19 March 2008

Hong Kong (Day 2)

Day 2: Enlightenment and Extravagance

We started the day with a trip up the hills to visit the world's largest outdoor seated bronze Buddha. We took the cable car up the Ngong Ping Hills and the cable car ride seemed so never-ending as we hovered above Lantau Island for more than 25 minutes, covering a distance of nearly 6KM.


View from cable car




My parents and my cousin!



Buddha spotted!




Ngong Ping Village! The village is located at the foot of the hill where the giant bronze Buddha is seated.








That's 250 steps to the giant Buddha!

Fans of The Amazing Race should recall that one of the Fast Forwards in Season 2 of this reality TV show was located here. Tara and Wil wanted to try for this Fast Forward, but decided against it as they thought the ferry they missed carries Chris and Alex, whom they presume are also going to try for the Fast Forward.





Next, we visited the nearby Po Lim monastery and had our lunch there.


Simple vegetarian fare!

Next, it is an MTR ride to Wong Tai Sin station to visit the Wong Tai Sin Temple!


Trains in Hong Kong are installed with this system that tells passengers how many more stops have the train passed by, and how many stops are left in the line.

For an interchange station, all the indicators for the possible stations one may travel to will start blinking to inform passengers so that they know their way.

Also, there are also indicators on such signs to tell you through which door to exit, something so useful for Singaporeans who still do not know that the other door will open on stations like Dover, Braddell and City Hall.



Rush hour on the MTR


Fans of The Amazing Race should recall that this is where one of the Fast Forwards was located in Season 2 of the reality TV show. Gary and Dave claimed the Fast Forward.


Wong Tai Sin station!






Finally, we made our way to a super luxurious restaurant at Central for dinner!



Menu for the day!


Shark's Fin Soup!



Steamed fish with tofu!


Goose's foot and abalone!


Giant clam with udon!



BBQ Ribs

Cabbage!

Steamed vegetable dumplings!


Desert!

It was really high-class and extravagant, costing the four of us HK$1008, which is slightly more than SGD$200

Our last programme of the day involves watching the "Symphony of Lights". Buildings along the Victoria Harbour will start to dazzle with colourful and bright neon lights. It is something like Sentosa's Musical Fountain, only that this time round, you see the dancing of neon lights from various skyscrapers along the harbour along with the music played. The display is on every night at 8PM sharp.








A walk along the "Avenue of Stars" (the place where you can find handprints of various Hong Kong artistes on the pavement) led me to the bronze statue of the late Bruce Lee.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home