After Disneyland the day before, yesterday morning the ladies headed off for some retail therapy in the malls of Hong Kong (of which there are many). Myself and The Boy left them to it. We did do something useful though – after a leisurely breakfast, I brought him to get a haircut in the hair salon at our hotel. This turned out to be probably the most expensive three year old’s trim in the history of hairdressing. About €55, all-in. I’ll be cutting it myself for the next three months!!

In the afternoon, we decided to have another crack at making it into Man Mo temple on Hong Kong island, only this time with the full family. On the way there, the girls decided to pose in front of this particularly apt tram:

We did actually make it to inside the temple this time. It’s a small place, but very peaceful. Locals come here to pray for loved ones who have passed away, and also for good luck in exams and other big life events. The coils on the roof are of burning incense, which further adds to the atmosphere.

The Golden Child? It’s certainly a gilt-edged haircut anyway….

Afterwards, we took the metro out to Lantau Island. This is where Disneyland is, but the next stop on that line brings you to a place where you can travel on a glass-bottomed gondola/cable-car over the sea and mountains. The purpose is to go visit the monastery of the Big Buddha – a massive statue on top of one of the mountains. Yet again, DW confronted her fear of heights to come along with us, although she was a bit freaked out by the glass floor. The rest of us all thought it was really cool. The Boy didn’t help DW’s mood by getting down on the floor to look for fish in the sea below!

Unfortunately, as we approached the top, a cloud bank started rolling in and quickly covered the Big Buddha, so this was as close as we actually got to seeing the big man himself, from the cable car before the clouds got him:

Afterwards, we took the train back to have dinner in the city. Things One and Two decided to try out the hand rings, and were proud that they were (just about, on tippy toes!) tall enough to reach them:

For dinner, we decided to try one of the guide book recommendations. We don’t normally do this, as they tend to be hit and miss. But this one was a hit. It was a Chinese food place in a shopping mall. We would never have found it by ourselves, and it was packed with locals (there was only one other table with non-Chinese people at it). We ordered far too much and ate extremely well, and all for less than €100 (or two boy’s haircuts). Lovely!