Hong Kong Covid horror stories

 

How bad a state is Hong Kong currently in?  Well, when you

consider that entry to places of worship are currently off limits... :S

 

Two evenings ago, Hong Kong was abuzz about an emergency alert about Queen Elizabeth Hospital being converted into a designated Covid hospital having been sent on a previously unknown -- and unused --  HK$150 million system to many (but not all) phone owners that caused their phones' sirens and buzzers to go off like nobody's business.  Freaked out folks variously wondered if an earthquake had occurred or if Russia had declared a nuclear war.  

 

Others wondered if martial law had been declared in Hong Kong or they had been summoned to be admitted to one of those horrible "community isolation facilities" that have been built (overly) quickly in recent weeks.  All in all, it's a wonder that no one actually got a heart attack as a result of hearing the alert, though several people did voice that it threatened to do so for them!   

 

Two days later, Queen Elizabeth Hospital is in the news once more -- and this time, we're talking about something truly tragic that can in no way be taken lightly or turned into a joke that we can all laugh off.  Specifically: photographs circulated on social media showing filled body bags having been put in a hospital ward right next to patients and their beds (those poor patients!), and, in one image, a bag of adult diapers having been placed atop a filled body bag. 

Granted that we know that Hong Kong's public hospitals have been under severe strain -- no thanks to the private hospitals not pitching in much at all.  Just today, there was a report in the Hong Kong Free Press that "over 12,500 of the Hospital Authority's (HA) 88,000 employees have been infected with Covid-19 during the fifth wave, as it continues to overwhelm the public healthcare system" and about a viral video showing Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department's consultant doctor, Ho Hiu-fai, a veteran medico who's worked at the hospital for 35 years, breaking down in tears during a staff meeting.

 

Truly, the picture painted by Dr Ho at the staff meeting was horrendous.  Among the details: some 80 percent of patients who arrived at the hospital by ambulance had Covid and some 65 percent of them required hospitalization.  Also, "some patients failed to be admitted into wards and were stuck in the emergency room".  And the reports of other staffers at the meeting were alarming too: including about the emergency room "being like hell, where patients have to sleep on the floor, and there is not enough medicine and supplies like saline water and oxygen"; and there also being "not enough manpower to take care of elderly people's needs, such as taking them to the toilet and feeding them." 

 

Even so, nothing quite rammed home how terrible things have become like those shocking photos.  You know it's bad when a public health professor's Tweeted reaction to the most circulated of them was: "It takes a lot, and this far into the pandemic, but this photo has brought me to an all-time low point." And in the words of another person upset by what they saw: "What two years of Hong Kong government incompetence, and Central government interference, has done to Asia's World City."

 

The Hong Kong Hospital Authority has urged for understanding -- and I think many people will give them -- or at least its medical staffers -- that.  People know that they are overwhelmed and that they've been hung out to dry by the Hong Kong government.  But the Hong Kong government itself really has a lot to answer for.  

 

Oh, and for the record: Hong Kong reported another 294 Covid deaths today; bringing the total number of fifth wave deaths to 3,231 to date.  (A reminder: until the fifth wave, Hong Kong had considerably fewer Covid deaths than deaths from SARS in 2003.)  As Hong Kong-based history professor Noah Shusterman put it: "No excuse for this, not now, not in 2022."     

 

Adding to the horror: the mental strain that caused more than 270 Hong Kongers to call the Samaritan Befrienders Hong Kong (SBHK) suicide prevention group for help in January and February as a result of emotional distress caused by the fifth wave.  And then there are the suicides of two elderly individuals who caught Covid  for fear of causing a burden to their family.  As Natalie Wong, the journalist who Tweeted about them, stated: "Hong Kong has failed them". :(

The latest oppressive government decision that's been the talk of the town the past few days

 

My phone for more than 11 years now

 

I saw a Tweet on Thursday that sent chills down my spine.  Galileo Cheng broke the news that the Hong Kong government was going to enforce the compulsory use of its LeaveHomeSafe tracking app in government buildings and for a couple of hours or so, there were no other reports about this -- prompting me to dearly hope that he would be wrong for a change.  But, alas, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) confirmed that this would indeed be the case and the more details came out about this decision, the worse it sounds.          

