Hong Kong Summer! (Finally)

After a month of rain in June it felt like it would never stop. It finally has, and the weather has been hot and mostly clear. Last week we had the highest pollution ever recorded in HK, but that was a typhoon blew everything from Taiwan this way. Other than that mostly blue skies. As I look out the window now I am reminded of the next typhoon as it's been raining all day.

This is Tai Long Wan. The nicest place in Hong Kong, maybe all of China. The only way in is by boat or foot, and it's never crowded. The water and sand are amazing. The water is nicer than Cancun.
Not many boats were crowding this stretch as we hiked down.
One of the many flowers in full bloom along the hike.
To get to the tiny village you have to brave this pathetic looking footbridge, which didn't break by the way.
Hiroki managed to capture one of the small crabs that run along the sand.This was another area of Sai Kung we went to on a junk boat trip. Taking a boat is much nicer than hiking in, and at the end of the day when you're tired you can enjoy the sail back to HK Island.You are free to jump off the boat and swim. Not much danger of sharks as there are constantly boats and jet skis moving about.

Lamma Island

Last weekend I went to Lamma Island with a few co-workers. The plan for the day was to be lazy and sit in the sun. The +33 sun. Fun! We rented an umbrella on the main beach to keep from melting. Other than sitting on the main beach, which is hardly worth mentioning as a beach as it is ridiculously filthy, there are a few other things to do on Lamma.The main ''attraction" would have to be the big wind turbine. You can walk right up to it and feel it vibrate as it spins wildy out of control. Actually it stops when the wind is too strong. Also from the top of the hill where the turbine sits is a good view of the rear-side of HK Island. Please note the blue sky, it does not happen often. (usually only after 2 weeks of solid rain)Here is a list of things you can't do on Lamma. About all you're permitted to do is sit on your ass and be quiet. Oh feel free to clean up after all the dirty hippies though. (Lamma is known as Hippie Town by some HKers)Walking up the path to the turbine we saw this funny leaf which looked like it was floating/dancing in the air. Turns out it was caught in a huge spider web spun by one of the many gigantic spiders that inhabit this part of the island.

Macau Rugby 10's - The Mud Bowl

Culture Club Gallery

Friday night I discovered this nice-relaxed atmosphere club in Soho. My co-workers had been there before, and had always said how cool it was. The place is quite unique in Hong Kong. Not many bars are very chilled out and quiet, and they are usually all crammed. We were the only ones inside for about 3 hours. The music is interesting, but not so loud you need to shout at anyone to communicate.

The other neat thing about this place is that it functions as a small art gallery as well. There were black and white prints lining the walls. All in all a great place, great atmosphere, and it's not too expensive either.

...and the wine kept coming.

Lei Yue Mun - Seafood 'Bizarre'

Sunday we 'tried' to go for seafood at one of the popular local seafood places. Lei Yue Mun is right across the harbour from HK Island on the Far-East side of Kowloon. We took a short ferry ride over and then the fun began.

The look of the fishing village was pretty much what I expected, but it was a little more crowded than I thought it might be. Also it was very smelly, like fish - big surprise! The idea of Lei Yue Mun is that you go look at the large tanks of sea creatures and pick out what you want to eat. I had read that you didn't 'need' to do this, but it was popular. I don't know a whole lot about how to choose anything from the ocean, so I was thinking we could just order off a menu. Wrong! The place we went had menus, but no prices, and it didn't clearly explain the cooking fees if you did bring food. Our waiter spoke zero English when we asked about how we were supposed to bring our own fish. Feeling a little out of place and knowing I was going to get badly ripped off most likely, we decided to eat somewhere else. Although we didn't end up eating in Lei Yue Mun, the experience was interesting. Huge tanks line the sides of a very narrow alley-like pathway of seafood stalls. Again, not knowing how to buy fresh seafood, and given most people spoke no English didn't exactly make me too comfortable.

I'm sure regularly it's a great place to eat, but I'd only go again if my friend(s) spoke some Cantonese to help out. It was interesting that the seafood hawkers were only talking to me whilst ignoring the locals. That really made me feel like I would get totally ripped on the price. Oh well, next time, next time...

Lots and lots of fish. Some small, some massive. If you like creepy crawlies, this is the place for you.

Local transportation/housing.

Welcome to Ping Chau

Ping Chau is a small Island located in the far North-East regions of Hong Kong. It is actually closer to China, much much closer. So close, that they have immigration boats circling around to make sure people are not swimming away from China to escape. To ride the ferry back to mainland HK, two police officers checked everyone's ID. There is another island in Hong Kong called Peng Chau, so a 'Tung' has been added to make it Tung Ping Chau to avoid confusion. The island is a whopping 2km across, so it can be hiked rather easily. Without taking photos I don't see any reason why it would take more than an hour to walk around. We were there the whole day, so everyone took their time taking photos and exploring some of the interesting rock features around the island.

While we were waiting for the return ferry, members of our group decided to spontaneously start jumping. Maybe they got too much sun?

