So, I love Hong Kong already. They are not very tourist-friendly, but damn it's a cool place.
I don't know whether it's just the thrill of being able to wake up and check Facebook, and using Google Maps to plan my way around the city, but I loved today. A lot.
I started off with a little stop at the Nikon repair store - they are going to fix my lens for free for some reason, and have it done by tomorrow, which is just amazing and incredible seeing as a guy quoted my about $200 for it yesterday.
I then headed to the 10,000 Buddhas. It has got to be one of the hardest places to find in the city. Four different subways to get to the stop I needed, then there was not one sign for the place anywhere.
It took my half an hour to get out of the subway station alone - it was a 14 story shopping centre with a Snoopy world for kids to play on (as in the cartoon dog). But eventually I made it out onto the street.
Google maps wasn't much help seeing as the phone is brand new and I forgot to download offline maps of HK. I ended up walking up about 500 stairs from a cute little pond with fish and turtles to what I thought was the temple, before finding out it was actually a cemetery.
The view was still pretty incredible, but a sign would have saved me an hour.
After the small detour and another half hour of searching, I walked around the back of a shopping centre, and saw a small sign with Chinese writing and a gold Buddha on it pointing further away from the road, so I followed that.
All of the searching was completely worth it. The walk was harder than I planned, seeing as it was about 20 degrees hotter than I'm used to (it was almost 16 degrees today) so I was a big sweaty mess, but it was beautiful!
All of the Buddhas along the walk up the hill were different. No two looked the same. Some were regal and elegant to look at, with detailed lines showing different emotions and age on their faces, while some were hilariously posed with silly expressions or elongated features, while others looked like they had been made in a hurry by someone who had never tried to sculpt a person before. They were awesome.
At the top, there was a huge hall with a giant Buddha inside it, with the walls lined with thousands and thousands of Buddhas. It was spectacular to see. There were other halls being used as temples, but more amazing was the top of the hill which had a small waterfall, with more gold Buddhas, turtles and a giant stone Buddha.
Tomorrow, Victoria Peak xx