10,000 Buddhas.

I've found that when I arrive in Hong Kong, I always peak really early. So, I think that the jet-lag hasn't got me and the first day-and-a-half will be all good, until I'm wide awake at 3am for no reason.

After some fancy dim sum in Kowloon Tong, we popped back over to Sha Tin, where we were staying, and ended up walking up the side of a huge hill to visit the Ten Thousand Buddha Monastery.



Hong Kong is pretty small, so it's easy to get from one side to another in just over an hour, still I thought it was a good idea to take a look at what we could do nearby. Not least because I didn't want us to stress ourselves out too much on our first day.

So, it was the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery that took my eye, it sounded insane and having seen photographs of it before and then reading more into it, I couldn't wait. My poor sister wasn't quite prepared for the 45 minute hike up a fairly steep hill to get to the top and neither was I, but we got there.


Lined with 500 golden buddhas, each one different, the walk ended up being pretty fun, even in the Hong Kong humidity, we made it right to the very top beyond the monastery buildings. It's not technically a monastery as no monks reside here and the buildings and statues are maintained by laypeople but I'd certainly recommend it to anyone visiting Hong Kong, it was one of the most different things I've done.

The statues are completely wild and, I don't know whether it's because of the day we visited but it was much quieter than many of the other attractions that we visited during our trip.








This is the kind of place that makes facial recognition slightly creepy...





This long-armed one was my favourite.









We were lucky to see wild monkeys, they seemed to know that the rain was on its way and were a bit more shy than I'd read they would be.


Explainations on a postcard.


Route to the top.