My Hong Kong Trip – Day 7: The Giant Buddha, Tai O Fishing Village and Market, and a Timely Rant!

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I didn’t intend to delay writing the posts on my last two days in Hong Kong for this long. It just happened that I was trying to keep up with other events that were taking place in Dubai, and trying my best not to miss out on any important happenings. So I was busy covering those events and later writing reviews on them. Another thing that caused this delay was a technical issue with my laptop and other things that led to a severely stressed version of myself not capable if getting any work done, let alone write a blog post about a trip that I made last Christmas!

Now that you know the reason, let me give you a review of my seventh day in Hong Kong’s main attractions. Being a believer in most Buddhist principles and theories and being a big fan of the Dalai Lama, I couldn’t visit Hong Kong without making a trip to the Giant Buddha. However, my online research warned me of the extremely long queues at the Giant Buddha and mentioned that the best time to visit was early morning on weekdays. To my luck, when I went to ask about the best way to get to the island where the giant Buddha is, the lady at the hotel’s guest relations counter told me about a tour trip that includes a visit to the Giant Buddha. And the best part is that there is no waiting in line with the tour group. I immediately accepted her offer, especially since it would save me the hassle of finding out how to get to Lantau Island (where the Giant Buddha is) and the stress that comes with having to find your way around and exploring things on your own.

 

Our trip started by taking the “Ngong Ping” cable car to the peak where the powerful Big Buddha bronze statue stands firmly and strongly.

 

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Other statues are in the vicinity, where you can take touristy pictures and reminisce on your Buddha experience 🙂

 

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And the famous Tian Tan Buddha:

 

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As part of our guided tour, we made a trip to a local fishing village located at a far end of the island. All I remember is that we were all very exhausted by the time we got there. And our guide explained that the village is one of the oldest fishing spots on the island and that he personally used to live there for some time. Honestly speaking, our local tour guide spoke very good English and had an extensive amount of knowledge about all of our tourist attractions. I was highly surprised by his level of English and good accent, I couldn’t help but wonder if he used to live in the US for some time in his life or something! I thought that he was too good for his role as a tour bus guide, with a bunch of tired and not so enthusiastic tourists! Yes, that includes me as well 🙂

At the fishing village, we also visited a legendary temple and I hopelessly failed at lighting an incense stick when everyone else was able to do it. Seriously, how tough could that be?!  But I couldn’t stay and keep trying from fear of loosing my tour group and being stranded on a fishing village in a far end of a Hong Kong Island! Yikes!  Here are some images that I took while following our magical American-accent tour guide at the Tai O fishing village:

 

 

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The legendary temple where I failed to light my incense stick!
The legendary temple where I failed to light my incense stick!

 

 

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After the tour, we were guided to take the water ferry back to Central. I must say that the ferry ride made for a very authentic and truly original Asian traditional experience. At some point, I felt that I was starring in a documentary movie set in the 1950’s about a bunch of immigrants taking a ferry ride to relocate from one country to another, in search of freedom or better life conditions! And I wasn’t the only star of that movie; the lovely Indian couple who I met at the hotel and joined me at the Buddha day tour were also part of the whole ferry ride experience. Actually, I came to know that me and the friendly couple had a lot in common. Upon asking them for the reason behind their choice for Hong Kong as a destination for their holiday, I found out that they too decided to visit this country mainly because of its flexible visa requirements for our passports!  The husband explained to me how both him and his wife were caught up in work and have decided in the last minute to travel abroad. So, after doing an online search for countries that didn’t require an advanced visit visa, Hong Hong seemed to fit that criteria perfectly!

My story was very much similar. I decided last minute that I didn’t want to spend my New Year’s Eve in Dubai for that year. And that I needed a break and a change after having stayed in Dubai for so long without traveling anywhere….mainly because I was trying to make it career wise. And since I haven’t previously applied for a visit visa in the UAE and didn’t feel like going through a visa application process, I thought Hong Kong would be a great option for my last minute planned journey. Of course not forgetting to mention that my local friend had also asked me to visit since she was in Dubai for some time before I made that trip.

 

I will tell you more about the area where my local friend lives in my next and last post about my Hong Kong trip. But as a final note, I would like to share with you a post that my close friend and blogger Pinay Flying High wrote about the restrictions faced by certain countries’ passport holders. I believe that anyone from the list of the unfortunate “ones” can strongly relate to The passport post.

 

Do let me know if you have visited Hong Kong or any of the tourist attractions I mentioned in this post. And how would you rate your experience?

 

Until next time, stay safe and happy travels 🙂