Hiking: From the Shing Mun Reservoir to the Kowloon Reservoir

I came across the perfect guidebook in a bookstore in Kowloon last week, called Historical Hong Kong Hikes, by David Pickerell. As I really enjoy both hiking and history, I figured I couldn't lose and bought it.

Today I set out on my first hike with the hope that, if it went well, I could do the other hikes in the book at the rate of one each week while I'm here.

First of all, a great percentage of Hong Kong's land area is devoted to country parks, and therefore beautiful walking trails. In this region, everywhere you turn there is either an ocean view or a mountain view: once you get away from the urban areas, these views combine to create a transcendent experience.

I posted on the Lingnan exchange students' Facebook group page to see if anyone else wanted to go, and I was joined by my friend Sarah, an endearing marketing student from Ireland. We left Lingnan at 9 am, early for a Sunday, and took the subway followed by a short bus ride to get to the start of the hike.

 The trail begins on a private road beginning at the right of what's called pineapple dam. Above you can see the grass covered dam behind the country park sign.

After walking a few minutes, we found ourselves walking on top of a different dam. This time, there was a view. 

It was a typical foggy day in HK. There is an unearthly beauty to it.

About a half-mile into the hike are trails that split off towards some ruins from World War 2.

The ruins consist of the remains of tunnels built by the British to defend against the Japanese. According to Historical Hong Kong Hikes, the tunnels were expected to hold the Japanese for a week, but were conquered in one night. Supposedly, the Japanese determined quickly that the tunnels were undermanned and dropped grenades down ventilation holes in the ground to draw out the British soldiers. I don't know if the damage you see in these pictures is from grenades, but the tunnels are certainly a dramatic sight.

The British named some of the tunnels after streets in London. There is a Regent Street and a Piccadilly Street. You can also see carved into the wall below directions to a "Strand Palace Hotel." The main gathering points were called hotels.

After leaving the tunnel remains, we climbed many sets of stairs. Above is just one of the long flights we encountered. It was worth it, though. Below are views from Golden Hill.

From Golden Hill, above the skyscrapers that seem to stretch for miles.

On the other side of Golden Hill, we began to encounter the monkeys. We were excited at first, and tried to get good pictures of them. Sarah got much better pictures than I did, and I'll have to get her to email me some to post later.

Searching for ticks

 After I took this picture, we started to see more and more monkeys. Either because of fatigue or not wanting to aggravate them, we stopped photographing them. While descending the mountain, we counted more than 70 monkeys on one quarter-mile stretch of road. Some were playing, others were searching each other for ticks like the two above, and some were fighting with each other.

As we were surrounded by more monkeys, Sarah began to walk a little faster. She was feeling a little apprehensive about the possibility of being attacked, but I didn't think it was really a possibility.

Naturally, we were attacked.

We didn't notice a baby monkey on our path and walked a little too close to it, setting off the community of monkeys surrounding us. We started to walk a little faster, but the monkeys began to cut us off. Then, we tried to walk calmly, but that didn't seem to be working either.

Suddenly, as if from nowhere, four older Chinese women showed up with slingshots. Slingshots. They shot rocks at the monkeys, who immediately fled.  We tried to say thank you, but they spoke only Cantonese. Then they disappeared.

Well, thank you oh wise and superhero-ish Chinese old ladies. You saved the day.

Shortly after the humiliating monkey incident, we came upon the dam overlooking the Kowloon Reservoir and therefore the end of our hike. We were still flustered from the monkey attack and forgot to get good pictures from the near side of the dam. Feeling like we'd missed a great view, we started to turn back, but then we heard the screeching of the evil devil-monkeys and quickly resumed our previous direction. I got a few photos from atop the dam.

Kinda like the Great Wall of Kowloon, eh?

A family picnic in the reservoir

This place really is incredibly beautiful once you stop focusing on the bullshit. Er, monkey shit.

Bad Photos: Macau

Macau is Asia's Vegas.

It is also the only region in China besides Hong Kong that is a "Special Administrative Region." This means that although it is controlled ultimately by the PRC government in Beijing, it is allowed the autonomy to retain its previous government system. So, most of China's laws and economic policies don't apply here.

