10,000 buddhas

Last night Miles and Cedric went out clubbing and didn't return until 6am, before falling into the double bed we were sharing between three people. Yes, we were sharing a bed. After the relatively nice YH we stayed in the first few nights, we then had to move to a new place. When we had the brainwave of not booking any accommodation, we failed to realise that yes it is very easy to get accommodation in HK, but not when it is also the same time as China`s public holidays. So the second hostel was a last ditch attempt to stay off the streets. It was cheap, we`ll give it that, but one room was the approximate size of a double bed, and had a double bed in it, and four people were supposed to sleep in there. Interesting.

Anyway, so having given up hope of the boys being up and about in the near future, we hauled ourselves off to inaka to visit Sha Tin and see the history museum. After a very nice set lunch, including Chinese tea ceremony, we trawled round the museum, and watched a traditional dance display. A couple of the dances were really good, but when we had the line-dancing, middle-aged, black-cat-suit-encased ladies come out, we decided we should get on with our day.

After a brief detour up a mountain, due to our now complete lack of faith in the Lonely Planet guide meaning we thought we would have more luck reading the Chinese sign post than the book, we found ourselves at the bottom of the 400 steps that would take us to the 10,000 Buddha statue temple. The Lonely Planet assured us it shut at 5.30. It was now 5.45, and several hundred meters vertically to the temple. What to do? We used our best judgment and ignored the book and started climbing. A good job too, as when we reached the top it was most definitely open, and really, really breathtaking. Inside the temple, the walls were lined with 20cm high, completely individual statues. There was not one bit of wall to be seen...and it was a big temple! There really are 10,000 individually carved, golden statues. There are about 300 or so 6 foot statues that go up either side of the path on the way up (and get increasingly scary towards the top I noticed), so that makes a hell of a lot still left to fill the temple. Sadly the LP hadn`t been that far out, so we only had about 15 minutes at the top before they locked up for the night, but it was still worth the climb.