Tai Lam Country Park hike (Photo-essay)

"Were you ever a scout?" a professor of mine once asked. As I puzzled over why he was asking me this question from seemingly out of the blue, he followed up with, "You know, "Be prepared!""; whereupon I realized that he was teasing me over my tendency to observe the Scout motto and sometimes over-prepare for things.

But while I realize that there have indeed been times when my over-cautiousness has not been ideal, I also do reckon that it often has served me well -- including when out hiking in Hong Kong. More specifically, especially when I'm the hike leader, I never go on a hike without a guidebook and/or the appropriate Countryside series map of the area as well as such as a torchlight, plenty of bottled water, a towel to wipe the copious amounts of sweat I shed on any hike away, sunscreen, insect repellant, and -- of course! -- my trusty camera. And I often take pains to ensure that that's the case with my hike companion(s).

So... before this hike (which was undertaken on a hot July day -- i.e., the middle of summer -- last year) even got started, I found myself turning away a friend of a friend who had come equipped with just a small bottle of water and wearing not the most comfortable of shoes. At the same time, I considered that her friend (and mine) passed muster... So off we went on a hike in Tai Lam Country Park (out in the western New Territories) that began on a paved path that was very well shaded but soon segued onto a trail that was much less so -- but also more scenic for our pains... ;b

The Tai Lam Forest Track is the kind of trail
(one with plenty of tree cover) that's good to go on
on a hot summer's day

Early on in the hike, we got evidence that it was one where
we would be seeing quite a lot of non-humanoid creatures...

I think the heat that day made animals --
not just people! -- just feel lethargic and lazy

Wood-coloured insect on the road

Less easy to spot (but, trust me, it's there!) --
a grasshopper that blends well with the greenery

It may not seem to be so in this photo
but trust me when I tell you that this spider's
on the huge side by spider standards!

The kind of scenic vista that unfolded before us
once we got past the densely forested section of the hike

The country park authorities conveniently erected
benches in scenic spots (including this one --
from where Tai Mo Shan's usually mist-shrouded peak
is visible in the background)

To be continued... but of course! ;b

Eventful Sunday

Hong Kong Marathon runners jog through Central
past the Legislative Council building and the Cenotaph
along a special lane closed to -- but alongside -- traffic

This afternoon, I took duriandave -- here in Hong Kong for a flying visit -- on an easy (but still pretty nice) hike from Wong Nai Chung Gap to Repulse Bay Gap via the Tsz Lo Lan Shan Path that skirts the edge of Tai Tam Country Park and then through the heart of Tai Tam Country Park along a path that offers up great views of a couple of the Tai Tam Reservoirs.

Originally, I had more ambitiously sought to take him to the scenic area around Repulse Bay Gap by way of Violet Hill but two events combined to put paid to my plans by way of tiring me out even before he and I met up to go hiking. The first is the Hong Kong International Film Festival -- which doesn't officially get going until March 21st but for which online and postal bookings began today; hence my staying up until past 3 o'clock this morning going through the programme guide to figure out what I wanted to see and fill out the necessary forms to book my tickets -- followed by waking up early to go to Hong Kong City Hall to drop off my forms at the collection box there.

And because tickets for screenings at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre are not sold through URBTIX, I had to go elsewhere to buy them. Only, because of the Hong Kong Marathon that took place today, buses that normally stopped outside Hong Kong City Hall were re-routed; necessitating my using other means of transport to get me to the outlet in Causeway Bay that was selling these tickets today.

In any event, I sincerely hope that my attempt to get tickets for 20 screenings at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival are successful. And if you think twenty's a lot, here's pointing out that these don't include the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre screenings *and* the fact that I am due to catch three films that will be officially premiering in Hong Kong at the Hong Kong International Film Festival before the fest's official first day. (So, yes, even while I actually wouldn't say that this year is a banner year in terms of fest offerings, it's still one that is offering up quite a bit for the film fan. ;b )

Daily (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

Chalk it to my being an ex-convent schoolgirl but, in all honesty, when I saw this week's Photo Hunt theme, the very first thing that came to mind was the line from The Lord's Prayer: to wit, "Give us this day our daily bread.." So here's offering up views this week of St. John's Cathedral, whose home is the oldest surviving Western ecclesiastical building in Hong Kong -- and is open daily from 7am to 6pm, as stated on its website, "for quiet prayer and meditation".