For one thing, individuals exempted from this requirement include those under 12 years of age and over 65 year olds: which is really strange if this move is truly the anti-pandemic measure it is officially touted as being due to it already containing loopholes and members of the exempt age groups being the least likely in Hong Kong to have been vaccinated!  (Yes, Hong Kong is that rare territory where the elderly are less likely to be vaccinated than young and middle-aged adults while being similar to other territories in not requiring children to be vaccinated as yet.)   

For another, the government buildings and offices that people who don't use the tracking app (including those who can't because they don't own smartphones) don't only include the likes of the Legislative Council and courts but also libraries, museums, sports centres, community centres, cultural centres, cooked food centres, wet markets (that are housed in government buildings) and, possibly, post offices and even public toilets!  Reports have come in too of entry to public hospitals requiring the use of this much derided app, prompting a furious reaction from medical personnel and scientists along with raising valid ethical issues (e.g., as per a Tweet by DefianceT, "On how many grounds is HA violating medical ethics by denying treatment for one who already holds a negative test within 72 hours just on the ground of not wanting to scan a dumb code?"). 

 

There is particular concern for what will happen to the homeless, since the majority of them -- as one might expect -- do not possess smartphones, and they -- and other economically impoverished individuals -- are being exempted from the requirement to use this app.  Not only do they face being barred from entering public hospitals and libraries (where they can be in free air-conditioned space for a few hours of each day) but they also look to be denied access to public shelters as a result of not only owning a smartphone but also, if by some miracle they had money to have one (and not losing it, it not getting stolen or "cleared away" over the course of periodic government "cleaning" exercises), not having a data plan for the smartphone!

 

Then there are the likes of me, who has been content to live life without smartphones and reckons one should have the right to do this (or, like at least one friend I know, not have any mobile phones at all!).  For the record: not only have I been happy all this while to use the 2G Nokia phone that a then colleague bought for me to use more than 11 years ago is still working but I think it'd help the environment if more people didn't feel a need to change their (smart)phones every year or so (or seemingly sometimes even less)!  (And, okay, there's also this anxiety that I now face when it comes to buying a new phone since, actually, I've never ever bought a phone in my life -- with the three previous moboile phones I had prior to the present one having been gifted to me by other people!)     

 

On a more weighty note: there is the strong suspicion many people have that the Hong Kong government's LeaveHomeSafe app "has nothing to do with health and everything to do with surveillance. It's a way to get people used to contributing to their own control."  Which is why many smartphone owners I know have refused to download and use that app.  Even Aaron (@tripperhead), the compiler and dispenser extraordinaire of Hong Kong pandemic information, is upset with this turn of events. 

At the very least, many thinking folks are agreed about the following: Deciding who can access a space or place should be based on who has been fully vaccinated or not, rather than who uses a tracking app or not, if one really is intent on enacting effective anti-pandemic/public health measures.  Something else many of us can clearly see is that this latest move by the Hong Kong government most certainly is not going to provide any encouragement to those who still have yet to be vaccinated against the Wuhan coronavirus to go and do so.   

One last thing: Hong Kong has actually been coronavirus free for some time; with no local transmissions for 15 days now and for a two month spell or so before this!  So there doesn't seem to be a rational reason to suddenly implement this app requirement now if you look at it from a health perspective, only political ones.  Consequently, this turn of events has gotten people thinking that the Hong Kong government has gone beyond incompetent to downright malicious (if it doesn't do a u-turn upon realizing how disastrous this latest plan, which is set to be implemented from November 1st, is -- the way it ended up doing with its stupid dine-in ban last year!).   

