Day 3 - 30th July 2007

Had breakfast in the hotel and read in the paper that we're now in the longest heatwave Hong Kong has known - they've had warnings out for a week now and heat shelters have been opened for the vulnerable.

We made use of the excellent in-town check-in to check in for our flights to Auckland which meant we could dump our bags and head out for more sightseeing before flying out in the evening.

Took the MTR train out to Tung Chung to catch the bus out to the Yin Ping monastery & giant buddha.

Normally there's a cable car to take you up the mountain, but it's under maintenance so we had to catch the bus - which was a fun ride on narrow roads with quite a lot of roadworks.

Passed through small seaside villages which gave the impression of mediterranean towns (small, white low-rise buildings which are quite a change from HK) ibut with a touch of china.

The Buddha was very impressive with 230+ steps to reach the top. Great views all around. Nice "Walk of Wisdom" out to view a Sutra carved into 26 wooden posts arranged in the shape of the infinity symbol.

The heat was overwhelming and we took the bus back down to Tung Chung where there's an outlet shopping mall and we had a quick tea before catching yet another bus to take us to the nearby airport. With the check-in already done, we went quickly through security, had dinner in the Champions Sports bar and caught the 21.15 Qantas flight to Sydney and then onto Auckland.

Helen says -

another busy day.

We were catching a plane to sydney then to new zealand later on today so we checked in our bags at the train station and there were no ques which never happens in england!

we then went off to a place with a huge buddha that you can c for miles because it is so big and sits on a mountain. we climbed all the steps up to the buddha there were about 230 of them it was very hard in the heatwave that HK is having at the moment . we then wlked a short wlk to loadsa tall stick stickin out the ground at this point i was hot and bothered and was gettin bitten to death all in the same place - the bottom of my right leg. apparently the tall sticks were called sutras they were in the figure of 8 and that was supposed to celbrate something to do with adultery i cant rember quite wot (yh i no i dnt get it either)

then we headed off to the airport all hot and sweaty no good, thank god we didnt have bags to check in cos we were all so tired and cba to worry about quing to check in bags.

Hong Kong pt 3