Temples, Tranquillity and One Last Egg Tart

The proposed route

Regal Kowloon → Wong Tai Sin Temple → Chi Lin Nunnery and Nan Lian Garden → Sham Shui Po → Regal Kowloon → final waterfront evening

This is a reassuring itinerary because the final day of our time in HK is not the ideal time to become the subject of a missing-person report.

The entire outing stays within Kowloon and uses the MTR, so we can shorten it easily if packing, tired legs or an unexpectedly large lunch intervene or another change in the weather. We roughly planned the day based on guide points from the Discover Hong Kong website and a few things we’d seen in the last few days. We added a few times points just to help us along, that’s not to say we actually used them. 🤣🤣

8:30 am — Leave the Regal Kowloon

Begin with breakfast near the hotel, then walk to Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station. Well that worked well, it was about 9:30 when we set out and we changed plan straight away and headed direct to Diamond Hill cutting out the first stop completely.

9:30 am — Wong Tai Sin Temple, oops, missed this completely

The plan was to spend about an hour exploring Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple. But being late starters and having seen several temples already we bypassed this idea. Not sure why we had a plan to begin with.

New plan – 10:00 am — Chi Lin Nunnery

Chi Lin provides a quieter counterpoint to many temples we’ve seen. Its current complex follows traditional Tang-style timber architecture, while the courtyards and lotus ponds provide a remarkably calm setting in the middle of Kowloon.

This is one of those places where you lower your voice automatically, walk more slowly and briefly forget that there are several million people nearby. We took some photos on the outer courtyard, no cameras are permitted in the inner areas. Unlike India last year where this rules was largely ignored here it just seemed the right thing to do. We sat in quiet contemplation for a time just relishing the tranquility amongst this sea of people.

11:00 am — Nan Lian Garden

We then crossed into Nan Lian Garden to wander among its ponds, carefully shaped trees, rocks, bridges and golden pavilion.

The garden and nunnery are linked, making them easy to explore as one visit. The Hong Kong Tourism Board describes the area as one of the district’s principal places for peace and reflection.

This spot provided some of the best photo opportunities of the morning. From the golden Pavilion of Absolute Perfection to the red bridges and reflective ponds surrounded by intricately sculpted trees and rock formations and traditional buildings framed by modern apartment towers there were just too many sights to take in.

Hong Kong proving that it can do serenity almost as well as it does noodles.

11:45 am — Head to Sham Shui Po

Then it was time to get into training again, we jumped on the Kwun Tong Line towards Prince Edward, transfering to the Tsuen Wan Line for the short journey to Sham Shui Po.

12:00 pm – Wandering in Sham Shui Po

Rather than a formal sit lunch we thought about grazing street food around Sham Shui Po. The problem was we’d not long had breakfast at the mall near Diamond Hill and unusually we weren’t hungry. This district combines traditional shops, fabric and electronics streets, local eateries, bakeries and newer independent cafés. Just outside the MTR we found the Fuk Wa St market, a chance for a little retail therapy.

The market features an amazing range of fabric, ribbon and button shops, electronics and gadget stalls, kitchenware and household shops (new mixing bowls anybody?). The toy stores around Fuk Wing Street hold all manner of toys and gadgets

Our wanderings saw us capture a new bag for Helen and a Bluetooth speaker, having forgotten to pack mine, a new one was cheap enough.

An innocent afternoon stroll through shops selling thousands of things we did not know we needed.

1:30 pm — Return to the Regal Kowloon

Take the Tsuen Wan Line directly from Sham Shui Po to Tsim Sha Tsui, a straight run, no transfers. Emerging near our hotel we stopped for food at a local eating house. Lots of point and nod to order lunch, hopefully what we had was what we thought it should be 🤷‍♂️

Then it was back to our hotel for an afternoon rest before our final night here. Not a bad plan as it worked out, we’d been in our room for about 5 minutes when the heavens open up and a tropical storm washed through complete with thunder and lightning. Best watched from our room, unlike yesterday when we endured it while waiting for our bus over in Repulse Bay.

6:30 pm ish— A final dinner near the hotel

Keeping the final dinner in Tsim Sha Tsui is easy but maybe not typical HK food. We found a small bar that had just opened on our first day here. We’ve been regulars since at Malay Mia for the views, great food and super friendly staff so it’s a no brainer not to head back for a last hurrah.

Hong Kong had given us ferries, mountains, cable cars, temples, tram rides, dazzling lights and more meals than our trousers were prepared to discuss. Tomorrow, Da Nang—and an entirely new menu.