At Museum Meiji-Mura, Inuyama's mega open air museum (Photo-essay)

Light rain fell for a couple of hours when I was at Museum Meiji-Mura and the sky was cloudy and gray for much of the time I was there at the open air museum dedicated to preserving and exhibiting Meiji era architecture on the edge of the central Japanese castle town of Inuyama.  Maybe the weather was what kept the crowds away the week day I was there but it didn't affect my ability to appreciate what must be one of the largest open air museums in the world -- whose size and scope I ended up underestimating. 

My usually trusty Frommer's Japan guidebook had said to budget to spend at least three hours at Museum Meiji-Mura. I was there for 4 hours -- and would have happily continued wandering about and exploring the 100 hectare (250 acre) site for another couple of hours if closing time hadn't come along so quickly!  Looking back, the problem was that the journey there from Nagoya had taken longer than expected: half an hour by train to Inuyama, followed by a half hour bus ride to the open air museum itself (and that didn't include the time spent waiting for the bus to arrive after arriving in Inuyama).  Ah well, I guess I just have to add this museum to my list of places in Japan I need to return to again some time...

 

Not how I imagined the reception hall of 

a Japanese marquis' residence would look like! 

 Just a small section of by far the largest open air museum

I've ever been to anywhere in the world!

The lighthouse in the above picture is 150 years old,

and the oldest Western-style lighthouse in Japan!

In a nearby building can be found displays of 

lighthouse lamps whose lights really do shine very brightly

 The Museum Meiji-Mura also is home to a Meiji period

iron bridge, steam locomotives, streetcars and buses

  This building served as the premises of a Japanese 

Evangelical Church in Seattle, Washington, USA!

 It may not be much to look at but I consider it a major marvel

that this house which used to stand in Registro, Brazil, now

is to be found in a corner of central Japan!

The St. Francis Xavier Cathedral which originally stood in 

Kyoto was the first Christian building that Puppet Ponyo

posed in since she and I were in Spain earlier this year! ;b

The Nokia 3310 is back, and my Nokia 1616 never left!

My current phone and the sales invoice for it ;b

  

The rumors were true: the Nokia 3310 is really back!  And for the record: no, I will not be rushing to get myself one... since my current Nokia phone, which I got back in August 2010 (and which was sold to me with 10 year warranty), is -- touch wood! -- still working fine!   

The Nokia 1616 may not be as iconic as the Nokia 3310 but I really love the one I have.  The fourth and current mobile phone I've owned, it's lasted far longer than the second hand Motorola mobile phone I was given by my mother after my return to Asia in July 2003 from the US (where mobile phones weren't as popular, and were even rather rare at the time) and I got a job over in Kuala Lumpur (with a fairly hi-tech company) as well as the two Sony Ericsson phones I had which both started malfunctioning before they reached their fourth year.

When I bought my Nokia 1616, smartphones already existed but were nowhere as commonplace as they are now.  The first few years that I had the phone, people would ask me when I'd replace it and I'd tell them "when my current phone dies".  And, some six and half years on, my current phone hasn't died yet!       

Nowadays, people tend to react with disbelief when they see my phone for the first time.  Actually, I think some folks seem to be in shock even when they see my phone again for the upteenth time!  It's like they can't believe that: a) a piece of technology can last this long; and/or b) I haven't got rid of -- and replaced -- a piece of technology that happens to still be working fine!

In all honesty, I find both those sentiments and ideas to be so sad.  With regards to the former: with all the technological advances and mastery that humankind has achieved, why aren't electronic, electrical and other equipment made to last -- and, in the process, ensure that we aren't so wasteful with the earth's resources and producing so much more junk than we should?  With regards to the latter: rather than knock something because it's old, I actually value its durability -- and, because there's not as many of them left compared to when they were first made, their (increased) rarity!

People who've tried to tell me why it's great to have a smartphone tell me about their added features such as their having a built-in camera and a pedometer app.  The thing though is that I prefer to have a separate camera, with such as the 30x zoom feature that smartphones don't have, and I've long had an actual pedometer, which I click on my belt and is pretty accurate.  

People also have gone on and on about the smartphone's greater connectivity: except that I know of parts of Hong Kong where my hiking companions' smartphones have no phone reception but my non-smartphone does!  In addition, I've lost count of the number of times that friends with smartphones have been unable to find a restaurant, bar, etc. that we were supposed to meet at (even with Google Maps at their fingertips) and I've had to go out and bring them to the place!

