Weekend Getaway to 香港 Asia's World City (Part II)

As promised, here's Part II!

Art in the MTR

Day 2: Cable Cars, Big Buddha, and A Symphony of Lights

Saturday, we decided to head out bright and early so that we would be able to make the most of our day. Plus, we planned on heading over to take the cable car to see the Big Buddha and, at the advice of my roommate's Hong Kong friend, it was an all day thing, so best to go in the morning. But first things first--breakfast!

I'm not sure what animal this towel creature was, but Pooh and Oswald seemed to like him

We decided it would be best to get breakfast nearby in the interest of saving time, but since we were not really familiar with the area, we decided to ask the reception desk for recommendations. We were staying at the Y-Loft, which was an inexpensive, nice little hostel. The people working there are also super nice and super friendly and can also speak Mandarin and English. The receptionist working there ended up suggesting this 茶餐廳 close by and even wrote the directions and name of the restaurant down for us. A 茶餐廳, which literally means, "tea restaurant" and can be found all throughout Hong Kong, is basically an affordable restaurant whose menus feature Hong Kong cuisines and Hong Kong-style Western dishes. I think they are open all day and you can go there for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

We found the place with relative ease but then we got a little confused when it came time to order. The menu was entirely in Chinese and while three of us could all read Chinese (although my Chinese reading skills are quite lacking in comparison--but to be fair my two roommates are Taiwanese so their Mandarin speaking, reading, and comprehension are a lot lot better than mine), we didn't really know what exactly the dishes were.

My roommates ended up getting noodle soup, while I decided to go for a more Western style breakfast (which I admit I kind of chose at random) and each set (or 餐) came with a beverage of your choice--we all chose 茶. We were confused when they brought out 奶茶 for us though, but apparently the tea that they served us when we sat down was not the tea that came with our meal--it was in fact the milk tea, which we learned from the kind patron sitting in the booth next to ours. In any case the breakfast was pretty good, although I was wishing I had gone for the more traditional Hong Kong style breakfast. The 奶茶 on the other hand was not quite what I was expecting--it smelled very much like the 港式奶茶 that we have back in Chinese bakeries in New York but it didn't quite taste the same. Granted, you were supposed to add the sugar in yourself but as I didn't want to load too much sugar into my cup, my 奶茶 didn't quite taste as I was hoping.

Afterwards it was on to the 昂坪 cable cars to see the 天壇大佛. From 柴灣站 we took the MTR to 中環站 where we transferred over to the orange 東涌 line and rode the train to 東涌站  to buy tickets for the 昂坪 cable car. We realized then why my roommate's friend told us that it was an all day thing--the lines were long and stretched across several ramps. We were on line for about an hour before we made it to the ticket counter and there were at least six counters as well.

The view of Lantau Island was nice though

We decided to get round-tip tickets for the standard cable cars opposed to the Crystal Cabin cable cars just because it was cheaper and the wait for that line a lot shorter, plus we all felt like being in a glass bottomed cable car going over the mountains would be a little too much in terms of stimulation. Fans of heights we are not it seems.

The line on the right was for the Crystal Cabin cable car--it had a lot more people and was going a lot slower

Each cable car can seat eight people I think; since there were just three of us, and the next group just had two, they put us all in the same cable car. Despite the long line though, the view was so worth it.

I couldn't not get a picture of these two in the cabin car! 

Enjoying the view

That view! I think that's Hong Kong International Airport off in the distance

The view down below--you can see a trail (probably not leading up to the top) that people were actually walking

Almost there! Can you see the Buddha?

I think all in all the cable car took about roughly 20 minutes to get to from 東涌 to the 昂坪 highlands. From there we walked around the 昂坪市集 (Ngong Ping Village) area which, in addition to the 天壇大佛, also consisted of the 寶蓮禪寺 (Po Lin Monastery), a few souvenir shops, some restaurants, convenience stores, and smaller food stalls.

