A Hong Kong hike during which I saw no other person except for my hike buddy!

How my hiking shoes, socks and lower parts 

of my legs looked towards the end of today's hike :S

The result of hiking on narrow, muddy -- and 

most definitely unpaved -- trails like this one

The only other person I saw out hiking 

in the area today was my hike buddy!

"Remind me why I go hiking again," I said to my hike buddy midway through today's hike -- one that was on the difficult side. (So difficult was it, in fact, that after three hours hiking uphill, we decided it'd be best if we backtracked to the hike start -- something that took another hour of hiking (with much slipping, sliding and occasional falling) downhill.)

His suggestion of "seeing new things" and "to get good views" had me laughing because the level of visibility today was not as high as I'd have liked, and we spent quite a bit of of today's hike struggling through the underbrush and thus not looking around us all that much.  (Worse, when I spotted interesting bugs, I found that my hands were shaking so much -- from exertion or what have you -- that I couldn't get clear photos of them!)

On the other hand, his suggestions with regards to "being out in nature" and "being in a place where there weren't many other people" certain rang true this afternoon, as what portion of the planned route from Hoi Ha up to Nga Kwo Lo and Mount Hallowes we were on definitely did have us deep in the heart of the Hong Kong countryside and so far off the beaten track that my hiking buddy was the only person I saw on the trail all afternoon!

For the record: this was the first ever hike where my hiking buddy and I didn't see any other person along the trail that we were on.  It also was the first ever hike that we didn't see a single sign or marker (besides the ribbons that certain intrepid hikers leave to help other hikers find or stay on a trail).  With no modicum of regret, I also have to state that this was the first hike I've been on in Hong Kong where I felt we ought to abandon midway and backtrack to where we had started the hike.

In retrospect, I should have chosen an easier or more popular hiking trail to go on this afternoon when weather conditions also weren't ideal. (It had rained in the morning and I had trusted the Hong Kong Observatory's forecast of the rain being limited only to the morning today... only to encounter some rain over the course of the hike.)  But I had been emboldened by the note on the Hong Kong Adventurer website that this hiking route "is pretty easy and yet very beautiful" and that novice hikers "may find [it] a little bit exhausting but it is not dangerous at all"!

Ah well, one lives and learns -- including the fact that the route up Mount Hallowes from Hoi Ha most definitely is one of those that deserves its "dotted line" (i.e., "difficult/indistinct or seasonally overgrown") designation on the Sai Kung & Clear Water Bay Countryside Series map that I have! ;(

Lazy and An unusual perspective (This week's Photo Hunt themes)

Lookit!  Wow!  A giant plushy pink rabbit's inviting us to "Chill out on my tum!"  That was my reaction after dinner one evening at the Miramall when the friend I had gone out to dinner and I spotted the giant plushy pink rabbit sprawled out in the center of the mall's basement floor and the companion pink rabbits drawing attention to it!!

Should you wonder about the patterned oval objects around it: seeing as I took the photo around Easter time, I'm assuming that they're meant to represent Easter eggs.  Which is fine except -- talk about taking an unusual perspective to this Christian celebration -- there seemed to be an opening on the side of the rabbit from where the Easter eggs were popping out...and although I know that the Easter Bunny delivers Easter eggs, I think the usual idea is that it transports Easter eggs but doesn't actually produce them from out of his body!

From my perspective, the giant plushy pink rabbit at Miramall also is (was?) the rare Easter Bunny that encouraged people to chill out and effectively be lazy for a time.  I guess it's because it's the rare Easter Bunny that calls Hong Kong home and thus realizes that it'd be a real gift to many people here -- in this city whose residents tend to be the opposite of lazy -- to exist as a space where people could stop, sit down and relax for even a short time. 

