A Tai Lam Country Park hike that ended at a roast goose restaurant (photo-essay)

More often than not, when I go hiking in Tai Lam Country Park, I enter Hong Kong's second largest country park at Tsuen Kam Au, where the convenient bus stop called "Country Park" is located.  Where the hike ends can vary quite a bit, however; and often is dictated by what I feel like eating post-hike -- with choice options including rustic "village cuisine" at Tai Wing Wah in Yuen Long, refreshing dessert at Kai Kee (also in Yuen Long), and goose in Sham Tseng!

One winter's day, a friend and I made our way from Tsuen Kam Au to Sham Tseng along a route I first went on in 2007 but which he was going on for the very first time.  Arguably the most spectacular part of the day's excursion was our roast goose post-hike dinner!  But it's not like we didn't also enjoy the afternoon's ramble, which did offer up some sights and views that I thought worth recording with my camera... ;b

 

I do appreciate that some brightly colored flowers

remain in bloom during the winter in Hong Kong :)

A scenic section of Tai Lam Country Park that I've always

felt compelled to linger at whenever I've passed through it

I also like walking through bamboo thickets, especially

when a wind is blowing through them

An on-site photo showing how the village enclave 

of Tsing Fai Tong looked in 1953

How Tsing Fai Tong looked when we  passed through 

the area on our hike that winter's day (with just 

one farm left and the landscape dominated by a large grave) 

 When you catch sight of the Garden bakery building,

you know that you're close to Sham Tseng -- and hike's end :b

This temple's tiled mural catches the eye but I found the 

small figures on its roof, particularly those depicting men 

riding what look big birds, more mind-blowing! :O

Yue Kee, our pick of the Sham Tseng restaurants

to have our roast goose dinner at! :b

A delicious taste of South Africa in Hong Kong!

A beer I first drank some 20 years ago and the chocolate 

infused version I tried for the first time earlier this week! 

Anyone for some biltong? :b

 Droëwors, the tastiest hard sticks I've ever eaten! ;b

I have to admit it: there's been more than one occasion over the past few years when I've thought that Hong Kong's Asia World City claim was more of a joke than reality; this particularly since with each passing year, it seems like one encounters fewer and fewer Hong Kongers who seem all that comfortable and open to speaking a language that's not Chinese, and is more and more likely to find oneself in a part of Hong Kong with no English signage in sight (despite English (still) being one of the official languages of the HKSAR).    

At other times though, there are things and events that prompt me to marvel and exult over how international and multicultural life in Hong Kong can be.  Take, as an example, the fact that not only do Japanese sake and cocktail bars exist here in the Big Lychee but that my most regular drinking buddy at them is a South African gentleman who spent time living and working in Germany and South Korea in between leaving his home country and moving to Hong Kong!   

Early on in our friendship, I told him about how I had spent a couple of years in Africa (Tanzania, to be more precise) and that when I lived in Dar es Salaam, my favorite beer was South Africa's Castle Milk Stout.  So guess what my South African friend made the effort to get me on his most recent visit back home?  Why, a big bottle of the classic Castle Milk Stout, of course, but also a few extras besides!      

A few evenings ago, we met up to share some of that fondly remembered South African beer.  Before he opened the bottle of Castle Milk Stout that had traveled several thousand miles over to Hong Kong, my friend expressed his fear that the beer wouldn't be as good as I remembered it being.  I told him I actually was prepared for this to be the case -- this not least since I first had sampled this milk stout before I had been introduced to the incredible world of imperial stouts -- but that I'd be happy and satisfied if it turned out to be half as good tasting as I had felt it was when I had first tried it!

Happily, my verdict after trying it again after all these years is that Castle Milk Stout really is a very tasty stout that's smooth, richly malty, and noticeably more complex and definitely superior to the much more famous stout brewed by Guiness.  And, as it so happens, it's great to drink when eating biltong and droëwors, traditional South African meat snacks which represent a beloved taste of home for my friend!

Far less traditional but no less great tasting was the chocolate infused Castle Milk Stout which my friend also brought over from South Africa.  Containing cocoa as well as the more usual ingredients (water, hops, yeast and malt) found in beers, it really does smell of chocolate and, perhaps even more amazingly, does have a chocolatey aftertaste that's surprising the first time around and entirely pleasant!  

Not only was it a big hit with my South African friend (who actually had never had Castle Milk Stout before that evening as he's more of a wine, cocktail and sake than beer drinker!) and I but it went down well too with our Hong Kong and Japanese friends who also tried it that evening!  And I think I now won't be the only one hoping that he'll bring back some bottles of Castle Milk Stout -- both the original and chocolate-infused versions -- after his next visit home... ;b

A Sunset Peak hike on a beautiful blue sky day (Photo-essay)

When asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, George Mallory famously answered "Because it's there". No offence to that famous mountaineer and others like him -- but that's just not good enough for me!  Instead, I am primarily compelled to hike up hills because I think that I will be able to get stupendous views from up them!