McDull again, haha

Giant lucky kitty outside one of the souvenir shops featuring...yep you guessed it, lucky kitties

Since I wanted 豆腐花, we decided to recharge and rest for a bit before making our way up to 天壇大佛. I don't know if I ever mentioned this in any of my previous posts, but Taiwan 豆花 (as it is called in Mandarin) is just not the same as the 豆腐花 I grew up eating in Chinatown. For one thing, in addition to being served warm, Taiwan's 豆花 can also be served cold (which admittedly can be pretty nice during the hotter weathers) with a variety of toppings from fruit (which I quite like--I had a delicious mango and watermelon one once) to 珍珠 (which took me completely off guard the first time I had it--in fact it was also the first time I had 豆花 in Taiwan), red beans (which isn't too bad either), peanuts (which I liked better than I thought I would), to taro, to a mix of the previously mentioned ones. The ones that I am accustomed to were the warm ones in Cantonese style, which is with a slightly sweet ginger syrup, which I had not had in a long time, so needless to say, I was quite excited when I saw the little stands selling 豆腐花, sold both hot and cold.

With the ginger syrup in a little spoon

The syrup had a more gingery taste than I was accustomed to, but it was delicious nonetheless and refreshing too

Then it was on our way to the Buddha!

A little hot, but the weather was otherwise perfect

Those stairs!

就嚟到啦!

The Offering of the Six Devas; three of the six Devas

The view was amazing!

Look at those clouds!

天壇大佛--it was truly an awe-inspiring and humbling experience to stand before this Big Buddha

Stairs again. Luckily going down the stairs was a lot easier than going up

Afterwards, we decided to head over to the 寶蓮禪寺 and as they had food there (vegetarian only because of the Buddhists), we decided to take a snack break there.

寶蓮禪寺

菠蘿包, 春捲, and a refreshing bottle of cold 豆漿

It was about three in the afternoon by the time we left 昂坪市集 and took the cable car back down to 東涌 so we decided to hang around for a bit in the area before heading to dinner and then back to Victoria Harbour for A Symphony of Lights show.

But first...ducks!

For the 10th anniversary of the iSquare mall in 尖沙咀 in 九龍

They even had ducks inside the mall!

Victoria Harbour at night, with many tourists awaiting the famed A Symphony of Lights show

At around a quarter to 8, we headed back to Victoria Harbour to catch A Symphony of Lights, which was basically a daily light show involving music and...well, lights. I wish I could have caught it on camera but alas, my phone camera and actual camera aren't the best when it comes to nighttime shots. For anyone planning a trip to Hong Kong, A Symphony of Lights is deemed a must-see and I wouldn't disagree--but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I wouldn't say that I was disappointed per se, but again, it wasn't what I was expecting. I think it was definitely worth experiencing but from all the pictures and all the reviews, the lights were not as bright and flashy as I expected. It was cool though how the whole show was coordinated and how the lasers and the building lights flashed on in time with the music. So while it was a worthwhile experience, it wasn't quite the amazing fantastic light show that I thought it would be. Still though, you should go for the experience if nothing else. Who knows, maybe the weather wasn't right for it that day and you'll have better sights when you go.

Afterwards, we decided to head on over to 銅鑼灣 Causeway Bay because I had been raving about this famous Japanese matcha ice cream place I wanted to try, Via Tokyo. When we got out of the MTR station however, we were a little unsure about which way to go and decided to ask an elderly man who was standing there advertising a new restaurant that opened up. However, as I didn't know the name of the street in Cantonese and he didn't know it in English, there was a bit of confusion until we thought to show him the location on the map. Luckily another local who was passing by had overheard us and offered to take us there since he was also going in that direction. It wasn't too far from where we were actually and the guy, I believe his name was Sam, was a little on the quieter side but quite sweet and helpful. We finally made it to Via Tokyo to find a line queuing out the door which we were not excited about (we had been on our feet practically all day after all), but we soon learned that the line was for if you wanted to eat inside the (rather tiny little) store, but we decided to 拎走 (have it to-go) so we were able to go right in and order. We decided to go with the 生果抹茶雪糕白玉餡密 (Fruit Matcha Soft Cream Shiratama Anmitsu), which, in addition to the matcha soft serve, also had a ton of fruit (bananas, kiwis, strawberries, and mandarin oranges) and some mochi as well. Granted for its tiny size, it was a little expensive at HK $52 (about US $6.71), but it was good and definitely worth a visit. Though a quick note--if you 拎走 it will melt pretty quickly considering how hot and humid it was outside.

All in all, it was a full and tiring, but fun second day in Hong Kong. The weather was perfect if a little hot and we got to see such beautiful views of Hong Kong. It was hard to believe that our trip was more than half over and that we would be returning to Taiwan the next day. I know that I for one did not want to leave Hong Kong and that I would be making the most of my last day in Hong Kong.

Stay tuned for Part III!