Here are some photos:

The sacred ruins of St. Paul's Church.

This guy was awesome

This temple was only a few feet away from St. Paul's. I think the Catholics won the "Mine's bigger than yours" argument here.

From inside the ruins of St. Paul's comes the view of the Grand Lisboa, Macau's most famous casino.

Crowded

Chinese New Year's decorations at Senado Square

Roasted chestnuts. 

My goofy mug in front of the Wynn.

If you ever wondered what a squatter looks like... this was in a restaurant in Macau. Don't worry, I didn't have to get to know it that well.

Senado Square decorations at night

Bad Photos: A Trip To Lantau Island, 'Cause Buddha's There

While April was here, we were able to take a short trip to Lantau Island and visit the giant Buddha.

Here are some of the photos from my terrible camera phone. If anyone's interested in better quality, pester April to post some of the photos she took with her amazing camera.

A scenic cable car ride across the island.

View from the cable car

Boracay Island

As I'm not the best at keeping in touch with the people I most love and dearly miss, I am also terrible at maintaining a blogging schedule.

Sorry.

So, here are a couple of blogs at once. This one is adapted from a journal entry I submitted for a writing class I'm taking online at Belmont while I'm away.

Hope you enjoy!

Boracay Island

Three weeks into school and we were given a week off for Chinese New Year! Campus basically shut down for the week while area restaurants closed and students took advantage of this time to travel and explore Asia. I originally wanted to take a trip to mainland China, but was told to avoid such a trip: Many Chinese from all over the world were traveling home, overloading the public transportation system. Besides, the restaurants there would be closed, too. 

Instead, most of the exchange students at Lingnan quickly made plans for an inexpensive, last minute vacation to an island in the Philippines called Boracay. What was I to do but join, right?

The moment the wheels of the plane make contact with Philippine soil, we were in paradise. We emerged from the plane at the Kalibo International Airport to a bright, 78-degree February day. After a ninety minute bus ride passing rice fields, pubs, and mountainous coastline, we had to take a twenty minute boat ride to the wonderful island of Boracay. 

Over the last thirty years, Boracay’s White Beach has consistently been named one of the top ten beaches in the world by various travel magazines. I hear it’s even taken the number one spot quite a few times. The sand is as white as Florida’s gulf beaches, but there is no trash and very little debris from the sea. The water is clear, clear, clear. I was up to my chest and could vividly see my feet dig into the clean, sandy (rock-free) ocean floor. Looking out from the beach, the calm water gradually changes color from clear to green to teal to bright blue, and eventually becomes a dark navy hue just before the horizon. Turn back around, and fifteen yards away from the water are the palm trees. Here I could nap, hidden from the sun. Another fifteen yards inland, parallel to the beach, are kilometers of bars, clubs, shops, and restaurants. Food here is cheap, and better than in Hong Kong. 

Many of the exchange students pledged to immigrate to this captivating utopia. The only downside was that April had to hear about it every day before going to work. Poor girl. I so wish she could have been here.

The local beer, San Miguel, served island style.

At Mel's Bar with Jesus

Biking in Nam Sang Wai

Alright, it's been almost two weeks since I arrived, and I'm not completely adjusted yet (blame the food at the Lingnan canteen...). I have been able to do a bit of exploring while also getting to know some of the other exchange and local students here.
The above photo is from a biking tour I took a few days after arriving. We went to a suburb of Hong Kong called Yuen Long to rent bikes. We then rode to Nam Sang Wai, also called the Hong Kong Wetlands. The ride was a blast, and the scenery was beautiful. While stopping regularly to sample food prepared and sold by local farmers, we met a large turtle named Wai Wai. A few of us tried to get to know him a little better by picking him up. At this point his mood began to deteriorate rapidly...

 
At the end of the ride we took turns crossing the river in a small boat and headed back into town to eat a traditional Hong Kong meal called Pun Choi, a large bowl of assorted meats and vegetables placed in the middle of the table and shared by all.

The six of us at the table were only able to finish about half of the food.

...And here's a pic of me standing next to a sign that probably says something like "This guy is most definitely a tourist."

All in all, it was a great bike tour and a good first impression of the suburban area near HK.