And for those who wondered: I didn't go and personally chill out on the rabbit's tum -- or, for that matter, any other part of it.  On one hand, I just wanted to hurry home at that point in the evening.  On the other, if I had gone there and discovered that the giant plushy bunny was super soft, I might have been tempted to majorly sprawl out on that rabbit's tum... and then, if any other participant in Sandi's and Gattina's Photo Hunts had been there at that very moment, they would have had quite the unusual picture for this week's themes! ;b 

A Hong Kong movie-esque evening

Photo credit: the blogger behind Monday Morning With... :b

Have you ever had one of those moments when you got to thinking that "I feel like I'm in a movie" -- more precisely, "I feel like I'm in a Hong Kong movie"?  Well, I had several of those one evening a couple of months back -- one that began with an invitation to attend a special hot pot dinner with business contacts and associates, some of whom I'd be meeting for only the first time that evening (although I had known their names for some years now).

At the hot pot dinner, I found myself seated on the left of an American gentleman who had just arrived in Asia a few days ago -- and whose first ever hot pot dinner this was.  As the hosts explained, they had arrived at their choice of dinner style and cuisine because they figured it was one that was casual and would put people at ease.  To this I'd say: this only is the case if all the people present have had prior hot pot experience... because, as it became patently apparent pretty early on, the poor American guy seated to my right was clearly all at sea and out of his depth culturally at this dinner.  

It's not just that he clearly wasn't comfortable using chopsticks.  Rather, he didn't realized that when the experienced folks on his table told him that the spicy section of the "yin yang" hot pot was spicy, we meant that it was really spicy. Then there was his clearly going into shock upon noticing that the first three choices of ingredients to dip into the hot pot that were put onto our table just happened to be large slices of liver, portions of geoduck and that Hong Kong favorite, luncheon meat (i.e., spam)!

Truly, I felt like I was in a Hong Kong slapstick style comedy when he literally started choking after he tasted one of those ingredients (I think he opted for the geoduck as the least of the three 'evils') that he had dipped into the super spicy soup, then grabbed his beer and started gulping it down to get rid of the spices in a way that I had previously only seen in a movie.  And if this weren't farcical, another American fellow sitting on the table then proceeded to clumsily spill his glass of red wine and create a large stain on our table's previously immaculate white table cloth.   

Things then took a turn for the surreal after dinner -- when we were ushered upstairs to a spacious private lounge that looked like the kind of place that, in Hong Kong movies at least, Triad bosses like to hang out.  More specifically, you know those kind of places where there's a large TV on whose screen a Karaoke video's playing, in front of which there's a coffee table laden with fruit plates and alcoholic drinks?  And if you don't, take a look at the photo at the top of this entry to get a good idea of what I mean!

The funny thing is that some time back, I had told a Hong Konger friend that I had never ever been into a Karaoke lounge and she had said that was crazy, in view of the years I had spent in Hong Kong, so she'd take me to one; after which I had outlined my idea of the ideal Karaoke bar -- one that I had got from watching movies.  Can we have a private room and be served fruit plates and be plied with alcohol, I asked.  And should I expect pretty female hostesses to come and visit?  Whereupon she had cried out, "No way, those are the Triad places!"

Well, now I found myself in precisely the kind of place I had seen in Hong Kong movies -- more specifically, Hong Kong Triad movies and crime dramas!  On top of this, our host at that private lounge had actually been seated in between two nubile young females when we had arrived at that space -- and upon spying us, had asked us, "What would you like to drink? Red wine? Whisky?"  Again, the kind of thing I had come to associate with Hong Kong Triad movies!!!

And if you must know: I settled for a beer (and here's confirming that the Heineken in the above photo's mine).  And I didn't sing that evening.  Actually, none of us did.  I think we were all too shy -- and determined to not go stir crazy in that lounge!  Maybe if the company (more specifically, the host) weren't so intimidating...  But then again, after I've stayed a Karaoke virgin for so long, it is going to take something truly special for me to start belting out any tunes in public!!! ;b

From Yung Shue O to hike's end at Sai Sha Road (Photo-essay)

So... Jacob's Ladder.  Or as a hiking buddy put it -- "more like Jacob's disabled access"!  After having put off hiking along this part of Hong Kong for ages (and thereby not having been able to enjoy the experience of hanging out for a time at lovely Cheung Sheung Plateau), finally descending along it was easy and pretty quickly done with!!

