7 days of Eat-Pray-Love in Macau/Hong Kong - Day 05

A...mi...tab...ha....sin joi.. sin joi...
(yes today is pray day!)

Lantau island here we come!!!! Like the past few days, we got up early, had our breakfast at 8:30am then we took off to Mongkok MTR station and after a few stops and transit we arrived at Lantau island!!

***Mongkok station - Lai King station - Tung Chung station (get off at this station and you will see the big factory outlet mall 'CityGate', the cable car station is just next to it) - Ngong Ping Cable Car(the ticket for 2-way normal cable car is slightly over HKD 100)***

The Big Buddha statue is... I tell you... de most awe-inspiring sight! It is the WORLD largest buddha statue. This bronze statue is 34 metres tall and weigh about 250 tonnes and it is located on the mountainous area of Lantau island. It made me ponder on how this giant buddha was built!! Really.. think about it..how on earth did the chinese build it?? and it was built on a mountainous land..

To reach the feet of this giant buddha, one need to first climb hundredssss of steps up. Under the sweltering heat (it was 33 degree celsius..at that very moment, nothing was more excrutiating!), we climbed up to the buddha's feet...panting and sweaty!! I think not only my top were wet, the shorts I was wearing were wet too!! :P But it's all worthed when I saw the great buddha... we took a walk inside the buddha (the air-cond was so cooling~~) and saw Anita Mui's memorial corner..a small piece of the wall were dedicated to her..hanging pictures of her and a book for visitor to leave a message for her. Many of her loyal fans came and left her some flowers there..



After we took some pictures and were ready to slide down (we wish! haha...but there's no other option but the stair). The next stop was...none other than the Poh Lin Monastery...it is another must-go destination for prayers! It was initially a small shrine constructed by 3 buddhists in 1924 and it slowly expanded over the years...After touring around the Poh Lin Monstery, we lunched there (our first vegetarian meal after so many days..we bought the general package HKD60 per pax for the 4 person lunch set).

After our lunch we returned to the cable car station and back to CityGate where we spent sometime shopping for cheap designer labels. I found that not all were cheap.. some weren't any cheaper at all..but it has alot of designs that we couldn't find in Malaysia.

We spent about a good 2 hours there and then we went off to hunt for Tsing Ma bridge.. We left CityGate at 5:10pm. But..we didn't see Tsing Ma bridge...sigh.. because we didnt know which bus to board after we got down at Tsing Yi MTR station and not many local know too (we were really surprised..cause we thought it was a tourist attraction). We approached a few locals but none were able to help us so we gave up and return to our hotel instead...

We went back to hotel, showered and dressed up, and we took off to The Peak to catch the magnificent night view of Hong Kong from high up. As we reach Central MTR station (exit J2 to Garden Road), we were shocked! Horrified to see the long queue, the queue for tram (HKD33) to The Peak, the people were queue-ing from the ticketing counter all the way to the street side.. to the taxi stand...OMG...As we were already late (8 pm-ish, we have yet take our dinner and The Peak closes at 11:00pm) we decided to catch a taxi to The Peak instead, though it was more expensive (HKD 45) but it would take us there at a much shorter time..

We dined at Cafe Deco.. the food was okay and the so was the price :) But if you want to have the table by the window, you will need to make reservation in advance (obviously we did not know about this). Anyway we had a table close to the window..so it was still okay. After the dinner we went up to The Peak...it was brimming with tourists and also some locals... many had come with their DSRL cameras and super lens and stands and all the gadgets, all waiting to grab a good spot to capture this amazing night view before their eyes...