My Very First Blog

My last night in Hong Kong was spent watching the Symphony Of Lights taking place at Victoria Harbour.

Right after we returned from the Big Buddha, my friend and I did some quick shopping at the Citygate Outlets in Tung Chung before rushing off to the Avenue Of Stars to catch the Symphony Of Lights.



Named as the 'World's Largest Permanent Light And Sound Show' by Guinness World Records, this Symphony Of Lights is a synchronised multimedia light and sound show involving 44 buildings on both sides of Victoria Harbour.

It is held nightly at 8pm for a duration of about 14 minutes.



There are a few good spots to watch this Symphony Of Lights - among them are at the Avenue Of Stars on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront, the promenade outside the Golden Bauhinia Square in Wan Chai and on the Star Ferry running across Victoria Harbour.

We chose the Avenue Of Stars. When we reached there, it was full of people all waiting to catch the show!



I found it very difficult to take photos with the huge crowds in front of me. Since I was only using my humble Lumix LX3 camera, I did not manage to capture good photos. Most appeared grainy and the lack of light did not help.



The light and laser displays turned out to be quite interesting. I could see different lighting effects such as laser, searchlights, LED lights and projection lighting.



I heard that during public holidays and during Chinese New Year, they would add in special pyrotechnic fireworks display.



If you want to see better photos of the light and laser show, please google it! LOL. Anyway, after the show was over, we walked around a bit and I took some photos of the night scenery.

There were many boats passing by and it was quite nice to watch them running across the water with the brightly lit Hong Kong skyscrapers in the background.



I particularly like this red junk boat!



Did you know you can take a cruise on this junk boat?



Regrettably, I did not get the chance to sit on any boats during my Hong Kong trip. I will make sure I sit on one if I ever go Hong Kong again!



We continued to walk leisurely around the place. I just soaked in the atmosphere. It's my last night in Hong Kong after all. We would be leaving for home the next day in the afternoon. I could not help feeling a tinge of sadness that my holidays would be ending soon.



More photos below....







We also passed by the famous Clock Tower landmark.



It was too dark to capture anything at the Avenue Of Stars so I had planned to return to this place the next morning.



I managed to capture a photo of this Clock Tower the next morning so perhaps I will talk a bit more about this it in my next post : )



We walked the streets and it was nice to take some night photos of the beautiful Hong Kong streets!



But it was time for dinner. We decided to return to Mongkok to search for our favorite food!



Hong Kong is always alive at night! That's one thing I like about Hong Kong.



Guess where we ended up eating our dinner? Why, it's back to Ming Yuen Noodles Restaurant for their yummy wonton noodles soup! I have already blogged about this restaurant - read HERE.



Look at those big juicy wontons, those yummy fresh glass lettuce and those chewy noodles! I am really missing this right now!!

If I were to choose between watching the Symphony Of Lights and eating this bowl of wonton noodles, I will definitely choose the latter. Haha!!

Coming Up Next : Walking The Avenue Of Stars

During our trip to the Big Buddha on Lantau Island in Hong Kong, my friend and I had one of the best vegetarian meals ever. The vegetarian lunch we had was at the Vegetarian Kitchen in Po Lin Monastery.

Luckily, we did not eat anything at the over-rated Ngong Ping Village on our way to Big Buddha. If you ever go to Big Buddha, you will definitely pass by Ngong Ping Village. Make sure you don't have your meals there because trust me, you don't want to miss the vegetarian meal at Po Lin Monastery!



Before we climbed the stairs to visit the Big Buddha (aka as Tian Tan Buddha), my friend and I had bought the tickets for our vegetarian lunch at the Meal Ticket Office counter.

There are two types of vegetarian meals - Regular and Deluxe. You can purchase ticket for regular vegetarian meal at HK$60 (US$7.70 / RM25.55) per pax or the deluxe vegetarian meal at HK$100 (US$12.90 / RM42.60) per pax. We went for the deluxe meal.

After we were done visiting the Big Buddha, we headed straight to the Vegetarian Kitchen at Po Lin Monastery. This is how the interior looks like.



We were given table number 1. Not bad, eh? : )



There were 5 dishes altogether with a bowl of rice for each of us.



We started off with the mixed mushroom soup. The warm soup contains assorted mushrooms and fungus and also bean curd. It was yummy! Perfect for a cold rainy day.



Black mushrooms with vegetables. The green leafy vegetables were absolutely tasty!



Deep fried bean curd sheet with lemon sauce. This is my favorite! It was so delicious I think it could give the lemon chicken dish that I love to eat a run for its money!



Mixed vegetables dish. This contains asparagus, celery, mushrooms, peas, capsicum and cashew nuts. A really nice mix and oh, so yummy!



Lastly, the deep fried vegetarian spring roll. There was nothing really special with the fillings but the spring rolls were crispy and light, and not too oily which were really satisfying for me!



Overall, the vegetarian lunch at Po Lin Monastery was excellent. I give it full marks! And just so you know, I seldom rate vegetarian restaurants very highly. The food here was clean, flavorful, aromatic and simply delicious!



The ambience was pretty good, although there were not many people dining at that time. Perhaps most people prefer to choose the cheaper HK$60 regular meal? Those who choose the cheaper meal dine at an open air seating area outside probably with different sets of dishes.

I even like their nice moist tissue packet which contains some words of wisdom! : )



Below is another shot of the dishes we ate. My friend had re-arranged the dishes and asked me to take another photo. LOL!



After the satisfying lunch, we walked over to the Vegetarian Desserts and Snacks Counter (sorry forgot to take picture!) There were many choices of vegetarian dumplings and cakes but for some unknown reasons, we did not buy anything there. Oh well, I will definitely buy some if I were to re-visit this place in future.

We also walked over to the Main Shrine Hall but stopped short of entering it.



Some of the photos I took around the shrine.



These plants look beautiful!





Soon it was time to leave Po Lin Monastery. There were more photo taking opportunities. Here's a photo of the monastery's arch gate and the Big Buddha up on the hill.



The flags area with Big Buddha in the distance.



The main arch gate that separates Ngong Ping Village and Big Buddha/Po Lin Monastery area.



We had earlier came to Ngong Ping from Tung Chung via the cable car ride across the picturesque Tung Chung Bay and Lantau Island's verdant hills. But for our return journey, we decided to take the bus instead.

Our bus tickets. OK, some of you might be surprised at the date, so yes, this trip was 2 years ago and I only managed to blog about it now. Hahaha!!



We took the New Lantau Bus (NLB) back to Tung Chung where we did some shopping at the Citygate Outlets before rushing off to catch the Symphony Of Lights at Victoria Harbour.



I would say that compared to the cable car ride, the bus ride was pretty boring. Nothing much to see throughout the roughly 45 minutes journey. If I were to visit Big Buddha again, I will just take the cable car ride.

Coming Up Next : The Symphony Of Lights