Butterfly spotting at Fung Yuen in December!

Probably the last pair of randy butterflies I'll spot this year ;)

 

Not the usual angle from which I get to see

(and take photos) of butterflies! 

 

The whitest of the many tiger butterflies I spotted

on my most recent visit to Fung Yuen Butterfly Reserve 

 

When I passed by Fung Yuen Butterfly Reserve towards the end of my hike yesterday, I was clad in long trousers and was wearing a sweatshirt over my t-shirt, and a windcheater over my sweatshirt.  In contrast, when I visited the conservation area earlier in the week, I was comfortable with just a t-shirt and shorts on as it was several degrees warmer that day -- around 27 degrees Celsius, in fact, despite it already being December!

 

Figuring that it'd be the last warm day of the year, I headed over to the declared Special Site of Scientific Interest to catch what I figured would be my last chance to do some butterfly spotting (as, from what I've observed, these winged critters aren't all that active in cold weather).  And while, as it turned out, I did spot a few butterflies on yesterday's hike, it wasn't anywhere near the variety as well as numbers I encountered in the few hours I was at Fung Yuen just a few days previously!

 

All told, I'd conservatively estimate that I spotted over 20 different kinds of butterfly species during my visit, including the rare white dragontail that is among Fung Yuen Butterfly Reserve's "stars"; much more than had been the case when I visited the facility in the summer of 2014.  Another highlight for me was my managing to add to my already fairly sizeable -- and ever amusing, for the likes of me -- crittters "doing what comes naturally" photo collection, and so late in the year too!

 

On a more serious note: A chatty staff member at the center told me that when building was going for the nearby Mont Vert apartment complex that's infamous for having flats barely bigger than the cells at Stanley Prison, the area's butterfly numbers had noticeably gone down.  Happily though, the butterfly population looks have since rebounded; something I found somewhat surprising since they (and the other interesting critters that live in the area) now have to share Fung Yuen with what looks like a few thousand more human residents. 

 

Hopefully, the existence of Mont Vert will actually help Fung Yuen Butterfly Reserve in the long term.  Something I noticed on my most recent visits to the area is that public transportation has become much improved; with the green mini-bus service now being  more frequent.  If this helps bring more appreciative visitors to the butterfly reserve, this could be a good thing in terms of doing such as getting people to appreciate this precious facility and how amazing it is that Hong Kong, so commonly mistakenly perceived as being one giant concrete jungle where wildlife couldn't possible thrive, is home to more than 240 species of often really pretty butterflies!  

A fire-lookout station with views of urban Shenzhen as well as verdant Hong Kong

The fire-lookout station a friend and I 

climbed up to as part of today's hike :) 

 

From up there, we could look across the border into Mainland China 

(Yes, that's where the built-up area in the picture is!)

 

Shortly after I woke up this morning, I sat down in front of my computer to get today's weather forecast.  It had poured quite a bit yesterday afternoon and evening, and more rain had been predicted for the early part of today.  So not only did my heart leap with joy to learn that the rest of the day would be clear -- and, in fact, that visibility was as high as 50 kilometers in some parts of Hong Kong!

 

Realizing that by a stroke of luck, I'd be out hiking this afternoon in ideal conditions brought about by the rain having cleared the air in addition to the temperature having cooled down by some 10 degrees Celsius compared to last Sunday, I decided to add a visit to one of Hong Kong's eleven fire-lookout stations to today's planned hike from Lau Shui Heung to Fung Yuen via Sha Lo Tung; this because the areas where fire lookouts are located tend to offer up some pretty stupendous panoramic vistas.

 

So it proved in the case of the fire lookout located up on a verdant hill between Lai Shui Heung and Hok Tau Irrigation Reservoirs that a friend and I trekked up to this afternoon.  And while it was to be expected that we'd be able to see nearby Cloudy Hill, I was amazed to discover that the considerably more far away Ma On Shan also was visible to view -- as were the skyscrapers of Shenzhen over on the other side of the Hong Kong-Mainland China border!        

