside all the high end boutiques, like LV, Salvatore, etc …

We rushed over to Mongkok as we were meeting up with KC. He was going to bring us to buy Mobile Phone (for Ms Lee’s brother) and I wanted to get a pair of sneakers.

Mongkok is a good place to roam. Did not get much chance to look around that are though.

Dinner was at YUNG KEE RESTAURANT (镛记) – 32-40 Wellington Street, Central. They are famous for the geese. It is a must try. Very delicious!

We had ordered about 4 dishes and the total bill for 3 persons came up to about HKD 600. Not the cheapest meal and I think only the geese was worth the bug.

After dinner, we tried the public transport “ferry” that brought you back to Kowloon. It was packed. At 8 pm each day, there was also this very interesting light show that happens with all the buildings on Hong Kong Island. Good to see from the side of Kowloon.

Fionna, Edwin and KC

The Olympics Mascot lantern exhibit by the river, where the torch relay had just ran through the day before.

To that, we ended our satisfying day.