BIG BUDDHA

I had a day off….

So why not check out the Big Buddha?

Seriously why not? It’s a famous tourist attraction in Hong Kong, and if there is one big fail with my stay in Hong Kong is that I didn’t see as much as I should! So with minimal research I set out see the 2nd biggest buddha statue in the world!

To get to the Big Buddah you should arrive at the Tung Chun MTR station first. Why? because from the station there’s two transportation options to get to the Buddha. 1 is the touristy option aka cable car. # 2 is taking a bus.

I totally recommend taking the bus (bus# 23). It’s cheaper and better. Cable car to me is always a money grab. But the option is yours.

On the way to the Buddha it started raining crazy heavy! Another reason why you should not take the cable car…imagine if you get stuck up there during a thunderstorm….

After about a 40 minute bus drive I finally arrived!

My first thought? fuck it’s foggy, fuck it’s cloudy.  Can I even see the buddha in this weather?

Oh well, what can you do right? I already got my ass there, might as well make the long walk up to the Big Buddha.

But ff you are out of shape…

then good luck….

because there is a lot of stairs:

 

BUT, like all things in life if you work hard for it, you will be rewarded. And for me, I was rewarded with a great view of the Buddah! Score! Was so worried the fog would cover it up..it would have been a waste of a trip.  Here are some pictures:

Here’ s a tip.

Get a meal ticket before going up! If you get the VIP meal ticket then you can actually GO INTO the Buddha.  The actual food experience I will blog about in another post (yes I am milking blog posts from this trip).

The interior of the Buddha is nothing special though, just some scriptures and shit. The most popular item is the Buddha Relic..which I couldn’t see in detail because it was barred away…sigh…even though the interior is nothing interesting you probably should still check it out if you can!

I am still amazed at how foggy this particular day was, and how lucky I am to actually see the Buddha. Score for me.

After spending 20 minutes at the Buddha, I went to the Po Lin Monastery which is just 5 minutes away. Nothing too special there, but go anyways since you are so close. Plus that’s where you get to eat lunch (again will blog about it in a different post).

I spent about 4 hours here, including lunch.

Can spend more time here if you go on the nearby hiking trail.  I was also told you can hike up to this area instead of taking the bus / cable car but it’s going to be on hard ass hike..so I won’t recommend that.

But then I am out of shape.

Nothing more to add, you’ve probably read alot about the Big Buddha in other more informative blogs already.

Written from Hong Kong, Home on July 5, 2017