 

Incidentally, although I've hiked up to fire lookouts before in Hong Kong, today was the first time that I came across one that was actually being manned.  While my friend and I were admiring the views from the hilltop and exclaiming to each other how wonderful they were (something which my camera just doesn't do justice to), a man came scampering out of the fire-lookout station.  

 

When I first saw his anxious look, I thought he was going to tell us that we weren't supposed to be up there.  Instead, he bid us a quick "hello" before running several steps down the hill -- to a, frankly, rather smelly outhouse we had passed along the way up!  And although we hung about for a few minutes up there, we didn't see him again...leaving me to conclude that the poor fellow appeared to have had a pretty upset stomach (that, hopefully, wasn't an indicator of anything serious)! ;S  

Exotic animals on view at Ocean Park

A dolphin show, fun rides and more are to be had

at Ocean Park Hong Kong!

Four of the park's biggest attractions are giant pandas

Red pandas also are to be found at Ocean Park! :)

Earlier today, I visited Hong Kong's Ocean Park for only the third time ever.  The first time I did so, I was decades away from becoming a Hong Kong resident.  The second time I did so was more than seven years ago now.  Like with both those other occasions, I didn't go alone and wasn't the person who suggested that we go for a visit.  But I ended up having quite a bit of fun at the theme park all the same; this even though it poured with rain for a good part of the time that we were there today! 

Contrary to what might be assumed based on its name, Ocean Park has much more than just marine attractions.  And while it's true that we did end up taking in a dolphin show not once but twice, the three friends I was with today and I spent the majority of our visit not checking out anything related to the ocean!  Instead, we focused more on doing such as going on the rollercoasters and a few other amusement park rides -- and also spent time gawking in wonder at some of the more exotic animals on display in the facility.  

The first time that I visited Ocean Park, there weren't any pandas in residence there yet.  On my second visit, the friend I had gone there with and I had tried to see the giant pandas but when we got to their habitat, they weren't on view (having gone to sections of the habitat that were out of public sight)!  So the main aim of my visit today was to finally catch a glimpse of this endangered species of bear-like animals -- and I'm happy to report that I was indeed successful in doing so!

As it turned out, however, the giant pandas weren't my favorite of the animals that I got to see on this visit to Ocean Park.  Rather, that "honor" goes to the red pandas which are quite a bit smaller and more fox-like -- as well as redder -- than the giant pandas.  Resident at Ocean Park only since 2009 (one year after my most recent previous visit!), they came across as shyer as the giant pandas, cleverer about knowing where to go to avoid their faces being seen by people, or both.  But even while they were less cooperative with regards to posing for the camera, I found them considerably more appealing-looking and way cuter than the more well known type of panda!

Other animals I saw at Ocean Park today included those on display at the Adventures in Australia showcase  Before going into that space where kangaroos and kookaburas were on view, visitors were asked to keep their voices down (in Cantonese, English and Mandarin) in there because the koala bears are super sensitive to sound.  Amazingly, and admirably, pretty much everyone complied -- so this area wasn't just the quietest by far at Ocean Park but may well be one of the quietest sections in all of Hong Kong! ;b

A hike through sections of Hong Kong associated with monkeys, smugglers and an eagle (Photo-essay)

The 369-meter-high hill in central Hong Kong that gives its name to Kam Shan Country Park is nicknamed Monkey Hill, with good reason.  Put another way: you are far more likely to encounter monkeys in its vicinity than gold (kam is the Cantonese name for that precious metal) -- and because of that, I try to steer clear of the area.

