Chi Lin Nunnery/Nan Lian Gardens

Today we all awoke to another day of heavy grey skies and a bit of anxiety about heading out into the city madness again. So, I thought it was time to get ourselves slightly out of the city and seek a peaceful respite. Chi Lin Nunnery sounded just right, but first we had to get there. And to do that we had to brave the Hong Kong subway system for the first time. This was surprisingly easier than I anticipated. In fact, I think I now prefer it to taxi's. They are clean, quick, timed perfectly and orderly.

As soon as we exited the subway signs pointed the way to the Chinese Gardens and the Buddhist Temple. I actually thought we'd be out of the city, but in fact, after much travel we were still in a very metropolitan area. As soon as we entered the gardens, however, the action of the city did seem to fade away.

There is something about Chinese and Japanese Gardens that have always seemed extraordinarily soothing to me and this one was no different. We wandered the grounds for a long time and then came to the restaurant that was situated behind a gorgeous waterfall. I knew from my research that this was a highly regarded, and most importantly for me, a buddhist vegetarian restaurant. And so far, it's been our best meal yet!

We then meandered to the temple itself and it was so lovely and calming and sacred feeling. In front of one of the buddha's I pointed out to Elle that believers could kneel on the cushions and offer up a prayer to the buddha. She got down on her knees, bowed her head and put her hands in prayer position, and said very seriously and sincerely, "Our father, who art in heaven..." I laughed so hard! It was so cute and sweet and spontaneous.

In one of the pictures above you can see some older ladies gushing over Liam, this happened all day long, over and over again. We had to remove his shirt after lunch because it was soaked with food and drink, and our half naked baby nearly created riots everywhere we took him. Elle was a little miffed. Several people in China now have photos of the buddha baby.

We really did not want to leave the grounds, but eventually it was time to move on. We decided to head over to Hong Kong island, by train. That was the easy part. Hong Kong is crazy! I think I've been out of the city for too long (I don't really consider where we live in LA the city), because my nerves are totally shot here. So many people, so much noise, lights, pollution, shopping, stimulation, so much everything. We walked around a bit aimlessly, vaguely seeking shopping opportunities, and ultimately decided that Liam was getting much too heavy. We finally caved in and bought a stroller. After heaving it up and down stairs, backing it down escalators, and maneuvering in and out of throngs of people though, I'm not sure we're much better off;)

Our shopping outings have been disappointing so far, if Hong Kong shopping is the best in the world, we haven't yet found where that may be... Besides, we are carrying enough stuff already! We all loved our outing to Chi Lin today and I think we will be seeking more outings like that in the coming days.