At Yung Shue O, we tried to find a non-paved trail that was clearly marked on the Sai Kung & Clear Water Bay countryside map but after looking in vain for some minutes, we gave up and followed the paved coastal path all the way to Sai Sha Road.  First though, we explored a section northwest of Yung Shue O -- and though we didn't go far along it that day, we saw enough to resolve to further check it out another day...

The village of Yung Shue O has some older buildings

...but also sections that look very much part 

of the contemporary world

Personally, it's location is too remote 

for me to want to live there but I also can 

understand its aesthetic lure for others :)

 

 A shady, green, paved path near the village

 

Mangroves in the vicinity of Yung Shue O

 

 As we walked west along the coast of Three Fathoms Cove, 

high rise buildings in the distance took on mirage-like appearances

Small fishing platforms dot the surface of

Three Fathoms Cove (aka Kei Ling Ha Hoi)

A sheltered as well as scenic section 

of Three Fathoms Cove near this hike's end :)

My favorite Hong Kong seaside restaurants

Large razor clams topped with black bean sauce 

and transparent vermicelli

Scallops topped with garlic, more of that vermicelli

and chopped bits of spring onions

Delicious by itself but so much better when eaten with rice! :b

Yesterday, I mainly blogged about the hike I went on but couldn't help mentioning the post-hike meal I had at Rainbow Seafood Restaurant too.  Now here's sharing photos of some of what I had for dinner yesterday that should give a good idea of how delicious it was!

Another way in which one can get a good idea of how much I like the food at Rainbow Seafood Restaurant is that, like with the two other seaside restaurants that would be on my top three favorite seaside restaurants shortlist, I'd not only happily go there to eat post-hike but I also have been known to arrange a visit to their locales precisely because I want to eat at those dining establishments!  

 

And when one realizes that Rainbow Seafood Restaurant is on Lamma Island, Hong Kee "Respaurant" is located on Cheung Chau, and Wah Kee (which TomEatsJenCooks's Tom erroneously calls Wai Kee but is absolutely correct in praising its food) in Mui Wo over on Lantau Island, one can truly appreciate: a) how far I am willing to go for a meal in a nice seaside restaurant; and b) how good I think these three restaurants are!!

Of the three, Hong Kee is the cheapest by quite a long chalk -- and each time I go there, I'm surprised at how both the food and cold bottles of Tsing Tao beer that my party will invariably order are.  With service that is extremely laid-back (especially by Hong Kong standards), this place -- whose friendly regular waitress now actually says the Cantonese equivalent of "Long time no see" whenever I visit now -- gets my vote as the venue for lazy, multi-hour meals on weekends, especially Saturdays (when the fares for the ferry between Cheung Chau and Central is quite a bit cheaper than on Sundays).  As for dishes: you really can't go wrong with its amazingly decadent seafood spring rolls (served with a small dish of mayonnaise!), squid with garlic, and the classic Cantonese steamed fish. 

In contrast, the Rainbow Seafood Restaurant probably is the most expensive -- and usually the most packed and high tempo -- of my three favorite seaside restaurants.  It also definitely looks and feels the most touristy of the bunch too.  Still, I've never been dissatisfied with whatever food I've ordered at this Lamma Island establishment -- with their king sized razor clams often hitting the spot, as well as pretty much anything -- be it razor clams, scallops or geoduck -- that get served on the shell with garlic and vermicelli. 

 

Then there's Wah Kee, whose location in the Mui Wo Cooked Food Centre can make its prices seem on the steep side but will seem entirely reasonable once you taste its food.  Frankly, everything I've eaten here has been wonderful -- be the dishes individually ordered or from a set menu (I've tried one for two people -- that includes squid with an amazing shrimp paste dip -- and another for four people -- with a large plate of beautifully spiced mantis prawns, and reckon that both are bargains in terms of quality as well as quantity). 

