The last couple of days...

Wednesday 2 December

Yesterday we met up with N_M's parents and took the bus to Stanley, on the south side of Hong Kong Island. Some of the Colonial British buildings have been moved brick by brick from their original location in Victoria Harbour to Stanley.

This is the original Blake's Pier where the Governors of Hong Kong arrived from the UK and left after their tenure here. Chris Patten was the last Governor who left on the handover night, midnight, on 31 July 1997.

And this is the original Murray Building, built in 1846 as officer's quarters, and dismantled and moved brick by brick to Stanley in 2001/2.

We had a look in an Estate Agent's window there; the price of property is almost unimaginable. To get a 4 bedroomed house in Repulse Bay, just next to Stanley, costs 110,000,000 $ (about 9 million pounds) to buy, or 200,000$ per month to rent (about £16000). Totally ridiculous money, but small fry after a flat sold recently in mid levels for 750,000,000$ (yes, that's 50 million quid!!)

After our trip we came back and enjoyed an Italian meal in the shopping centre under our hotel.

Thursday 3 December

Today we took the bus to Ngong Ping to visit the Po Lin Monastery. This was our third visit, but as we left it much later in the day, most of the crowds had left and it was very peaceful.







The carvings on the outside of the building are quite stunning.










And here is the Buddha himself, just as the sun was setting.








After a brief visit to Tung Chung shopping outlet, we took the bus back to Mongkok for a wander round, then onto Jordan.

Hong Kong has a few "Yee Shun Milk Shops" and they're amongst our favourite places to eat. N_M always has the noodles with spam and a fried egg (sounds awful but apparently is ultra tasty!) and I have a cheese and egg sandwich.

How's that for a butty??!!

For pud I have the cold chocolate milk pudding, and N_M has the hot steamed milk pudding, which is made from milk and the white of the egg. The whole meal costs about £5 including Chinese tea and coca cola. Bargain, and extremely delicious!

And now we're back at the hotel ready for bed. We've got a few busy days coming up, so lots to tell afterwards. Laters!