Hong Kong trip – 11 Mar 09

Today we are heading to the Giant Buddha and we bought sandwiches at the shop below for breakfast again.

Scrambled egg sandwich

We took MTR from Mongkok to Lai King station and changed to the Tung Chung Line to Tung Chung station. I prefer Hong Kong MTR and Taipei MTR to Singapore MTR. In the Hong Kong MTR, the station is announced in Cantonese, Mandrain and English. There are lights blinking on the map indication the direction that the train is travelling and the stations travelled. There is also lights on both side of the door indicating which side to exit. Singapore got to learn from them on this part.

Train station map

We reached the Tung Chung station after an hour journey. Ngong Ping 360 cable car station is about 5 min walk from Tung Chung station. The cable car ticket cost HK$96 ~ S$19 per person.

Ngong Ping 360 ticket

Each cable car can accomodate 8 people and we board a cable car with 6 other people. The cable car rides takes about 20 min from Tung Chung to Ngong Ping. It's pretty scary taking the cable car as the wind is quite strong and you can hear those sounds. I guess the cable car is not air-conditioned as there are gaps between the seats which allows natural air to flow into the cable car.

Cable car ride
Hong Kong International Airport
People hiking
Tian Tan Buddha
Reaching Ngong Ping station
Ngong Ping 360 cable car

We reached Ngong Ping station and had to walk pass Ngong Ping village before reaching Tian Tan Buddha. The Ngong Ping village is too commercialised with are shops selling souvenirs.

Ngong Ping VillageFlower cable car

Cute monk

When we reached Tian Tan Buddha, I ask my mom whether she want to climb up there or not. She decided not to as she worried that if she climb up, then the next few days she can't walk long distance. I didnt climb since I had climbed before.

Tian Tan Buddha is one of the five large Buddha statues in China. It was the world's tallest outdoor bronze seated Buddha prior to 2007.

Tian Tan Buddha 天壇大佛

We bought ticket for the vegetarian lunch which cost HK$15 ~ S$3 per pax. As the vegetarian lunch starts at 12pm, we went to the Po Lin Monastery first.

Po Lin Monastery 宝莲禅寺

We shared a table with a Hong Kong old couple. There are 5 dishes and soup. We didnt eat much rice as we were quite full from eating those dishes. HK$6 for such a meal is really quite wothwhile.

Vegetarian dish

After lunch, we walked back to Ngong Ping Village to take the cable car back to Tung Chung. We boarded the cable car and there are only two of us inside. The cable car before us only has one passenger. I doubt I have the courage to sit inside the cable car by myself. On the way back, we encounter stong wind and cloud blowing across our cable car.

So foggy

We went to Citygate Outlets which is located at Tung Chung MTR station. It is Hong Kong first and only outlet mall. Citygate Outlets has 63 outlets including Espirit, Club 21 which offer year-round discounts on all merchandise.

I only bought 3 piece of shirts from Espirit. The clothes here is not really very cheap, even after discount.

Citygate Outlets 东荟城

After shopping, I feel a bit hungry so we had KFC. I ordered a set meal and the chicken taste almost the same to the one in Singapore.

KFC meal

After the meal, we board the MTR back to Mong Kok and went back to the hotel. We took a rest and bath before heading out for dinner. I used the computer at the reception to search for nice roasted pigeon. A staff from the hostel recommend me Victoria Habour Restaurant 海港酒楼 which is located at Sai Yee Street 洗衣街. Sai Yee Street is near the hostel and is about 10min walk from the hostel.

I was disappointed that they no longer sell roasted pigeon cos the purpose of coming here is to eat roasted pigeon. A very helpful staff recommend us a soup (I forget the name of this soup) which the restaurant left only 2 pots. The portion is enough for 6 people and has pork ribs, chicken breast, chicken legs, dried scallop 干贝 and 鱼鳔。 The soup is super delicious and one of the best I ever drink before. We eat the ingredients and also ordered roasted pork skin. Luckily we only ordered roasted pork skin as we couldnt finished drinking the soup. We takeaway the remaining soup but didnt drink it when we went back to the hotel cos we are really too full.

Roasted pork skin and jelly fish and soup

>>Day 5: 12 Mar 09