On our last full day we decided to visit the Big Buddha Hong Kong. I didn’t know much about the Tian Tan Buddha, I just knew it was a must see in Hong Kong.

We woke up to a cloudy day with drizzle. It didn’t look good but we weren’t going to waste the day.

First up breakfast!

Getting to the Big Buddha would take a couple of hours so we made an early start. It was good that we did because the fog and mist were getting thicker.

On the way to Causeway Bay MTR station we stopped at a McDonald’s because Miss14 wanted a hash brown.

We’d become so familiar with the walk to Causeway Bay MTR station and catching the trains it didn’t feel like a long journey at all. From Tung Chung MTR station it was a short walk to the Ngong Ping Cable car terminal. We bought return tickets for the crystal cars so we could see through the bottom of the car.

The cable car ride would be spectacular on a fine day or even a cloudy day, on this Sunday we were enveloped by foggy mist and at times couldn’t see the next car in front of us let alone anything around above or below us. When we got to the Ngong Ping station high up on Lantau Island we couldn’t even see the ground at sea level.

There was a whole “Hello Kitty” thing going on up at Ngong Ping with the Ngong Ping 360 company. I don’t understand the Hello Kitty phenomenon. It’s beyond me. That said, I know people who are into it so here is one photograph.

I felt a touch cold up there 

There are 268 steps to the Tian Tan “Big” Buddha. Fortunately it’s not a continuous climb, while steep there are flat sections every dozen or so steps. The cool misty morning was a good time to do a stair climb.

At the top the foggy mist was such at seeing the Buddha’s visage was impossible. I had to do a lot of post process editing to get this amount of detail.

At the top there are signs asking visitors to refrain from photography. Inside the buddha is a lot of information material on the construction and history of the statue itself. Nearby is the Po Lin monastery and a temple of gold buddhas which is beautiful.

After visiting the Big Buddha and monastery we spent some time in the Ngong Ping village looking around the shops.

Feeling hungry we decided rather than eating the monks’ vegetarian delights we’d head into Tung Chung and try some more food at the Food Republic.

Miss20 and I had a Japanese inspired rice omelet with pork chop and scallops.

Ms18 had mentioned a few days earlier that she would like to visit the Dragon Garden in Sham Tseng which was a bus ride away from Tung Chung.

When we arrived at the front gate we discovered it was closed. On further inquiry the garden is only open one day a month. Ms18 was quite annoyed.

So what to do when there are no gardens with dragons to walk around? More shopping of course!

We went to Mong Kok and spent some time in Langham Place.

We also had afternoon tea.

For dinner we went to a cheap and cheerful place called Eat Together. Like Toby Inn on our first day this place had character. The owner sat at one of the tables when we entered and offered us her table. She sat with another customer. After we received our menus she was at our table again expecting us to have decided what we wanted to eat. This place was where locals ate. We had some of the best fried dumplings there we’d had on the whole holiday.

After our meal at Eat Together we went back to langham Place so Ms20 could have some green tea ice cream.

Our plan had been to return to McDonald’s near Times Square but when we arrived the ice cream machines were broken. We were disappointed.

While the weather had been less than ideal the day turned out to be quite enjoyable. As a last full day in Hong Kong we were pretty happy.

Have you been to the Tian Tan Big Buddha?