 

Heck, even the complimentary soup is something that my hiking friend and I have come to truly look forward to having post-hike!  And while my mother griped that the boiled prawns we had at Hong Kee weren't as fresh as she'd have liked, she had absolutely no complaints about the equivalent dish we had at Wah Kee -- and even praised it for being really tasty!! :b

Election day hike on Lamma Island

The signal station and trigonometrical station at the top of 

Ling Kok Shan were my main hiking destinations for today

The view of the trigonometrical station and 

signal station from the top of the 250 meter hill

 

 And yes, even with the haze, there were some nice views

to be had -- including of sections of Lamma 

close to Chow Yun-Fat's ancestral village :)

 

Today is election day for Malaysia.  But I didn't vote -- since for the great bulk of my adult life, Malaysians living overseas have been forbidden to vote and I didn't find out that the law has been changed until after the registration date.  So, instead of going and voting in a national election for the first time ever, I went out hiking as per usual on a Sunday. 

 

This afternoon's destination was Lamma Island -- with my specific aim being to go up its second highest hill, Ling Kok Shan, and then hiking along a circuit that take me from Sok Kwu Wan and back again via Tung O, Shek Pai Wan, Yung Shue Ha and Mo Tat that, when my then regular hiking companion and I had gone along it a couple of years back, had been notable for the large amount of large spiders we spotted along the way!

Arachnophobes should feel happy that this time around, I didn't see a single big spider along my hike.  In fact, the only spiders I saw were tiny.  Indeed, as far as critter spottings were concerned, this was an excursion notable for my spotting unusually tiny critters -- including a grasshopper that didn't seem even one inch long as well as a bug I can't identify and a few spiders, some on webs, and others not!

Far more prevalent sights on today's hike though were large granite rocks and boulders on the Southern Lamma hill slopes, many of which were interestingly shaped (including at least one I thought resembled a turtle -- though admittedly not as much as the famous one at Po Toi!).  And yes, the contrast between the rocky upper portions of Ling Kok Shan (and nearby Mount Stenhouse) and the green, thicker foliaged lower portions was quite marked, even startling.

 

Almost needless to say, this hike was yet another that was followed by a nice meal.  Granted that today's wasn't as superb as the one my hiking friend and I had at Tai Wing Wah last Sunday but the dinner (that included razor clams in black bean sauce and scallops with garlic and vermicelli) at the Lamma mainstay that's the Rainbow Seafood Restaurant really wasn't too shabby at all.  And yes, I do like that they throw in a complimentary ferry ride back to Central for the price (on a boat such as the one in the photo at the top of this blog entry)! :)    

Under and Something upside down (This week's Photo Hunt themes)

Pretty much every day that I'm in Hong Kong, I spend some time underwater as well as underground.  This is because my regular work commute involves being on a bus whose route includes the Cross Harbour Tunnel (that goes underneath Victoria Harbour) as well as taking a Mass Transit Railway (MTR) train (whose carriages are far more crowded during rush hour than the one in the picture above!) along an underground route.

Small wonder then that I regularly crave being in the wild outdoors -- or at least somewhere green and scenic -- at least once a week!  While my preference is to get this by way of hiking, quite a few Hong Kongers prefer more sedentary pursuits like birdwatching and fishing.  

I regularly encounter birdwatching enthusiasts and anglers while out hiking in Hong Kong. For example, Luk Keng attracts its share of both since it borders Starling Inlet, a tidal bay that contains the largest egretry in Hong Kong, and also is home to some fish ponds open to the public.  

And it was at scenic Luk Keng where I took the third photo from the top in this entry for Sandi's and Gattina's Photo Hunts this week: one with upside down reflections of some fishing enthusiasts out that day along with such as the nearby colorful umbrellas offering some shelter from the sun. :)