Now I've seen it all! (Day 3: Part I)

After seeing all of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, we decided we had seen enough for the week. Ha ha, yeah right. We were just getting started! Day 3 was so full of action it requires two posts! I haven't had much of a chance to explore the New Territories of Hong Kong so this was going to be all new to me.

Since I loved the Big Buddha so much, I had to take the opportunity to visit the 10,000 Buddhas monestary. Adam & I took the MTR up to Sha Tin. Hong Kong is great because public transportation really takes you pretty much anywhere you want to go. We got out of the station and headed in the direction the guidebooks told us to go. We came up to a beautiful place with fountains, a tall set of stairs, and a temple on the top of a hill. We figured this was the monestary and started to explore. First up, we found a fountain. One side was full of unhappy & sick looking fish. The water did not look good. But on the other side we found some turtles who seemed to be in better shape. Probably because they had this giant turtle to rest on.

We took the escalator to the top and we saw the temple and many rooms built as a memorial for the deceased. The walls were filled with ashes and memorial plaques for those who were resting there. It was a very lovely and peaceful place to be.

On a less serious note, we also saw posters everywhere warning us not to feed the monkeys. Apparently there had been some squabbles with the monkeys in the area when people tried to feed them bananas. Adam loved the signs and really wanted to have one to take back. I stopped to ask someone that worked there about it which is when she informed us that "this is not the 10,000 Buddhas monestary." Apparently people make the mistake often because she had a little sign written up to say that (she could not speak any English). So we may not have found the monestary but we were happy we stumbled upon this place.

Just a little more walking and we found the 10,000 Buddhas monestary. There is a very long path up a huge hill and it is entirely lined with Buddha statues. Although it was a difficult climb, it was so much fun and a very interesting walk. Check out some of the journey..

When we reached the top after seeing several thousand of the Buddhas, we were pretty tired and hungry. So we stopped in the veggie restaurant at the top of the hill and had some very delicious food. Then we set out to explore the temple and other statues in the monestary. We even found them building a couple of new Buddhas (as if 10,000 isnt enough!)

Inside the temple

The walls of the temple are lined with Buddha statues, each one given a different name. It was amazing!

My favorite Buddha statue of the day

Constructing another Buddha statue

After we finished our visit at the monestary, we walked back towards the MTR station and encountered some very strange things. We decided in the spirit of finding things "off the beaten path" we'd take the longer scenic route back and explore any interesting areas we might find. We saw signs for a book store and followed them. Ten minutes later we found ourselves standing in the middle of a guy's living room while he showed us his very odd paintings that explain the universe and told us nothing in his store was for sale. Hmm... Not to be detered we next followed the signs to a "bee farm" thinking we could pick up some fresh honey. We ended up standing near a small dirty cage with a couple of bees flying around it. Actually I wouldnt get that near it. :-)

After that we found our way to the MTR, snuck into the mall for a quick Starbucks and decided where to go next. Stay tuned!