Admittedly, there have been times when I've been abroad, found that my otherwise trusty phone doesn't work and had no regular, convenient access to a phone capable of making and receiving international phone calls (e.g., in Japan, which shut down its 2G network a long time ago and whose Dormy Inn business hotel chain I like, though not for its phones that can only make and receive calls from within Japan).  But after a while, you get used to it.  And when I had the kind of job where people thought it perfectly fine to call you even though you hade made it clear that you were on vacation and out of town, it actually felt really liberating to be out of phone range for even just a few days!

Actually, I used to think that after I quit that job, I'd get a smartphone.  But when I did do so, that urge to get a smartphone never actually came -- or, at least, never was stronger than my resolve to not replace something that's still in working order, and working fine as far as I'm concerned.  Also, with each passing year, I get to thinking that maybe when this phone dies, I might replace it with another non-smartphone.  And now with the return of the Nokia 3310, I'm getting to thinking that there might be quite a few more people like me than I had previously thought -- and maybe even those who want to replace their smartphones with ones like mine! :) 

Not your usual MTR trains and rides on the South Island Line!

On driverless trains, passengers can get quite the view

when they stand at the front of the very first carriage! :b

And on some of those driverless trains in Hong Kong, one also can 

gawk at images of various animals on the carriage walls! ;D

 

Last October, two new stations -- Ho Man Tin and Whampoa -- opened on the MTR's Kwun Tong Line.  Even more exciting for local train spotters was the opening on December 28th of the MTR's entirely new South Island Line that has five stations between Admiralty, in the north of Hong Kong Island, and South Horizons, over on the western end of the even more uber densely populated island of Ap Lei Chau.

 

The MTR has trumpeted the fact that with the commencement of operations on the South Island Line, its train service has now been extended to all of Hong Kong's 18 districts.  And it is indeed quite amazing how quickly one can get from what previously had felt like far away parts of Hong Kong to the administrative and financial centers of the territory over in Admiralty and Central.

 

Less widely publicized by the company is the fact that all of the trains operating on the South Island Line are driverless.  When coupled with their carriages having been made in China (rather than British made and Australian refurbished, as has previously been the case) and the line suffering power outages on its second day of operation, it's understandable that some people have expressed reservations about this new MTR line that they don't about the older ones.  And this even before the publication of an EJ Insight article drawing attention to the lime colored line's trains only having three carriages each, and the stations' platforms being narrower than the norm.

 

So it was with fairly low expectations that I went on the South Island Line one day last week -- and maybe that was the right frame of mind in which to approach the experience because, as it turned out, I thought it actually pretty pleasant!  For starters, its stations and trains don't appear to be anywhere as crowded as I had feared would be the case.  And while it's true enough that I wasn't there during rush hour, I honestly did worry that we'd be packed like sardines on at least the section of the ride between Admiralty and Ocean Park (whose visitor numbers are in the thousands daily, and the millions annually)!

 

Looking at things with a critical eye though: I have to say that the new train carriages do have the "dinky", plastic-y feel of those on the East and West Rail lines rather than the more solidly metal feeling of those on the Island, Tsuen Wan, Kwun Tong and Tung Chung lines.  And there's something fairly disturbing about the large number of security cameras installed in each carriage.  In addition, the new train stations appear to need some finishing touches to their design as they currently lack the requisite aesthetic polish as well as visual homages to their neighborhoods found in other MTR stations.