One Sunday afternoon, however, I ventured into that area with three friends on a hike that began at Shing Mun Country Park over to the north and ended on the edge of Lion Rock Country Park to the south.  Our route went through places with interesting sounding names like Smugglers' Pass, Smugglers' Ridge and Eagle's Nest.  And even though our excursion wasn't half as exciting as those names make it sound, it still was a fun trail to go along -- with some uphill and downhill as well as level bits, along a trail that offered up views of urban Hong Kong as well as the green countryside, and was predominantly unpaved... :)         

 On a clear day, Tai Mo Shan dominates the surrounding landscape, 

and is prettily reflected in the waters of Shing Mun Reservoir

On days like this, the still water can resemble the sky :)

 

Another view of Tai Mo Shan and Shing Mun Reservoir,

this time a few kilometers into our hike :)

 

Needle Hill, one of those Hong Kong hills I initially

didn't think that I'd ever go up -- but now have done so ;b

 

As the markers show, the Maclehose Trail 

and Wilson Trail overlap for a bit on 

Kam Shan Country Park's Golden Hill Road

 

The hike also passed by Kowloon Reservoir, the 

New Territories' oldest reservoir, and still in use today  

 

From the Eagle's Nest, we got a hazy view of

high density Kowloon down below

 

Meanwhile, up in the hills, bugs like this 

exotic-looking critter were at home ;b

Lost in Hong Kong shows that certain ties endure even while others seem lost (film review)

Do you reckon that you'd get lost in Hong Kong?

Lost in Hong Kong (Mainland China-Hong Kong, 2015)

- Xu Zheng, director

- Starring: Xu Zheng, Bao Beier, Vicki Zhao Wei, Du Juan, Sam Lee, Eric Kot

In view of its being a mainland China-Hong Kong co-production, you'd expect Lost in Hong Kong to be released in Hong Kong around the same time as mainland China.  Instead, this comedy revolving around mainland Chinese folks who act like Hong Kong is as foreign to them as, say, Thailand (where the previous film in the series, Lost in Thailand, had been set) only opened in Hong Kong cinemas close to two months after it went on general release in mainland Chinese cinemas, and was given limited theatrical runs in Britain and the USA.  

To business minded folks, this could be read as a statement about how minor a market Hong Kong (now) is considered to be for movies in general, and particularly those that are predominantly in Mandarin (like many a Mainland China-Hong Kong co-production these days as well as wholly Mainland Chinese productions).  These actions say a lot to me too about how far apart mainland China and Hong Kong are culturally, including in terms of cinematic tastes, these days.

But as Lost in Hong Kong actually reminds us, there was a time not so long ago when mainland Chinese cinemagoers were major fans of Hong Kong movies.  Back then, Hong Kong also was perceived by many a mainland Chinese person as a fabled land of opportunity and plenty, one which they dreamnt of moving to to work and live (like, say, the protagonists of Comrades, Almost a Love Story) -- rather than just a place to go for a shopping-filled vacation (like is the case these days).

Boasting a surprisingly rich use of old Hong Kong movie soundtracks (including more than one song sung by the late Leslie Cheung, such as the theme song for A Chinese Ghost Story) and visuals (such as hand-painted film posters along with old movie clips), not to mention guest appearances and cameos by Hong Kong film personalities, Lost in Hong Kong's story begins in 1995, with a university class attended by idealistic art student Xu Lai (Xu Zheng), pragmatic-thinking art student Yang Yi (Du Juan) and Cai Bo (Vicki Zhao Wei), a business student scouting for artists interested in working her family's lingerie business. 

Xu Lai's clearly attracted to Yang Yi but something always gets in the way of his getting to kiss her for the first time (never mind anything else more serious).  And after she gets a scholarship to study in Hong Kong, he never sees or hears from her again -- until a couple of decades ago when she invites him to the opening of her latest art exhibition in Hong Kong.

Twenty-years on, Xu Lai's long traded his dreams of being an artist to become a bra designer in Cai Bo's family firm.  He's also now distinctly bald, and married to Cai Bo, who so desperately wants to become a mother that she now perceives sex primarily as a means to get pregnant rather than through romantic, rose-tinted lenses.  Still, Xu Lai dearly wishes to see Yang Yi again.  And as luck would have it, he will be in Hong Kong when her art exhibition opens -- only so will Cai Bo and the rest of her family, including her annoying aspiring filmmaker brother Lala (Bo Beier), who he had stupidly promised to allow to do an interview with!    

