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Published: February 22nd 2010
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When I finally got going on the 16th I took the mtr back to central and simply walked around for a while, when I found the central-mid levels escalator (the longest series of escalators in the world) part way up I stopped at the jamia mosque although I never went inside as there was a service of some type on going so I just took some pictures of the exterior. Continued up the escalator to the top and then continued on to the hong kong botanical gardens which aswell as having greenhouses and flower displays contains a large aviary and a small zoo with an orangutan, sampans and gibbons amongst other animals. In the evening I rook the star ferry across to Kowloon side of the harbour which in the dark allows for some great views of hong kong island as you sail away. I walked down to the avenue of stars (like LA's but with famous film stars from hong kong) but timed it a bit wrong as the symphony of lights was just about to begin. The symphony of lights is possibly the worlds most feable tourist attraction and consists of the lights on the buildings on both sides
of the harbour and some lasers flashing away to some awful music, this is on every night at the same time and the tourists from mainland China absolutely love it for some reason. I then walked around for a short while past the peninsula hotel, which apparently is consistantly voted in the worlds top 5 and it had a number of posh cars outside most notably two identical Rolls Royce Phatoms parked next to each other. Then I walked up nathan road, the main street running through Kowloon and looked in some of the posh shops, Versace, Chanel and such, and the not so posh ones aswell as I walked back down towards the mtr station I thought it would be a better idea to walk through some of side streets but as seemingly everywhere in hong kong when you walk of the main streets the side streets in behind are filled with seedy looking "massage parlours" and hotels which can be booked by the hour.
I returned to the hostel and turned in again not getting to sleep until around 4.
The following morning I set off on the mtr to sha tin station which involved two
changes on the underground and then an overground train. I was heading to the 10,000 buddha's temple which is slightly off the tourist trail but there where a few more people around when I got there. Finding the temple is a small challenge and I was quite impressed with myself for finding it as there is only a couple of small signs. Upon arrival a monk waits at the bottom of the track and gives blessings if you make a small donation to the temple. Then the interesting part begins with a path which has around 500 steps up and all the way there are statues of the buddha's protectors on either side each one of them is different and there are hundreds of them. When at the top there are a series of temples one of which contains the first 10,000 small buddha's again each one is different this temple also contains the encased body of the monk who was responsible for the construction of the temple the other temples and the pagoda contain statues of other buddha's and gods throughout the site.
By the time I had got back to hostel it was early evening and spent
quite along time trying to find a hostel/hotel for the following day as there was no room at the inn for the 18th but then I am booked back in to the hostel for the 19th to the 22nd so I booked into a hotel on Kowloon for one night as it was the only place that never looked completely hurrendous and had room and everywhere has hiked there prices as it's Chinese new year. By the time I had done this it was quite late so I had a walk up to north point, the next area along, to get some food and then it was back to bed for what I hoped would be an early night as I was really tired but again I never got to sleep til well gone 3 as my body clock seams yet to adjust
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