The bronze statue of Big Buddha (天坛大佛) is the second biggest outdoor-sitting Buddha statue in the world (after Taiwan) and the main centre of Buddhism in Hong Kong. It is located at Ngong Ping, Lantau Island. It's very easy to get there. Just take the MTR to Tung Chung station and go to exit B. There we can choose either to take the bus (Lantau Bus 23) or take the cable car from Tung Chung Cable Car Terminal. Both choices will bring you to the Big Buddha. We opted for the second option.

Hi guys! Today I list you guys 5 must BRING items when you're visiting Hong Kong. Some items can be brought from home, some others can be purchased once you arrived in Hong Kong. Whether you're going for holiday or study, this list of things will work for you!

Octopus card is a contactless smart card for payment. If you've been to Singapore, it works like their ez-link card which is used to pay the public transportations, but with additional function to pay for your shopping! (similar to Flazz BCA card in Indonesia). You can apply for Octopus card at Customer Service Centres at all MTR station. The initial payment would be HK$ 150, consists of refundable HK$ 50 deposit and HK$ 100 initial stored value. If you refund the stored value and the deposit within 90 days, there will be administrative fee of HK$ 9.

The standard on-loan Octopus card (left) and my temporary student Octopus card (right)

It's a common understanding that Hong Kong people are CRAZY for Apple's products. To satisfy the market, there are 5 Apple stores in 5 different districts in Hong Kong. At first, when I heard that HK got 5 Apple stores, I was like "meh" 😶, my hometown in Indonesia also has many stores that exclusively sell Apple's products. What's so special with 5 Apple stores?

BUT. I. WAS. WRONG.

I feel so bad for comparing the Apple store in Hong Kong and the store that sells Apple's product in my hometown, because it's a totally different concept (and size). Apple store in HK is exceptionally BIG. It ranges from 1 storey and 3 storeys. They got dozens of unit display for all products that can be played freely by the customers.

My first time going to Apple store was to the Apple store in Festival Walk mall which is located near my campus. I went there on weekday and I was amused to see sooo many people inside the store. It was really crowded! On weekday! Wow! A rare view if you go to mall in my hometown during weekday. After several visits to the Apple store in different times, I realized that Apple stores in HK always have many customers coming to the store every time and everyday.

Believe it or not, it's been a month since I arrived in Hong Kong. Time flies so fast!

After this first month, I started to settle down and adapt more to this 'new' surrounding. I know that the situation of Hong Kong is not much different from Indonesia if you're talking about the weather, food and stuff, but there are still many other things which can be considered as new for me: new bedroom, new roommate, new classmates, new habits and so on.

I started to have assignments and midterms schedules for my classes. Real university life has come! To be honest, it's quite challenging because I don't know the preferences of the lecturers, e.g. they prefer lengthy wordy answers or the short concise one. I hope I can give my best *finger-crossed*

The weather now also started to be nicer compared to the first 1-2 weeks I arrived in Hong Kong, but sometimes it could not be predicted. Yesterday I went for lunch by feet in the afternoon and it was very hot and bright. Then one hour later I walked home under the rain... My morale story would be: bring umbrella. I know I keep on typing this in most of my posts, but yeah, it's the fact 😂 It's my life-savior to protect me from sun and rain!