Wong Shek Pier (Photo-essay)

Wong Shek Pier is not just a pier per se but also the name given to the area around of it that's located on the northwestern edge of Sai Kung East Country Park. The northern terminus for such as the 96R bus that runs from Diamond Hill MTR station, the pier itself also is the setting off point for kaito ferry services to Tap Mun Chau (aka Grass Island).

I visited Tap Mun Chau last December and plan to devote a photo-essay to it at some point in the near future. However, this blog entry will focus on Wong Shek Pier: the pier itself but also the area nearby, in particular that which gets glimpsed if you were to go on the very easy Wong Shek Family Walk and nearby -- and super short (230 meters!) -- Tai Tan Tree Walk that my mother and I went on -- on a day when the air wasn't as clear as one would like (but still afforded a few scenic views).

For all of it being in a remote area of Hong Kong,
Wong Shek Pier still is one of those places
that attracts its share of anglers along with other visitors

Quite the calm looking sight, isn't it?

Wong Shek Pier Still Life

Yes, well -- waiting for the kaito for Tap Mun Chau,
I started getting 'artistic' with my photography! ;b

Also in the area: wind surfers,
many of whom seemed to spend more time
in the water than wind surfing! ;D

Note the number of capsized wind surfers in this shot!

It really was still just fall/autumn when I visited the area...

Nonetheless, the landscape's dominant colors
were blue (be it grayish-blue or some other shade)
and green for the most part

Six Unimportant Things About Me (Meme)

A fellow Photo Hunter, this one known as the teach (aka mary t on another of her blogs), tagged me for a meme that requires me to share six unimportant things/habits/quirks about me as well as do the following:-

- Link to the person that tagged you.
- Post the rules on your blog.
- Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
- Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
- Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

With the understanding that something about me that's 'unimportant' can be defined by it being something that I've hitherto thought to be too trivial to blog about, here are six unimportant things/habits/ quirks about moi (in no particular order):-

1. Pretty much all my life, I've been prone to having bouts of insomnia.

2. I use to try to literally count sheep in order to overcome my insomnia when I was younger.

3. In recent years, I taken to compiling mental movie lists (e.g., of Brigitte Lin Ching-Hsia movies that I've seen, my current top twenty favorite Hong Kong actresses, or the Milkyway Image movies I've seen thus far) or naming my current Arsenal first eleven (or, including the five substitutes allowed by the English Premier League, first sixteen) instead!

4. I prefer to feel good rather than look good -- and base my choice of clothing on this personal quirk (that, just this past weekend, a fellow female flatly told me was against nature as far as women are concerned -- and when I begged to differ, promptly accused me of being a lesbian! :<)

5. I prefer stripes and plaid patterns to floral ones (for clothes but also curtains and couches!).

6. For some reason, my ethnicity and/or nationality tends to get mis-identified pretty much every where I go. For example, in Hong Kong, I've been asked more than once "are you Japanese or Korean?" (as if I can't be anything else!) while on our recent visit to Taiwan, my mother and I frequently got misidentified as Japanese, regardless of whether we spoke Hokkien (a language that's actually very close to Taiwanese) or English! And if you're think this is "understandable", whither my also having been misidentified in the past as Ojibwa (by Utes), Hopi (Utes again), Navajo (by Hopi), Cochiti (by Cochiti), Americans (by Americans and Canadians), Welsh (by an Englishwoman from Birmingham!) and Tanzanian (by a Zambian man)???!!!

So... okay, I gotta ask: Are these things about me interesting and does anyone think that any of them are worth devoting entire blog entries about? If so, do let me know and maybe I might do just that in the future! ;b

Before that though, here's going ahead and (-- if truth be told -- not so randomly) tagging the following six bloggers for this meme (and hoping that they'll play along!):-

1. A. at A Changing Life

2. Alejna at Collecting Tokens

3. hd at Falling Stones Are Not Heavy

4. Glenn at A Pessimist is Never Disappointed

5. Willow at Morsels of Peach Souffle

6. sbk at Pictures, Thoughts and Comments

And should anyone else be inclined to try this meme, do please feel free to do so! :)

Chinese New Year activities

Image from Chinese New Year 2007 -- ang pow-laden tree
at the Hainanese (aka Hainan) Temple, Penang

Another Chinese New Year 2007 image -- this one of festive lanterns
at another Penang temple (situated in Air Itam
but not, and far smaller than, the Kek Lok Si!)

