Day 6 - Burgers, Buses and 10,000 Buddhas

To round off day five, I went back to the hostel via the juice bar and had a strawberry and advocado smoothie (it's actually quite nice). I slept very well that night, and I awoke at 4am, turned over, and slept till after 10. Brilliant! When I awoke, I had a quick shower and headed out to breakfast, which was a coconut cream bun and a chicken teriyaki sandwich, with soybean milk. I then went to see if George was up, which he was, and I helped his sort out his laundry before he packed (he's moving hostel). We then headed out to grab a quick smoothie from the bar, and then we split, with me heading back to Chungking to try to find a laundrette, which I did, and it was closed on Sundays, so laundry will have to wait until tomorrow (at least I tried, mum!). My next port of call was the shopping arcade next door to chungking, to try to get my bracelet (from day 5) adjusted, as it was too tight. There I discovered a small shop called the shellfish shop, run a a little old chinese lady, who adjusted the bracelet for me and only charged me HK$20. She did such a good job that I gave her 25. I then decided to head out to visit Sai Kung, as recommended by Jenny the air hostess (see day 1). I caught the MRT to Choi Hung, and then the minibus 1A to Sai Kung. When I got there, I was surprised at the contrast from Tsim Sha Tsui. Here, there was a contrast between the quiet, village like feel of the main promenade, overlooking a small but busy harbour full of little fishing vessels, and the bustling motorway further inland. The street was full of seafood restaurants, but I was put off by the way in which live seafood was sitting in tanks next to the diners, to be picked. I therefore wandered further down the street to a little restaurant called the camden town, which was offering a Burger and soft drink for $30. That did nicely, and was followed by some fries. One of the people at the restaurant working was a little girl, about 10, who was obviously helping out with her mum, and helped by bringing out drinks and ketchup. I was suckered in, and ended up giving her a $5 tip (I know, but she was 10 and working, surely that shows initiative). I then headed off to the bus stop to get a bus to Sha Tin station. The bus I got onto said Sha Tin town centre, not Sha Tin station, so I was keeping lookout to see where to get off, when the bus flew past a sign for the MRT network. Panicking, I pushed the button and watched as the bus moved further and further down a dual carriageway away from the station. When it finally stopped, I got off the bus only to discover that it had been another MTR station, not Sha Tina, and that I would have to wait for another bus. When I got to Sha Tin, I headed for the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery. To get there, I ahd to wind my way throught backstreets and around the gridlock until I finally reached teh path leading up to the monastery. The path consisted of over 400 steps, thought with the haet at that time of day, it might well have been 10'000. At one point I decided to pause for a moment, and grabbed hold of the shiny, red handrail. Not a good idea. With a sinking feeling, I removed my hand quickly from the railing, ad looked around for a sign, and found one, written completely in Chinese, which said "油漆未乾". I knew instantly what it meant, as i looked down at the palm of my hand, which was now bright red. The sign obviously said "wet paint". I headed up the remaining steps as quickly as I could, hoping that if I ever reached the top there would be a toilet, and somwhere to get water. I did reach the top, some while later, and stagered into the small restaurant and, panting heavily, asked for some water. The lady charged (a reasonable) $10 for the bottle of water, and directed me to a small toilet, and after several minutes of frantic scrubbing te red was gone. Thank Buddha for that. I then headed out to the temple, and saw the 12'800 (approx) small statues of Buddha which adorned the walls. Yet again I was surprised at how peaceful it was, after passing through the gridlock in the city below. I spent a while wandering, and taking photos befor heading back down the hillside, and I found the walk downward much easier than the walk up, especially as I had bought another bottle of water for the purpose. As I walked, one of the people walking up the hill paused for a moment, and guess what he leaned hi back onto? Yes, he had a bright red line right along the back of his top. I didn't have the heart to tell him, so I jst had to keep in the laughter until he was out of earshot. When I had returned to Sha Tin, I caught the KCR to Kowloon Ting, and then the MTR to Lok Fu. There I had intended to go to the Kowloon walled city, but discovered that there was no bus, and after to trip to the monastery, my feet wouldn't have coped with the walk, so insted I caught a bus to Star Ferry, and enjoyed the ride through the streets of Kowloon, even passing by Chungking Mansions. When I arrived at the terminal, I hopped on the ferry across to Hong Kong before walking over to my newly discovered favourite Japanese restaurant, Yoshinoya. After a Sumo Beef bowl, with miso soup, jelly and a fruit punch (I avoided eatng the Kimchi (spicy cabbage from day 5)), I headed back onto the streets of Hong Kong to look for a tram stop. I found one, an boarded the first tram, which was headed for Western Market. For the first part of that journey, I had to stand due to a lack of avilable seating, and, after banging my head several times off the roof, I found the best spot for standing, halfway up the staircase. When the tram eventually emptied, I grabbed the nearest available seat and sat down, looking out the window. The ride was quite enjoyable, but a little bit juddery (I put it down to the age of the tram and the busy roads). When we reached Western Market (I presumed it was, since everyone got off), I disembarked to find myself in the middle of generis Hong Kong shopping and so, not quite in the mood for shopping, I hopped onto a tram headed for Happy Valley. With a name like that, it had to be good, right? I was pleased to find the upstairs front seat available, and sat down and got out my camera to get some pictures of the journey. We rattled through the streets of Hong Kong, quite literally, and many of the pictures I took (on  Facebook) turned out quite blurry. When we reached happy valley, there was no major discernable difference from western market, and so I decided to call time on the visiting of new places for the day, and got a tram back towards Central, where I caught a train back to Tsim Sha Tsui, and so to the internet Cafe. Stay Tuned, folks!