As Xu Zheng and Bao Beier reprise their "stressed-off businessman trying desperately to shrug off a leech-like nitwit in exotic territory" schtick, the audience is treated to a wild tour of Hong Kong that takes in visits -- some shorter than others -- to such as as prostitute den, tattoo parlour and Triad territory along with a classy exhibition venue and deluxe quarters belonging to someone who's visibly "made it" in Hong Kong.  It may not be the Hong Kong that some visitors and residents will recognize from real life (cf. the comments in this blog post) but it won't be unfamiliar to long-time fans of Hong Kong cinema.

Perhaps because of this, watching Lost in Hong Kong actually made me feel nostalgic for 1980s and 1990s Hong Kong cinema -- as well as marvelling at how much of a Hong Kong cinema fan the mainland makers of this movie appear to be.  And even while this offering's principal characters are distinctively Mainland Chinese in personality, I'd even go as far as to suggest that this film -- and, for that matter, South Korea's Veteran -- may well possess more of the unbridled zaniness, wild energy and genre-transcending tendencies of 1980s and 1990s Hong Kong cinema than the vast majority of movies helmed by Hong Kong filmmakers thus far this year!

My rating for this film: 8.0

A multi-course sake pairing dinner at Godenya

The third of eight courses of a sake pairing dinner

at Godenya this evening

 The red color-themed sixth course :b

 The seventh course which came across as

partly savoury, partly in dessert territory! 

A couple of months ago, my über foodie friend told me that there's a restaurant that she wanted me to go to with her; one where sake was an integral part of the meal.  After I agreed to go have dinner at Godenya with her, she told me the date she had booked -- December 2nd, some two months away!  And while it may have seemed a long time back then, December 2nd finally did arrive -- and I've just got back from a dinner at this primarily Japanese restaurant (operated by a Japanese sake master and his chef young brother) which incorporates some Chinese culinary elements that was so good that she and I decided that we had to go eat again at the restaurant before we left the restaurant this evening! 

Billed as a sake pairing dinner, this evening's meal at Shinya Goshima's eight-seater restaurant consisted of eight food courses, seven of which were accompanied by a chosen sake.  I have to admit that before tonight, I was more excited by the prospect of trying out the libations at Godenya than the food; this since it'd be the first time that I would be tasting sake warmed to a chosen degree by a bona fide sake master.  And my anticipation increased upon perusing this evening's menu and seeing that among the sake we'd be drinking was one that was eight years old and another which was made from red rice!

Once dinner began being served, however, I realized that the food we'd be eating would be of a high quality and also very interesting too.  For example, the first course (billed as the oyster appetizer) not only included four very tasty oysters but those oysters were served in a jelly concoction that also included refreshing bits of fruit!  And I couldn't help making ecstatic noises when eating the second course, which consisted of the rich roe of a female snow crab which had been soaked in sake for a day with a portion of Chinese- (rather than Japanese-)style rice vermicelli to help balance out the flavors.

As good as the second course was, I actually thought the third course was better tasting.  Definitely more complex tasting, its ingredients included the meat and liver of kawahagi (thread-sail filefish), bits of green tea leaves, and what Goshima-san told us was white mushroom but tasted like truffle to both my friend and me.  Eaten on their own, each of the third course's components were delicious; eaten when mixed together, the resulting taste was revelatory!

Next up was an exotic take on the usual, comforting chawan-mushi (Japanese savory steamed egg custard).  Alternatively put: the filling fourth course at Godenya was the first chawan-mushi I've seen topped with an inch or so of dashi, and containing the tender meat of the Chinese soft-shelled turtle. 

Of the eight courses of food I had at Godenya this evening, the only one which I didn't find delicious was course number five on tonight's dinner menu.  Beautifully presented inside a hollowed out yuzu fruit, I actually could have done with more yuzu in the serving and far less of the citron fermented bean curd sauce that tasted a lot like sour mayonaise, and having its consistency too!  As it was, I found the bits of angler fish, gingko nut and lily bulb that came in the mix to have been drowned in a sauce that just didn't work for me.