Happy Chinese New Year once more to this blog's readers -- this not least because, as I've assured A Changing Life's a. over on the previous Chinese New Year-specific entry's comments thread, Chinese New Year officially lasts for fifteen days and nights (culminating with the (Spring) Lantern Festival on the 15th night)! ;b

Unfortunately, however, modern-day employers are most reluctant to allow employees 15 days off during Chinese New Year, even in places like Hong Kong. So tomorrow will see me returning to work for the first time since last Tuesday. Still, as I look back, I must say that I've managed to jam in quite a few fun activities and experiences over the past few days. Among the highlights have been the following:-

1) On Chinese New Year eve 2008 as well as the first day of its release in local theatres, I checked out Kung Fu Dunk. And maybe it's because I went into my viewing of this Chinese New Year movie with rather low expecatations but I found myself enjoying the basketball-themed dramedy quite a bit more than this year's other big Chinese New Year movie. Sure it's got its not particularly logical moments but, heck, it's the most coherent piece of work directed by the usually seriously insane Chu Yen Ping I've seen. And I really did find it pretty entertaining as well as -- courtesy of a combination of great special effects and action director Ching Siu Tung's superb-as-ever wirework -- visually impressive.

(For all this though, I still expect the Stephen Chow helmed CJ7 to emerge as the season's box office champion -- if nothing else, because it's showing on far more cinema screens and had a six day headstart over the Jay Chou starrer! Also, maybe it's on account of my being a film reviewer myself but I feel that the folks behind Kung Fu Dunk didn't help the movie's cause by not scheduling a press preview of it or inviting the press to its premiere (held, more than by the way, on CJ7's opening night!); for this way, many people were getting suspicious that the movie was so bad that even its backers feared that it would have been lambasted for sure by the critics...)

2) On the First Day of Chinese New Year, I did what I've done on more than one Christmas Day in the USA: Spend at least part of the day out hiking! Believe it or not, tramping from Wan Chai Gap to Wong Nai Chung Gap on a crisp wintry day was quite the exhilarating rather than bone-chillingly miserable experience; and this not least because the exertions helped warm my hike companion and I up quite a bit -- so much so that at one point, while going uphill, we found ourselves having to mop up some sweat from our brows! ;b

3) Also on the First Day of Chinese New Year: Indian dinner at the Taj Mahal Club in Chungking Mansions. Yes, well, who said I was going to go for the traditional way to celebrate and commemorate Chinese New Year?! The thing is that I honestly had expected more Chinese-run restaurants and other establishments to shut down for the holidays than has been the case. So when I made a date with a friend to have dinner, I thought of a place that I figured would have a strong chance of being open on the First Day of Chinese New Year and... ;b

4) On the Second Day of Chinese New Year, I actually partook of a couple of more customary Chinese New Year activities. Firstly, I happily accepted an invitation from a (Hong Konger) friend to visit her home and spend some time with her family. Secondly, I invited another (Hong Konger) friend over to my abode for the first time. Then, in the evening, I accepted another friend's invitation to go out on a boat to watch the Chinese New Year Fireworks Display from the middle of Victoria Harbour! (Re that last experience: The cold and boat movements made it so that it's not one I'll want to repeat any time soon. However, it's nice to say "I've done it" at least one in my life!)