Thus it was that after I was prevented from seeing all that much the first time that I went up Sunset Peak by misty conditions (though I did at least manage to spot some Chinese New Year flowers -- pretty appropriately as that hike took place over the first day of Chinese New Year), I resolved to go up the 869-meter-high mountain once more, and in better weather.  Approximately one year later, and with a different friend in tow, I was back on Sunset Peak -- and this time, we lucked out in terms of it being a beautiful sunny day with yielded up splendid views of what was up there as well as far away down below... :)

Show most people this photo and I'm willing to bet that

few will be able to tell you that it was taken in Hong Kong ;b

 

A rocky path leads one higher and higher up the mountain

 

A beautiful butterfly spotted along the way up

 

How different that butterfly looks with its wings closed! :O

 

Vividly blue skies over Sunset Peak's rocky top

 

Section 2 of the Lantau Trail passes through a section of 

the mountain that's home to a number of stone rental huts 

where many a missionary families used to spend their holidays

 

 

 I know of one person who's spent a night in one of these huts but, 

to my mind, they're way too spartan to be all that attractive -- and 

there's the hard climb up (especially with provisions) to get there besides!

 

So, having finally got to clearly see what's up there,

I was happy to make my way down -- to Mui Wo, 

where a delicious dinner awaited! ;b

Speaking out for my Muslim friends

The beautiful ceiling of Schloss Schwetzingen's mosque

 

A quiet section of Kuala Kangsar's Ubudiah Mosque

 

On this day 74 years ago, the Japanese attacked Hong Kong and a whole lot of other places, including Pearl Harbor (over on the other side of the International Date Line; hence it still being December 7 over in the US when the attacks occured).  Unlike my grandparents and parents (one of whom was born in Japanese-occupied Penang), however, I've never personally lived in times when Japan was at war -- and feel blessed that this is the case.

 

Although I've never personally experienced living when a world war was taking place (and sincerely hope that I never will), I've lived in one country that has been at war when I was resident there.  The country in question is the USA -- and it's notable that each time they waged a war when I was there, the enemy was identified as Muslim.

 

Despite not being a Muslim myself, I found myself being called upon to explain -- and felt compelled to defend -- Islam and people of the Muslim faith on several occasions when living in the US, especially after September 11, 2001.  This was on account of my hailing from a country whose official religion is Islam (as well as where religious freedom is enshrined in the constitution), about the only thing some Americans I met seemed to know about Malaysia (and frankly, I'm amazed that they even knew that!).   

 

I still vividly recall a heated argument I had in a Philadelphia bar with an American acquaintance who refused to believe that I could be a Malaysian and yet not Muslim.  When I told him that not only was this the truth but that I had attended a Convent school in Penang (run by the government) whose headmistress was an Irish nun, he actually got angry with me and said that this was all impossible; this because his view of Islam and Muslims (none of whom he had ever met) was that they were intolerant extremists -- something that I was moved to conclude that he was more like than the people he wholesale accused of being the case!

 

As might be expected of someone who grew up in a majority Muslim country, I have had friends who are Muslim for much of my life.  Actually, I don't only have Muslim Malaysian friends but I also have had Muslim friends over the years from Singapore, Tanzania (where I lived for a time with a Muslim family with whom I shared many meals, laughs and fun moments, and, at other times, with an American-Zanzibari Muslim couple, and rent-free for a few months in the house of a Muslim friend when he was out of town), Eritrea, Mali, Turkey, England, and also the USA.  

 

In the case of the last: one of my Muslim American friends is the kind of person -- Caucasian, born in the Midwest, and going by the Christian-sounding name he was given at birth -- that doesn't fit the Muslim stereotype that the narrow-minded likes of Donald Trump have.  Actually, none of my friends would fit the image of Muslims that Donald Trump has -- for otherwise, he surely would have no reason to fear or hate Muslims so much that he'd advocate banning all Muslims from entering his country!

One of the reasons why I felt compelled to blog about this is to register my shock and horror that a supposedly serious American presidential hopeful could be so idiotic as well as  prejudiced.  I also want to do my bit to point out that not all Muslims are violent, horrible people -- and that, in fact, the majority of those I have known in my life are actually pretty nice folks who one would feel privileged to call "friend".

 

In addition, I remember the following words by German pastor Martin Niemöller, who spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps, and don't want what befell the likes of him to happen in my lifetime:-

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
 
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
 
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
 
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

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