 

On a more positive note, however: One visual upshot of the new trains being driverless is that one is privy to some really cool views if one stands at the front of the first carriage and looks out of the windows there; something that a number of people -- kids and adults alike -- appear to have quickly figured out.  Another nice touch -- which I hadn't expected -- is that at least one of the trains looks to have the walls of its carriages permanently decorated in a way that befits one of its stops being Ocean Park!  Maybe all this will get old soon for some but for now, it's obvious that some of the passengers did find amusement in these aspects of the train and consequently had their rides feel enlivened, even fun, rather than just prosaic and entirely routine! :)

Camera and hiking update

View from a hiking trail that goes close to Chek Lap Kok Airport

and even has a rest area that functions as a veritable plane spotters' stop

Yes, Mother Nature played a part in making this picture 

awesome -- but I think my new camera did too! ;b

 A beautiful butterfly (or is it a moth?) spotted while hiking

along the Nam Chung Country Trail

I admit it: my camera made this shot look far more

dramatic than the reality ;)

It's been a little bit more than a fortnight since my old Sony Cyber-shot HX50V camera gave up the ghost and I replaced it with a new Panasonic Lumix DMC-TX80 (better known in Hong Kong as a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS60).  I'm still "playing" with my new "toy" but already, I've figured out certain cool abilities of it, including to take photos like the ones at the top of this blog post!

The first two pictorial offerings were taken on the first hike I went on along the Tung Chung to Tai O route since a different friend and I hiked along the route and came across significant swathes of land where hill fires had raged close to two years ago.  Especially in view of the human-caused destruction that I had saw along the same way less than two years ago, it was lovely as well as a thorough relief to get confirmation once again that Mother Nature is -- through no help rendered by humanity -- far more resilient than we often credit it for.

Meanwhile, the next two snaps were taken while hiking for the first time along the Nam Chung Country Trail that's on the challenging side but yielded some lovely panoramic views and also passed close by watery ways that were on the picturesque side.  But rather than offer up more representative photos from that hike, I've put up a documentation of a critter spotting -- which was on the unusual side given the time of the year -- and also a shot that emphasizes how small and insignificant humans can feel while out in the great outdoors. ;b

Hike and camera thoughts and talk

View from near the top of Black Hill (aka Ng Kwai Shan)

showing the close proximity of city and country in Hong Kong

 

It may be winter in Hong Kong but it still can be 

warm enough for the butterflies to come out to play :)

 

Two friends and I hiked Stage 3 of the Wilson Trail this afternoon.  While it was their first time, I had been on this scenic section of trail before -- and consequently knew to look out for the often strangely placed signs to be found on this portion of one of Hong Kong's major hiking trails.

 

Because of this -- and also the fervent wish on the part of one of my friends to make sure that we maintained sufficient distance from another hiker out today, whose blasting of Cantonese opera music on her radio was threatening to drive my friend nuts! -- we ended up completing this section of trail in a shorter time than the official estimates.  And this even though I spent quite a bit of time testing out my new camera along the way.

 

Before anything else: yes, my Sony Cyber-shot HX50V camera has died -- close to three years after it replaced my beloved Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ2 after that other camera gave up the ghost after having to deal with what, in retrospect, appeared to be too much dust and rain on my 2013 Vietnam visit.  Rather than add phantom rays of light into dark pictures (like my Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ2 began to do in its final days), the Sony Cyber-shot HX50V signalled that it was on its last legs by first over-exposing zoom shots, then going all dark on me less than two weeks after showing signs of malfunctioning.

 

In light of my previous Panasonic camera having lasted five years to the Sony's three, I leaned towards getting a Panasonic camera again this time around.  And after reading positive online reviews for what looks to be the current edition of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ2 (which retains its 24mm wide-angle lens feature but now also has a 30x zoom (like the Sony Cyber-shot HX50V)), I've gone ahead and got a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 (aka Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS60), and hope that it will serve me well for at least the next four or five years to come.

 

Judging from the photographs I took today (a day that actually turned out to be hazier than the rest of this week -- and warmer too! -- but still pleasant enough weather-wise), this camera looks like it'll satisfy.  Put another way: I like both the landscape picture and macro shot of a beautiful butterfly at the top of this blog post (and took with my new camera), and trust that you do too! ;b     

Hobby drones -- more commonplace than novelty item in Hong Kong these days?

A man from the future spotted out in 

the Hong Kong countryside?