5) On the Third Day of Chinese New Year, I went on another hike! This time around, it was along a 10.5 km trail up in to the Plover Cove Country Park up in the northeast section of Hong Kong. The tramp from Wu Kau Tang to Sam A Chung and Sam A Tsuen, then close to completely back again before heading southwards a bit to the Bride's Pool -- was quite a bit longer -- and tiring -- but, truthfully, so much more wonderful (in terms of such as what's on view) than the one I went on two days previously. All in all, would really like to highly recommend this trail for pretty much anyone who ever decides to go hiking in Hong Kong! (And before anyone asks: Yes, I took photos and, like I said to one of my hiking companions (cum reader of this blog), I can see there being at least three photo-essays to be got out of them! ;b

6) And on the Fourth Day of Chinese New Year, she rested for the most part...! Nonetheless, still did something festive in nature this evening: that is, go out for a dinner -- complete with roast goose, char siew and 1000 year old eggs! -- at the venerable Yung Kee with family friends visiting from Malaysia. But what with the party largely composed of people who are on the, um, mature side, some of them were actually starting to think of bed before 9pm!

Consequently, I've been able to get back and finish this entry that I hope is interesting enough in terms of giving readers a good idea of how at least one ethnic Chinese -- but not completely culturally Chinese -- person has spent Chinese New Year thus far away from home (but closer to the ancestral motherland than she's ever been at this time of the year)! :)

P.S. Should anyone wonder, I most certainly did not go hiking during Chinese New Year 2007. Also, I didn't really bother to check out any fireworks displays in Penang. On the other hand, I did quite a bit more visiting -- and collecting ang pows/lai see! -- relatives and family friends, and being visited by other relatives and family friends. One other thing I miss this year that I've done the last three years that I've been in Malaysia is hang out with a couple of old school friends way past midnight.

All in all, about the only activity that I partook of in roughly equal amounts in both Malaysia and Hong Kong has been... to watch Chinese New Year movies! Chalk this down to my being the movie nut that I am; or the Chinese New Year movie tradition being that strong and pervasive in both lands... ;b

Heavy (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

This week's Photo Hunt was one that I had little problem finding appropriate photos for. (Hence my going for not one or even two but four pictures for this entry!) At the same time, I realize that my choice of photos to exemplify the heavy theme may need to come with some accompanying explanation. This, of course, I'm happy to provide! Just hope that people will find it all to be adequate...

Re the first three photos: Yes, they all really are of heavily polished specimens of heavy rocks -- as opposed to piddly stones -- that were on display in a section of Nan Lian Garden when my mother and I visited the Diamond Hill attraction back on one sizzling hot June day. And when I say heavy, I do mean it because these are big pieces (some of which stand taller than the average human being -- it's just that since I went for close up shots to show more clearly how -- for all of their not being made up of precious or even semi-precious minerals -- like works of art they can seem and were effectively exhibited as, there's nothing in the pictures to indicate their true scale and size)!

As for the fourth photo: Last Sunday, I decided to have lunch at Jin Luo Bao, a Korean restaurant over in Causeway Bay. From the menu, I ordered a single dish (kalbi -- a barbecued meat) but this being a traditional Korean restaurant, my order came accompanied by seven side dishes (including a soup) along with some rice as well as a mug of barley tea. All this, I think you'd agree -- especially post viewing the photo -- made for a pretty heavy meal for a single female diner like myself to have! Fortunately, the bill didn't tax my wallet much at all, seeing as it came to less than HK$70 or US$9 (including 10% service charge). And especially since it really was very delicious (and so much so that I actually didn't have too many problems eating up the entire meal), have to say that I thought that it really made for quite the bargain! :b

Enter a New Rat Year! :)

Chinese New Year 2008 display
in Hong Kong's Victoria Park

Today is day one of the year 4705 according to the Chinese lunar -- or, as the Wikipedia has it, lunisolar -- calendar. It also is a new year of the rat according to the Chinese zodiac. Or is it the new year of the mouse? As it turns out, it's actually both because the Chinese do not distinguish between rats and mice, and use the same word for what constitute two different species of animals in the English language!

Similarly, the reason why you see the same years get variously described as those of the goat, ram and sheep is that there's just a single Chinese word for all of these horned creatures. (And while, say, Bahasa Malaysia is not the same -- in that goat(s) are kambing in that language while sheep are referred to as kambing biri-biri -- I think it instructive that that same word, kambing, also refers to mutton and that the Malaysian understanding of mutton is that it can be either goat or sheep or lamb meat...)