Although the sixth course came with another fermented ingredient, this time around the fermented black bean sauce worked really well with the chunks of wagyu beef and beetroot in the dish.  Aesthetically, they made for an all red show -- with the theme continuing with the sake served for this course being a red rice sake from a Kyoto brewery known as Inemankai (the sake, not the brewery).  Taste-wise, this was the first time I found beetroot cooked to my liking!   

The seventh course, consisting of foie gras cooked with a coffee caramalizer, was another one that made me emit little moans of ecstacy.  I also let out an involuntary groan upon realizing that it was the final course in this dinner that a sake was paired with, prompting our delightfully good-natured host to giggle with amusement!

The eighth and final course of this evening's meal was a refreshing yogurt that we bathed to taste with orange osmanthus soup.  Part of me expected a cup of green tea to follow but none was forthcoming; with the only liquids served this evening being sake and water -- and, for the record, I'd not be surprised if those were the only liquids available to be served at the restaurant!

Although Godenya does not purport to serve kaiseki, I couldn't help comparing my meal there -- and very favorably too -- with those I've had at Ryugin and Bo Innovation.  At the same time, I must admit to thinking that I don't really get the point of warming the sake served this evening; and indeed, I'm moved to wonder whether it's a coincidence that my three favorite sake of the night were the three which were the least warm of those served.

For the record, these were the Chotin Junmai Ginjo Namasake (from Aichi Prefecture) served at 18 degrees Celsius, the Akishika Kimoto Junmai Namasake (from Osaka Prefecture) served at 22 degree Celsius and the Inemankai red rice sake (from Kyoto prefecture) served at 21 degrees Celsius -- while the other sake served this evening were the Sougen Junmai Namazake (from Ishikawa prefecture) warmed to 43 degrees Celsius, the Tanawasan Yamahai Junmai (from Kanagawa prefecture) warmed to 52 degrees Celsius, the Yorokobigaijin Yamahai Junmai Namazake (from Kagawa prefecture) warmed to 48 degrees Celsius, and the Tamagawa Yamahai Junmai Namazake (also from Kyoto prefecture) warmed to 48 degrees Celsius. 

A hike to, on and out of Chi Ma Wan Peninsula along a quiet trail (Photo-essay)

Lantau Island's Chi Ma Wan Peninsula is home to the 18.5-kilometer-long Chi Ma Wan Country Trail that's officially estimated to take eight hours to complete.  And if that wasn't challenging enough, the nearest way to get to the trailhead on foot and public transportation is by way of an approximately 30 minute walk (covering a couple of kilometers or so) from the nearest bus stop at Pui O.

With the help of some other existing hiking paths though, one can "create" hikes in which one only goes on sections of the Chi Ma Wan Country Trail but still be able to get off Chi Ma Wan Peninsula without backtracking.  Thus it was that on one rather pleasant afternoon, a friend and I set off to Chi Ma Wan Peninsula via Pui O, and went along sections of the Chi Ma Wan Country Trail before turning back at Mong Tung Wan and using a trail closer to the water to the Tin Hau temple overlooking Pui O Wan and meeting up once again with the section of the Lantau Trail which linked back to Pui O proper...

 In recent years, I've come to realize that the hill that dominates

the landscape near the southeastern edge of Pui O isn't Lo Yan Shan

like I had long thought but, actually, Miu Tsai Tun!

The view from higher ground over on the Chi Ma Wan 

Peninsula of the section of road from whose side 

I took this blog post's top-most photo! ;b

A few kilometers into the hike, the sun shone brighter

and helped turn the sky a brighter blue! :)

 Visual proof that we were on the Chi Ma Wan Country Trail

for a time -- and by the way, the village of Mong Tung Wan 

and its pier are visible in the distance in this photo :b

A while later, we were at the pier enjoying the views 

from there, including of the distinctively rocky Miu Tsai Tun

 There's a derelict air about Mong Tung Wan which isn't

helped by one of its piers having fallen into disrepair and

the Jockey Club Mong Tung Wan Hostel having closed down

  I think it's safe to say that this part of Hong Kong

is one where one can be away from the madding crowd!

 Indeed, I'd go far as to state that on that afternoon's hike,

my friend and I saw way more birds than we did other humans! ;b