This was the part of the honeymoon I had been looking forward to the most and we had a fantastic start when a lovely lady on the reception desk at the Shangri-La Hong Kong, upgraded our room and sent champagne and chocolates up on our first night!I knew I would have to be quick in getting a chocolate since Chris consumed around 4 all at once! Don't worry though, I got my fair share!
On our first day we decided to go to Ocean Park as we heard it was alot better than Disneyland in HK. It has a Giant Panda, Red Panda and Gater sanctuary. Above was the view of the other side of the park as we took a cable car across the hills. I was slightly nervous of how up we were since the cable car was a bit rickety!
I could have spent hours watching the Giant Pandas, they were soooo cute and cuddly looking! The red pandas were unbelievably adorable as well, kind of like big red racoons. I tried to get some good photos but it was really difficult to catch the Red Pandas since they are very fast! We went on lots of rides at the park and luckily we both love rollercoasters so we were in our element!
I persuaded Chris to get a souvenir from Ocean Park...a cute panda teddy that we named Xiong (pronounced Shawn) which means 'bear' in Chinese. As soon as our friends saw it they wanted one too!ha ha. Here's a pic of Xiong helping Chris to navigate around the park...
This is the amazing view of the harbour from our hotel room at night...it really was breath taking when we saw that view on our first night. There's a laser show at 8pm every night too so that's always cool to see!
We also went to the Bird Garden were people take along their pet birds in ornate cages and hang them from trees...it's apparently a very old tradition. Although all the guide books said this was a must see, we were quite saddened when we arrived and realised that there were alot of tropical birds for sale as well. The big parrots were kept 10 in a cage and I was almost in tears looking at them. No one had mentioned to us that there was such cruelty there. We were disgusted to be quite honest and left. I decided not to post pictures of this as I felt it was too upsetting.
We went up Peak Tower and this was the brilliant view of Hong Kong island from the top...
Here's us looking very windswept (notice the red blotchy mosquito bitten legs on me!)...
Chris often amuses himself by making faces at me! There were endless escalators to get to the top of Peak Tower...thank god we didn't have to climb steps!
We headed over to Lan Kwai Fong, a nightlife area with loads of pubs, bars and nightclubs. We, of course, had to have a drink in an Irish pub! It was pretty quiet as we were there at 6pm...we thought we would start early!
The Phillipino staff, namely Avonne and Ryan, in the Irish pub were so lovely and friendly to us. They really made us feel so welcome and chatted to us about the local area and where we should go. It's meeting genuine people like that which can really make your holiday.
On our last day, we decided to go and see the Po Lin Monastry and Giant Buddha. You have to get a cable car up to it and the views were just unbelievable...
As you can see, we were VERY high up but the cable car was really sturdy this time so I could forget my nerves and just enjoy the ride. The cable car had a glass floor so you could look down and see everything as you passed over it.
There's nothing quite like seeing the Giant Buddha on the hill as you come over the last hill, it's pretty spectacular...
I thought the architecture at the monastry was really beautiful against the backdrop of the lush mountains...
There were 268 steps to reach the Buddha at the top...
It really felt like a very spiritual place and we both felt like this was our favourite day of the whole honeymoon. There were 6 statues surrounding the Buddha called the offering of the 6 devas...
This was the view once you get to the top...we didn't know that Hong Kong was surrounded by over 200 islands...
This place was truly unforgettable...
There was also a 'Wisdom Path' that you can follow and apparently people walk this to reach enlightenment. Once you reach the end of the path, you come across these wooden pillars arranged in a figure of 8 to represent infinity...
I was speechless at this point, you just have to stop and take it all in.
Once we walked back down, we went to see a presentation about Buddhism and where it all started. Then the Shaolin Monks show that was on. These guys are pretty damn impressive!
Overall, we felt that the Po Lin monastry has become quite a commercial area for tourists however nothing can take away from the amazing feeling you get from walking up to the Giant Buddha and the Wisdom Path. You feel like you are connecting with nature because you are surrounded by mountains and lush greenery, I can see why this is a place of worship and a place of peace.
So that now concludes all our honeymoon highlights! I hope you guys enjoyed seeing what we got up to and hopefully it will help those of you who were thinking of visiting that part of the world. If you want any advice or tips, please just ask me!
