Talkkok Realm

The 2nd Day in Hong Kong

I talked about visiting HK after Macau in the Jan 22nd’s posting. On the 2nd day early morning, we went to check out HK’s typical breakfast: the long, golden-brown, deep fried strip of dough,aka Yau ja gwai (油炸鬼) in Cantonese & Porridges. Some call it the fried bread stick or deep-fried devils.
The eatery we tried on was just a stone’s throw away from our hotel,properly little bit further down….:))

This is the shop: 大师傅粥品

Tai Si Fu eatery---porridge specialty shop

The banner showing the main dish--porridge

What they are selling is very much different from our version here. Just cont reading:

pretty full rite?

The worker is seen busy in preparing the food

This is the Yau Ja Kwai....quite long and crisp looking

Zhu Cheong Fan

HK styled meehoon with shredded ham & vege...?

noodle

And of course the porridges

Frankly, I only have porridge when I am down with fever,otherwise I wont have it…Hence, I can’t tell you how this fared. Of course, my trip mates thought it was nice.

Porridge with century egg or salted duck egg and pork, coriander leaf

see what is stuffed inside the zhu cheong fan?

It’s again Yau ja gwai found in the zhu cheong fan.

Dumpling

familiar with this?

Yes, it’s the carrot cake…but not nice!

Well, this breakfast gave us an insight into what the HongKongers eat in the morning…I still think that our breakfast variety is much better.

After breakfast, we set out for the 1st tourist attraction of the day-Tian Tan Buddha (天坛大佛) at Ngo Ping, Lantau Island. This place is a major centre of Buddhism in Hong Kong, and is also a popular tourist attraction,which also filmed in many HK movies.

To reach there, we got to take the MTR to Tung Chung station.

Then from Tung Chung, we walked to the Ngong Ping Skyrail, a gondola lift which will bring us to the Buddha.

The Cable car station

The queue was surprisingly long...

There are 3 classes of the cable cabins namely the standard, crystal & full premium crystal. As we knew the cable will cruise across the sea, we chose the crystal cabin,what is it actually, you may ask?

This was the crystal cabin...

crystal clear flooring allowing you to see the earth

hundreds of gondola cruising along the cable line at hundred feet above plush greenery

The Giant buddha could be seen from far at the Ngo Ping arrival stop

Ngong Ping VIllage

This is the Ngong Ping Village, occupies a 15,000 square metre site and has been designed to uphold the cultural and spiritual veracity of the Ngong Ping area. Traditional Chinese architectural designs are a feature of the Ngong Ping Village, which contains an assortment of shopping and dining experiences, on top of a number of key attractions including Walking with Buddha, the Monkey’s Tale Theatre and the Ngong Ping Tea House. The Village is a must-see attraction for anyone coming here.

The plan

Poh Lin Monastery

The steps to the TIan Tan Buddha

And we started our journey to seeing the Buddha…..

Finally we met the Buddha

The Offering of the Six Devas

the visitors are attracted to this great structure

Beautiful sculpture, isnt it?

In addition, there are 3 floors beneath the Buddha statue: The Hall of Universe, The Hall of Benevolent Merit, and The Hall of Remembrance. We saw one VIP resting place in one of the halls, want to know who is that??

Know who is she? Yes, it's Anita Mui

Anita's fans offering a prayer to her on her1st anniversary of her death

Coincidentally, that day (Dec 30th) was the 1st anniversary of her passing. When I see Anita, I think of my idol-Leslie Cheung, momentarily i was speechless and thought of this song by Leslie-the Star (明星):

當你見天上星星; 可有想想起我?可有記得當年我的臉..Both of them were truly a legend to me!

Well, back to the Buddha statue. One of the most renowned features inside is a relic （舍利子） of Gautama Buddha, consisting of some of his alleged cremated remains. Only those visitors who purchase an offering at the Buddah are allowed to see the relic,among us, only Nicholas was given the access to the relic.

Actually,our visit was marred by the thick mists covering the whole area especially the gigantic structure. Sad case!!

This is one clear photo of this Buddha on other day:

Another attraction is the Poh Lin Monastery:

Poh Lin Monastery

We descended from the mountain in late afternoon. Our dinner that day was in one of the famous Seafood cum Steamboat restaurant.

Sea of people in the restaurant at late night.

people was queuing for their turn to be seated

All kinda seafood

Our ultimate experience for the dinner-the Canadian Geoduck!!

I have always wanted to try this in Malaysia but it was hell expensive here. Well, this rest was selling at HK$298 ~ MYR$140+,why not give it a try. But the serving was not impressive though as it was sliced into thin pcs like this: