For every highlight there is a lowlight that I can tell all my friends to skip. Although the Big Buddha was alright, the Po Lin Monastery was one of the worst sites we've ever seen. Right up there with the Palace of Knossis in Greece. If you want to see Buddha's and avoid the crowds and could only pick one, go with the 10,000 Buddha Monastery in Sha Tin instead of here. Less headaches and more impressive.
Big Buddha (2.5 of 5)
We should've took the warning sign more to heart. While at Central just about to transfer to Tung Chung to see the Big Buddha and Po Lin, we heard on the intercom that the cable car that takes you from the MTR station to the top was broken. We thought that we came this far anyways that we'd just take the bus up. What was advertised as a quaint bus ride taking you through the winding roads across Lantau Island to the top, turned into a white knuckle experience of motion sickness due to both our bus drivers (on the way up and down) treating the narrow roads as their own F1 track. Upon arriving, I'd have to say that the scene was quite mystical. It was *surprise* foggy and it added to the aura of the place. We climbed the ~300 steps to the top and it is exactly as advertised... a Big Buddha. Pretty neat but not too exciting when I hear of the ones in Thailand. Onto the adjacent Po Lin Monastery for a vegetarian meal and to see the hall.
Po Lin Monastery (0 of 5)
Ok. Where to start? The meal, understood was vegetarian, but I guess I was expecting more gluten products that looked like meat. It was by far the worst meal we've had in Hong Kong. Next on to all the grand halls in the Monastery right? There was a total of one building open for viewing. The rest of the place was under renovation. I'm giving this site zero stars because I felt it was just so tacky and a pure tourist trap. All the facades of the buildings were made of cement casts that looked really fake. Unless you wanted to buy incense (3 for 100HKD or 6 for 150HKD) there was nothing else to look at. In fact the Calgary Chinese Cultural Center looks more authentic than this place... yikes.
