Halfway in the Hong we are! Marvellous monasteries

Day 15-19: Morbid weather shall only leave us elated

Day 15 A sopping wet and really comfy temperature journey

Myself, Kylie, Blaine and (Kylie's sister's name has eluded me, sorry) decided that today is the day that we have to walk the MacLehose Trail, which is the equivalent of... just imagine the most beautiful and serene hike in your homeland, but then make it gruelling to the level that a Chinese military regime would use it to train their soldiers. Alas, this had to be postponed, even though we had traveled 90minutes to the starting point, we decided that this trail deserves a sky that would make South Africans happy. A lengthy post about MacLehose to come the moment we find a sunny day to conquer her with.

  So here is how we spent the rest of that day.

The weather the past week was terrible, freak weather for Hong Kong post-monsoon season weather. First time this year that it has been this gloomy. The type of rain here reminds you of that type of mist that restaurants flaunt on hot days, but just kilolitres of it.

The Temple of a Thousand Buddhas

We rumbled around in sopping weather, the only 4 people in Hong Kong who refuse to buy/own umbrellas. Wet and jubilantly delirious we set off to the Temple of a thousand Buddhas, which we felt was quite self explanatory. We ended upon entering a temple-ish setting, and just assumed it was the aforementioned place we were looking for.

We ended up walking into this sign, we realised we could either be lost, or exactly in the right place. It was a flip of a coin.

It turns out that we have been dwindling around the past 60 minutes up stairs and looking at ornaments in the walls and offerings to the gods etc etc only to be corrected by a piece of paper thrust towards us by one of the caretakers that we were not in the Temple of a Thousand Buddhas but instead a fancy graveyard where the ornaments were actually boxes filled with ashes and the locals all around were actually mourning families.

Would you like to continue up more stairs or continue up some other stairs?

This has been the third graveyard we accidentally walk through. We should heed the signs more, but unfortunately our Chinese sign reading is not up to scratch.

The real Temple of a Thousand Buddhas

Luckily the paper thrust upon us had on it English instructions on how to get to the temple: It's right next to this place.

The pathway to the top. Every Buddha had his own personality. We did not count them, but we trust the numbers.

I must say that the temples do leave me feeling uncomfortable sometimes. I like to believe that I am a good disciple of Jesus, but so far outside your comfort zone is always unnerving. I did allow this an opportunity for myself to rely on the foundation of my faith, and consider this a learning opportunity. Along this path, I also underwent a path of learning, and realised that it is so necessary for every person to be enlightened as much as possible about cultures and religious practises other than their own. I had some good conversations with God about what I was feeling and what I was seeing while walking up this path.

The really real Temple of a Thousand Buddhas

It turns out that this was the monastery and not the temple of a thousand Buddhas. I figured this when, halfway up the mountain, we came across a giant sacred-looking room where every one of it's 4 walls were filled to the brim with these. We counted: 100 little Buddhas from left to right in each row and 30 rows from top to bottom. No

Yes there were a lot, they also each had their own persona

Sopping wet, the rain eventually ceased and we embraced the warm air and asked it to dry us, which it did kind of. We walked to the top, where there were great views of Hong Kong skyscrapers below, ponds with carnivorous turtles hunting their fellow pond inmates (goldfish) and a very big white Buddha chilling on a dragon at the top.

These Buddhas were chilling at the top.

Blaine aptly dubbed this the infinity tree

Monday-Thursday: Back to the office

The next few days were quite busy in the hospital. We attach to the final year students completing their 2weeks of ENT before their final exams. They have promised to take us squid fishing once they have finished.

Another visit to Mr Wong's

Tuesday we got together with some of Maggy's Australians buds that were here in Hong Kong for a bit, we took them for Wong's 9see previous blog posts. We have found that Mr Wong's is quite the Internet sensation, because he fills the entire first page of Google when you type in "Mr Wong's"
Wong's is officially Blaine and my favourite alley restaurant in the entire world (thanks to Richard and Matt). These videos may give you a feel of what Wong's is like

Mr Wong himself, always jumping and laughing, offering you more free beer and/or vodka.
His main complaint is that he is in demand for too many girls.

How Blaine and I have changed thus far:

1. We eat bowls of rice with chopsticks now.
2. Still looking for the elusive Starfruit, it is becoming ever more out of season, yet I shall find her.
3. Don't feel like tourists at all anymore, more like illiterate locals
4. Feel like I'm on the breakthrough of becoming fluent in Mandarin
5. Developing an aversion to top of the range smartphone
6. Do not need maps anymore in the subway, even me.
7. Blaine and I have decided to skip lunch before every visit to Wong's from now on in.
8. Delicious as the food here is, we have started to crave western food, and (don't judge) I had 2 MacDonald's Big Mac meals last night. It was worth it. (The maccyD's here are some of the cheapest in the world)..

Yes those are my BigMac's and yes they were delicious. My hunger hormones are working overtime these days.