With that linguistic issue settled, we now turn to why the Chinese New Year display in the photo at the top of this post also features a horse (and rider). Should you think so, it's not because the previous zodiac year was that of the horse. (For the record, it was a pig -- or boar (again, the Chinese don't distinguish between the two animals) -- year.) Rather, it's because 2008 also is the year of the Beijing Olympics and Hong Kong will co-host Olympic equestrian events with China's capital. (And yes, some people over here are very excited about this!)

In any event, here's taking the opportunity to wish this blog's Chinese readers -- and interested others -- a happy Chinese New Year. (And for those who are living in territories, like Hong Kong, where Chinese New Year is a public holiday: Happy holidays!)

Additionally, while you await more new writings (and photographic samples) from moi: should you not have checked out the previous year's more detailed entries about this festival, here's directing you over here and here for what I hope makes for more for your reading pleasure. So... happy reading? :)

Hong Kong dusks (Photo-essay)

Now for something a bit different: For the past three years, on account of my being back in Malaysia (the country of my birth, and where my parents continue to call home), I had been able to have -- as tradition dictates -- Chinese New Year's Eve dinner with at least two members of my family. Since I'm unable to do so this Chinese New Year's eve (on account of my being in Hong Kong, and my parents actually having gone to visit my brother in Australia), I'm going to commemorate this occasion by sharing some photos taken at dusk -- which, yes, I'm thinking can symbolize the impending passing of yet one more year in the Chinese lunar calendar -- which I've taken at different times of my time in the Fragrant Harbour as well as parts of 'Asia's World City'.

For the record: the most beautiful sunsets I ever saw and photographed -- though, alas, on non-digitalized film -- were from beaches in Pulau Langkawi (a Malaysian island I only ever holidayed for a few days on) and Zanzibar (the fabled African isle where I lived for close to two years). I also recall witnessing some wonderful sunsets in Beloit (which ungrateful college students like I was then would ascribe to the pollution!) and while on safari in northern Tanzania.

For all that though, reckon that some of the dusks that had a hand in producing the following photos weren't too shabby either... and hope that, upon viewing the snaps taken during that time period (but not solely of sunsets per se), you'll think so too! :)

As nature's light dims, the electric lamps get switched on
-- from Quarry Bay Park looking out to
the Lei Yue Mun Channel of Victoria Harbour

No, those aren't lights from apartments but, rather,
the setting sun's light reflecting off glass windows
(And yeah, I'm not the only photo bug who noticed the effect!) ;b

Don't you think the tiny plane in the photo
looks like a bug getting attracted to the light?

Cool clouds help make for a pretty sunset picture

On the subject of cool clouds: how's this for a picture?
-- looking north and across Victoria Harbour
from the promenade at Sai Wan Ho

Pastel sky over Hong Kong

Sunset over a more well known portion of Hong Kong
-- view from a harbor-side area of Fortress Hill

A more close up view,
for if you couldn't recognize them in the previous picture,
of Causeway Bay and Wan Chai in the foreground,
and The Peak in the far distance

Narrow (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

A few weeks ago, we had a Photo Hunt theme -- i.e., skinny -- that seems somewhat similar to this week's; and for which I had to rack my brains somewhat to come up with a suitable photograph and post. So one might think that this week's narrow theme might pose a problem for me... except that, in the interim, I had come across this post (in the vicinity of St. John's Cathedral, over in Hong Kong's Central District) that's of such slender width that a worthy message has had to be posted vertically on -- rather than horizontally across -- it!

More than incidentally, a bit of on-line research has got me concluding that the narrow subject of my photo is an actual Peace Pole that's part of The World Peace Prayer Society's international Peace Pole Project. If so, it's actually the first Peace Pole that I've ever encountered, and has me wondering whether other Photo Hunters -- and visitors to this blog -- have had sightings of such over in the parts of the world that they frequent...?