An Anglican establishment which opened for service in 1849, it has a fine central location, albeit one which sees it physically overshadowed by many a taller, larger and way less godly as well as newer structure. (For the record, I took the second photo while passing by on a bus -- hence that shot containing some reflections in it.)

More than incidentally, the Cathedral occasionally is the venue for classical music concerts. I haven't made it to one yet -- because these tend to take place on weekday evenings and my office is located closer to Shenzhen than Central! -- but hope to do so one of these days as I can imagine that it is a pretty fine setting for such events.

Clear Water Bay Peninsula excursion (Photo-essay)

"Never hike alone." That's an injunction that I find in more than one of my Hong Kong hiking books. And after I discovered that there are sections of the Big Lychee where there is no mobile phone reception, and hiking trails which can be unexpectedly perilous, I've generally obeyed that rule. But what, then, is one to do on a hot but clear summer's day, when I have the itch to go for a countryside walk but can find no one to go on it with?

In the case of one such day last July, I took myself to the Clear Water Bay Peninsula for a stroll along its relatively traffic-free main road from the bus terminus near the Clear Water Bay beaches down to the Tin Hau temple at Joss House Bay (AKA Tai Miu Wan) that is considered to be one of Hong Kong's oldest, if not the very oldest... only to find upon getting there that that ancient temple was undergoing major renovation (that I happily found to have been completed on my most recent visit to the area)!

Still, after seeing the following photos, I think you will agree with me that the excursion wasn't completely fruitless. Also, while it was not rugged enough to be considered a true hike, the walk still made for enough of a sweaty exercise on a day that was largely hot and sunny to make me feel like some good effort had been put into the whole affair. (And although storm clouds appeared near the end of my excursion, they fortunately turned out to only produce a few minutes worth of showers and thus weren't enough to rain on my parade!)

Bright blue skies and an open road to follow
spells bliss for me on a free Sunday!

View of Clear Water Bay and, in the far distance,
Tai Leng Tun -- the 291 meter high hill
I had hiked up some months back

View of the Clear Water Bay Peninsula that includes
its most recognizable hill/mountain-top: High Junk Peak
("one of the three treacherous peaks in Hong Kong")

Looking seawards, one sees a tamer sight:
a fishing village on Po Toi O and part of the greens
of the Clear Water Bay Golf and Country Club

Proof positive that not every building
in Hong Kong is a high rise ;b

It may not look like much, even up close, but
this rock inscription actually dates back to 1274
and is the oldest dated inscription in Hong Kong

I frankly found these rock formations on the edge
of Joss House Bay that were fashioned by nature
to be far more visually impressive

I got a pretty impressive view of the gathering storms
from the Tin Hau Temple at Joss House Bay
which I'd like to visit again on at least one
Birthday of Tin Hau Festival

Good times for Hong Kong cinema

A sight to cherish -- not least for its rarity:
nothing but local movies screening
multiple times at this Hong Kong cinema

"Hong Kong cinema is one of the success stories of film history. For about twenty years, this city-state of around six million people had one of the most robust cinema industries in the world. In number of films released, it regularl surpassed nearly all Western countries. In export it was second only to the United States... Not until the fateful year 1997 did Hollywood edge out the local product [in Hong Kong], claiming slightly over half of the admission receipts..."

The above words are to found on the first page of the first chapter of David Bordwell's Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment (Harvard University Press, 2000). And although they seem to belie it, their author did in fact realize full well even then -- and increasingly in the 21st century -- that "the Hong Kong film industry is struggling to survive" (like he wrote in the same now sadly out of print book's Preface).

As I implied a few weeks ago, 2009 was by no means a banner year for Hong Kong cinema. But if this cinema is dying, it's not going to go down without a fight. And most notably during the Chinese New Year period which, this year, sees way more Hong Kong movies released than has been the case in a good long while.

