Hong Kong Day 10 (Sheung Wang & 10,000 Buddhas Monastery)

Every morning we had a 10-15 minute walk to and from the subway, which was always somewhat of an assault on our senses- but relatively clean and litter free.  They appear to have strict laws regarding public sanitation (littering, smoking, spitting) judging by the number of signs I saw for public sanitation/fines. Fines imposed for breaking the law were $5,000 HK dollars for smoking in prohibited areas or $1500 HK dollars for spitting. Other things we saw each day on our daily commute were:

Buildings under construction, all of which appeared to be using bamboo as scaffolding...even as high as 3-4 stories up. More interestingly, my mother noticed that all were cut at an angle so that they appeared to be balancing on the tip. I am guessing our American unions probably won't let that fly.

We spied a candy store and just had to hit it up. We tended to reward Ryan's long walks and tolerance of (boring for him) historic site after site by letting him pick out sweets (Parent of the Year!) or cheap, tacky souvenirs (Environmentalists of the Year).

You couldn't walk 20 feet in any direction in all of Kowloon or Sheung Wan without running into either a Chinese medicine shop or a shop selling roots & dried fish. I wanted to go in and see them about my eczema and other issues since their remedies would be a lot more natural, but I ran out of time. Maybe next time?

Because Hong Kong doesn't stamp passports anymore (and instead inserts a tiny, loose card the size of a passport photo into your passport), one of our family member's lost theirs. And because it's required to exit the country, we spent the morning at the Immigration office getting another one (it must happen a million times a year, as the room was packed with people in the same predicament). Honestly, it's a crazy system that's ineffective and costly, not to mention time consuming for those that lose them, and those that must process reissuing new ones. But last I checked, HK wasn't too interested in my opinion. ;-)

Ryan got to spend the waiting time at a second park I found nearby on Google Maps, and spent over an hour doing about 15 different physically challenging obstacles courses I came up with once I was too tired to play. He had a ball running around and getting sweaty, HK has similar weather to Hawaii, mostly warm year round due to its proximity to the equator. In fact, when I asked him what he liked best about China on two different occasions, he said, "The parks." Which is lovely to hear...since we flew his little behind 7,000+ miles each way to see cultural and historic sites, and he liked...the park. 

After the immigration stop, we cruised a bazaar there and got more souvenirs for friends and the boys, as well as found this little sushi shop. Ryan and my dad had some for a snack.

Tamago!

After that, we hopped on the subway for a trip out to the New Territories to visit the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery (aka Man Fat Sze). The monastery is a bit off the beaten track. It felt a bit more rural out there, but the entrance to the monastery was sandwiched between a 4-5 story furniture store and an office building. The monastery features over 12,000 Buddha statues surrounding and within the temple, and honestly- was a unexpected surprise for us. We LOVED this temple, and would rank it in the top 10 we've ever been to in Asia. Most interestingly- it's free. Most 'big name' temples in Japan (Fushimi Inari, Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji, Todaiji) all charge roughly $5-7 per person to get in. This one had similar strong appeal, yet true to 'real church' form, did not charge a cent.

Worth noting is that there is quite a steep climb up to the monastery...which includes 400+ very steep steps. I'd recommend bringing water and a defibrillator if you're not in decent shape. I was huffing, puffing and dripping sweat. I think with 2-3 rest breaks it took us about 25 minutes to get there. However, because it's not as easy to get to from the city centers (though still cheap/easy...it just requires 3-4 transfers on the subway from most hotels), it's relatively quiet and empty. It's a pleasant walk among lots of greenery and lined with hundreds of golden Buddhas, each one different from the other.

Oops. In his defense, he could only read the words "is, not, at and this."

Inside the temple, lined very symmetrically from floor to ceiling on all four walls were rows of golden Buddha statues. It's also the first Buddhist temple I've ever been to where you are not permitted to burn incense inside.

We were allowed to climb even more stairs and go to the top of the pagoda!

Climbing up the pagoda

We've developed a ritual of having Ryan pray at each temple/church/synagogue/shrine/mosque he goes to. We did the same thing when he spun the prayer wheels at Lama temple.  

Every so often Ry surprises us with a dramatic pose to ah, shake things up, I guess?

One of the best surprises of the day- the presence of monkeys all over the mountain near the temple grounds! Apparently they are unwelcome visitors to the monks (who loudly shooed them away). But to us? They were cute and hilarious.

See what I mean? Swinging from the temple good luck charms...feisty and naughty.

Sitting on the Buddha's head...definitely gonna get busted by a monk.

Photos were not permitted in the temple (this was taken outside the doors, which was okay without a flash), but you can see the thousands of statues lining the wall. It wasn't nearly as tacky as you might imagine...I'm not sure why, but I'm sure it was partly the quiet and calm of the grounds.

Dinner that night was a bit of a cheat night...Rich found us some amazing carbonara with bacon and mushrooms (I felt like I was at Angelo Pietro's on Oahu) from the store across the street from our apartment that cost $2 vs the $12-14 at Pietro's. Gotta love food prices in Asia compared to here. As much as things cost a lot there, food costs and transportation are still blissfully affordable compared to our little island in the Pacific.Honestly, it's one of the perks of travel for us- going nuts in grocery stores. (We are crazy, wild fun people like that). :-)