 

Actually, it's "just" a contemporary hobbyist 

and his smooth flying drone! ;b

 

It's interesting how a piece of technology can go from novelty to commonplace these days.  I think here not only of smartphones but also computers since -- as I have divulged to a number of shocked young adults -- my first year at college, I typed out term papers on an electric typewriter, and didn't feel it necessary to own a computer of my own until my second year or so of graduate school.  

And after having spotted drones flying in the air on a number of occasions while strolling about in the Hong Kong countryside over the past year, I'm getting to realizing that these unmanned aircraft aren't such rare sights any more -- and, also, that they look to have crossed from the realm of professional tool to leisure equipment for what appears to be a not inconsiderable amount of individuals here in the Big Lychee!  

 

If truth be told, I can't quite pinpoint the first time I saw a drone in flight.  But I distinctly remember seeing a drone utilized to take video footage from above of the thousands of people assembled at Occupy Admiralty one evening in late 2014, and also spotting one being flown along with other remote controlled aircraft by hobbyists enjoying an afternoon out on the banks of Lower Shing Mun Reservoir after a friend and I got there on a hike that began from the main reservoir up on higher elevation and concluded in Tai Wai.

 

Still, it wasn't until earlier this year that I mentioned drones for the first time on this blog.  And today's blog post is my very first that contains photos of a drone and its controller (including together in a single photo that I'm quite chuffed about having managed to capture)!  About time, right? ;b  

Drinking in the views when others focus on their mobile phone screens

On a ferry ride offering scenic sights like this, wouldn't you 

want to drink in the views rather than look at your phone's screen?

 

Maybe the people looking at their phone screens in the above photo

were checking out photos that had taken on their smartphones... ;S

 

Take time to stop and smell the roses.  This is a piece of advice that pretty much every one living in the "hurry, hurry, go, go" city that is Hong Kong would benefit from obeying every once in a while.  And now with the vast majority of the populace hooked to their smartphones, this territory with a mobile phone penetration rate of 227,8% as of May 2016, it seems that people would also benefit from the recommendation that they look up from their smartphone screens to check out and appreciate the surrounding scenery every once in a while too!

 

I'm sure this blog's readers have seen the famous photo of the fellow who missed catching sight of a giant humpback whale that swam so very close to his boat because he was focused on what was on view on his smartphone screen.  Maybe he's the kind of guy who doesn't much care if he makes a rare critter spotting or not.  On the other hand, I -- who was super thrilled to catch glimpses of whales swimming in the wild while cruising on the Hurtigruten's MS Richard With in Norway last summer -- am one of those people who would have majorly crushed if I have missed seeing a big and wonderful wild creature like that when it was just a few feet away from me!

 

But, then, I increasingly feel like a rare, and sometimes even downright weird, individual here in Hong Kong because I'm the kind of person who (still) enjoys looking out the window -- rather than down at the screen of my mobile phone -- when I riding a bus, minibus, ferry or whathaveyou over here.  After, this is a part of the world where smartphone zombies roamed the land (and sometimes surrounding waters too) even before the current Pokemon Go craze gave smartphone addicts one more reason to glue their eyes to the screens of their mobile phones!  

To be honest though, I don't care or worry all that much about other folks thinking I'm crazy for not doing what everyone else does.  For one thing, I'm frequently enjoying viewing the passing scenery or "just" people watching too much.  For another, I figure most of the people around me when I'm out and about in urban Hong Kong have no idea what I'm doing since they don't have eyes (and frequently ears too) for anything taking place outside the frame of those small screens on their phones anyway! ;D

Walking from Tsuen Wan to Sham Tseng on an unusually cold day in Hong Kong!

 Is that a noise barrier in the above photo?

Whatever they are, these predominantly orange-colored 

structures sure are eye-catching!

So too is the Ting Kau Bridge, whether viewed from

a vehicle passing along it or from down below! ;b

One summer afternoon some years back, I went and visited the Airport Core Programme Exhibition Centre at Ting Kau.  Because it was a pretty pleasant day, I decided to walk along the nearby roadside and do such as check out a few of the nearby beaches, including Lido Beach, from where one can get stunning views of the Ting Kau Bridge and Tsing Ma Bridge.