Before a bout of flu temporarily laid waste to me, I managed to catch and enjoy 72 Tenants of Prosperity (directed by Eric Tsang and starring him, Jacky Cheung, Anita Yuen and a whole host of others), All's Well Ends Well 2010 (Raymond Wong back to his Chinese New Year comedy antics -- this time sharing helming duties with Herman Yau and screen time with Louis Koo, Sandra Ng and Angelababy among others) and Hot Summer Days (more Valentine's Day than Chinese New Year fare but since they both fell on the same day this year, I'm counting it among the festive fare).

And although a friend has managed to convince me not to go and see 14 Blades, he and Christine To still can't totally combat my curiosity to see how bad True Legend is (together with my hope that a movie directed by Yuen Wo Ping and starring Chiu Man Cheuk and Zhou Xun can't be completely bad). In fact, I have a date with another friend to see it some time in the next few days now that I seem to have slowly but surely recovered from my bout of flu! Oh, and call me a masochist but yeah, I'll probably go and watch Jackie Chan's latest too -- no, not that Hollywood monstrosity I've been hearing about but, rather, Little Big Soldier) when it is released in cinemas next week.

Actually, maybe it's more like paying some dues. As yes, amidst it all, I can never forget that if it weren't for its cinema, I would never have come to love Hong Kong so much -- to the point that I made it my ambition to be able to find a job that would enable me to move and live here... So while I have a chance to support it, I will.

Cuddly (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

To many college students, art history courses -- often disparagingly referred to as "art in the dark" because many of them seem like nothing more than slide shows accompanied by droning commentary -- are looked upon as "gut" courses that hold little attraction other than the prospect of an easy pass or even A. But this was far from the case with the art history classes I took at Beloit College with the then department chair, Debra N. Mancoff.

A professor with real passion for her chosen field of study and, also, a real ability to impart ideas to her students, she often infused her lessons with unorthodox methods -- including one which required us to imagine what objects and people in paintings and that had been sculptured were supposed to feel like: e.g., soft, hard, cold, warm, smooth, rough, etc.

To this day, when looking at works of art, I find myself trying out some of the "tricks" Debra taught us to appreciate what one usually can only see but not touch. And in the case of master filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (known as just Ponyo when shown in the US with an English dub), the word cuddly immediately springs to mind as readily as cute and kawaii when I behold the title character (particularly in her original fish form).

And so much so that I came away from my viewing of the movie pining to have a cuddly Ponyo of my very own. So one evening, when I came across cute, cuddly Ponyo plushies being hawked on a street, I of course couldn't help but get myself one. And while having one soft Ponyo plush is great, having two is really verrrrry nice indeed -- especially since my second Ponyo plush (the larger one in the photo of the two plushies at the top of this Photo Hunt entry) came all the way from Japan where a friend had gone to visit. :b

Brrrrrrrr!

Hello Kitty -- and winter -- in Hong Kong

A few months ago, the columns in a much traversed section of Hong Kong's Admiralty MTR station were plastered with graphics of Hello Kitty, Japan's Tourism Ambassador to China and Hong Kong, having winter fun that were meant to attract visitors to the Land of the Rising Sun as part of its Yokoso Japan campaign. But even while I couldn't help but stop short and ooh and aah at the kawaii sight of it all, the truth of the matter is that those ads didn't do much in terms of getting me to want to visit Japan in winter.

This is because, having spent my college years in Wisconsin (AKA the Siberia of America -- where, it is said, winter comes with the Halloween ghost and leaves with the Easter Bunny!), I feel like I've seen more than my fair share of snow (and know that it doesn't always look as pretty as this even while always feeling pretty cold). Heck, right now, even snow-less Hong Kong -- which is currently going through a cold spell (during which the cold weather warning has been in effect) -- can feel too cold for my liking!

Adding to the miserableness of it all is that I've come down with a bad case of the flu. And while it's true enough that viruses -- not the cold per se -- cause colds and flu, it also has been proven that cold weather really does spread the flu... So keep warm and stay healthy, people! (And in the "thank goodness for small mercies" department: I went and checked with the doctor -- and at least I've got regular, not swine, flu!)