While strolling along what various signs got me realizing was a portion of the waterfront walkway between Tsuen Wan and Sham Tseng, I told myself that I'd return to walk the whole route on a cooler day.  Well, it finally happened today -- and it definitely was a cooler day.  Still, I have to admit that I never thought that it would be so much colder -- as in this turning out to be a day where certain parts of Hong Kong had subzero temperatures and frost, and temperatures were in the low single digits at sea level!      

Although the Hong Kong Observatory had issued warnings earlier this week that this weekend would be on the cold side, I don't think even its weather forecasters realized that the chill would be record-breaking: i.e., today's temperatures are the coldest recorded in Hong Kong in close to 60 years!  Many "frost tourists" who had gone up to places like Tai Mo Shan, Hong Kong's highest mountain, were most definitely caught unawares by the icy conditions to be found on higher ground -- and needed to be rescued by firefighters from the cold (and, it would seem, their own stupidity).

Another way of getting a good gauge as to how cold it was -- and felt, with strong winds blowing and such -- today was that all my regular hiking buddies bailed on me!  Wanting to spend some time outdoors this Sunday rather than just freeze in my flat (with its thin, non-insulated walls, etc.), I ended up joining a meetup group for an afternoon stroll from Tsuen Wan to Sham Tseng, where we'd  visit the Garden bakery's plant (within which can be found a nice cafeteria and exhibit area as well as a store where one could buy its products). 

Although the afternoon was predicted to be dry, it drizzled down for a good portion our walk.  In all honesty though, none of our party of eight appeared to mind too much about this.  Instead, we enjoyed the brisk air, cool sights (which, for me, at least, included views of noise barriers and bridges from angles that I don't normally get to see these structures) and fun conversations we engaged in as we strolled along the scenic waterfront walkway.  

And for the record: I don't think I felt warmer at any point today then when we were in the Garden bakery cafeteria partaking of hot drinks and such as (in my case) a Cornish pasty which, given that it was made as well as consumed several thousands of kilometers and miles away from Cornwall, actually was not bad at all! ;b

Cool camouflaged critters spotted along Section 12 of the Lantau Trail :)

The first stick insect I've seen that's neither green nor brown!

This spider is way smaller and better camouflaged

than the giant golden orb weavers ;b

Hong Kong's biological diversity is such that eight years on,

I still am spotting species of grasshoppers I previously had not seen! :O

This afternoon, I went on a hike with two friends from Mui Wo to Pui O along Section 12 of the Lantau Trail.  Although I've gone on this route twice before, it's one of those trails I find pretty enjoyable to hike on and consequently worth going on again and again; this not least because there often are interesting critter spottings to be made along the way.

On today's hike, within the first half an hour of the approximately four hour hike (which is one hour longer than official estimates -- but to be fair, we were hiking on a hot and humid day that was far from breezy for the most part!), I caught sight of an unusually colored stick insect hanging from a tree; albeit one that was more conventional shaped than the green critter I saw up on Victoria Peak two Sundays ago!

As I told the two friends with me, I actually get a sense of achievement from being able to spot critters like that well camouflaged insect while out hiking, and look upon my increasing ability to do so as a good indication of my increasing knowledge of nature.  And I can recall that in the first year or so that I went hiking in Hong Kong, I was far less able to do this -- and consequently tended, instead, to focus my attention on grand views, brightly colored flowers and cool geological formations.  

To judge from the difficulty that the friend who was hiking with me for the first time today in seeing the creatures about us, it really is something that needs to come with practice (along with a keen eye)!  And even after you spot the critters, your camera may refuse to do so -- so that try as you might, you won't be able to get it to clearly focus to take a sharp photo!  

As I explained to this friend, there's a reason why he had difficulty spotting the critters (and my camera sometimes refused to focus on them): and that is that biology and evolution has effectively designed them to blend in with their surroundings!  So when they are in their natural environment, they really can be hard to see -- and when you succeed in doing so, it really can feel so very cool indeed! ;b

Passing Hong Kong sights

Made in Hong Kong papier mache pandas in Central

Batman at Hong Kong's Times Square!

Some years back, I went through a period when I didn't take a single photograph for years.  In contrast, there's hardly a week that goes by without my clicking on my camera at least once -- and it's actually quite rare for me to venture out of my apartment without my camera being in my bag.

Unlike many people I know, I still have stuck to having a mobile phone that's camera-less.  (And should there be any doubt: I'm still an ordinary phone owner!)  But before anyone starts screaming that I'm a technophobe, do bear in mind that I do looove my digital camera -- and that it's digital cameras that got me back into photography after a lull of several years.

One big reason, of course, is that digital cameras make it so you aren't so likely to reserve taking photos for super special occasions or sights, figuring that if you don't much care for a photo you took, you can easily delete that image and act like you never ever took it.  Thus it is that I'm as likely to fish out my camera and take photos of sights that I happened to have passed by as I am those that I made a special point to go see, etc.

 

Take, as an example, the "Made in Hong Kong" papier mache pandas that were exhibit between July 18 and August 3 in the landmark Central buildings and interconnecting pedestrian walkways owned by Hong Kong Lands.  The truth of the matter is that they didn't spark even half the amount of panda-monium that their visiting 1,600 cousins which I went to Tsim Sha Tsui expressly to photograph did, and I actually didn't realize that they were on exhibit where they were.  But when I happened across on the way to dinner with a friend, both she and I immediately stopped to take some snaps of the endearingly cute ensemble!

 

By the same token, I did not go out of my way to take photos of the statue of Batman, his Batmobile and other items associated with the DC Comics superhero that were on display at Times Square as part of a Batman 75th Anniversary Exhibition that ran there from June 20 until July 20.  But the figure standing in between the Times Square clocks did strike me as pretty cool.  So even though I'm not all that big a Batman fan, I couldn't resist taking a photograph -- and actually find myself missing it when I passed by Times Square again recently and discovered that it's no longer there (something which makes me feel all the more glad that I did snap a photo of the sight while I could!)!

Tai Long Wan (Sai Kung) hike (photo-essay)

As one becomes familiar with Hong Kong, one gets to realizing that there are many places with the same (Chinese) name.  For example, Causeway Bay on Hong Kong Island is known as Tung Long Wan (Copper Gong Bay in Cantonese) but there's also a Tung Lo Wan in Sha Tin District!

Then there's Tai Long Wan: or, rather the Tai Long Wan on Hong Kong Island, the Tai Long Wan out on the Sai Kung Peninsula, and two over on Lantau Island -- one near Shek Pik and the other over on the Chi Ma Wan Peninsular!

Still, when people say Big Wave Bay (the English translation of Tai Long Wan), I'd wager that most Hong Kongers think of the one over on the southeastern side of Hong Kong Island. By the same token, Tai Long Wan to many Hong Kongers is the one over on the Sai Kung Peninsula -- one that may not be the easiest to get to but nonetheless is one that I've felt motivated to hike to not once but thrice now! :)

Long before one arrives in Tai Long Wan, one is treated to

beautiful scenery on this hike -- including, in this instance.

the waters and surroundings of the High Island Reservoir

 Sai Wan beach is a beautiful sight but on this hike,

it's just an appetiser for the main sights to come! ;b

Considering how far away from central Hong Kong this place is,

it was actually more crowded than I expected it to be!

 This was the third time I went along this trail but

I still couldn't help admiring this amazing beach 

and wanting to take some photos of it :)

 Not the usual sight over at Tai Long Wan -- a helicopter, and 

one with its door open ready for people to jump out of too! :O

As beautiful to my mind in its own way as Tai Long Wan

is Chek Keng Hau and its surroundings

Is it just me or does this look like a turtle rock to you too?

 With twilight approaching, my hiking friend and I opted to share 

a boat  with three others to where we'd catch a bus to Sai Kung town

for HK$20 each rather than wait for the kaido to come along!