It's a very nice island, although it take at least 1.5 hours to get there. That's how long the ridiculous slow ferry took. A speedboat would maybe take 20 minutes. Also the ferry departs from University Station, which is about an hour away from HK Island East. We had to wake up quite early in order to catch the morning ferry. The water on TPC is very clean, aside from the side that faces China which is littered with trash everywhere. The south side is much much nicer. >more Photos

Hong Kong Hikes

Lately I've had a bit of the hiking bug. There's so many places in Hong Kong worth exploring I feel as if I haven't even seen most of the New Territories. During the Easter holiday, we went hiking in Sai Kung, out towards the eastern shoreline to a place called Tai Long Wan. This is a picture just up the hill from Sai Wan Beach. I also posted more photos of the area on my photoblog as well.

Tomorrow we are hoping to go to another area in the NTs, close to Tai Po. It's called Tai Mo Shan country park, and it's home to the tallest peak in Hong Kong. It's not big by mountain standards, but there is frost there quite often. I'm hoping we can find the place called Ng Tung Chai waterfalls. They're supposed to the best, and some of the only, waterfalls in HK.

Banner Changes

I have now finished changing the banners of both my photoblog and 'Lost in Hong Kong.' There are many new images and more variety this time. To see a different banner simply visit another section of the blog or just refresh in your browser. Can you name all 40?

Beijingphotostaketoooomuchtimemyeyeshurrrrrrt!

Hooraa! I've almost completed looking at and editing down the few hundred photos I'd taken from Beijing! Everything is starting to look the same so I should post a little about our trip before it's all a blur. I will elaborate more in future posts, but the trip was very very fast paced, we didn't stop to sit for more than a couple minutes. Our "tour-guides" were morons employed only with the task of taking our money at every turn. "Cash Grab" anyone? Beijing is an amazing city, but you cannot go anywhere without someone trying to rip you off, no matter how you look or how you talk to them. It's a way of life I guess. I didn't mind so much having lived in Hong Kong for awhile, but my parents seemed to not like the bargaining and bartering for everything as much.

One tip for travellers to Beijing, do not swear at your tour guide, they don't like it. Naughty words are worse than complete idiocy to tour guides...

We spent a total of 4 days in Beijing, which wasn't near enough. I'd love to go back but not in the winter. It wasn't really that cold, but it felt like it being a Konger now. I think it went down to -3 while we there. Up on the Great Wall was chilly with the wind. BTW I'm going to post photos and stories along the way trying to keep in order with what we accomplished in our 4 day sprint.
The airport was dirty, crowded, cold, and smokey. Good first impression Beijing, make a note to Olympic organizers. The taxi ride into the city took about 10 hours, but it only cost 10 cents. Cheap taxi considering the thrill ride you get. I think we hit at least 10 cyclists. Mai's parents had met us at the airport so it was very nice and easy to get to our hotel. We were staying in the centre of the city, which didn't mean much as it takes 1 hour to go 4 blocks during rush hour. Walking is the best way around without question. Our hotel was decent enough and had hot water, so I was happy.

The first night we went to a really famous Beijing restaurant for Emperor's Duck. It was awesome! Best bird I've ever had. The skin was amazing, I usually don't like skin but it was pretty tasty. Apparantly George W has eaten there before. Mai's dad had to book a month in advance so thanks to him! After dinner we went back to the hotel(s) and had an early evening as the next day was the Great Wall and Ming Tombs!


I checked later, and yes! prancing and brisk walks are allowed.

Damn I wanted to doodle all over the fake hats.

First impression, Ming Tombs is probably better explored on your own, without a tour in a rush, as we didn't see much of the actual tomb area. It's really quite huge, spread around the mountains. Next time, next time.... You'll probably here me mutter those words a few times in the next few posts.

Stanley Dragon Boat Races

On June 19th Hong Kong celebrated the 'Dragon Boat Festival.' It's a national holiday in Hong Kong, so everyone has the day off to head to the beach and watch the crazyness that is dragon-boat racing. I'm really not too sure how it worked, but there were many different races around the city/country/whatever it is - pretty much anywhere with water. We watched a few on tv before I headed off to Stanley Beach. The boats on tv had up to 50 people in them, they looked like they would sink! When I got to Stanley the boats were all 20 people per team, so it didn't look as insane, I was dissapointed that none of the teams sank. One boat did crash rather violently into another which made everyone on the beach applaud with laughter. Although it was a mostly fun event, you could tell some teams were a little more prepared and serious than the others.

The photographers were also out in full force. Many of them would stand in the water knee deep to get a few shots of the boats landing on shore after the race. How it worked was the boats raced directly onto the beach, so it was slight caos with 8-9 large boats 'crashing' into a sea of people all at once. There were 3 categories, Mens, Womens, and Mixed, with a seperate category for white dudes and asian dudes. I think this was mainly for weight difference. I didn't stay for the finals as it all started to look the same to me and I only went to get some photos and I was alone and melting in the sun.

I would really recommend this event high up on my list of things you have to do in Hong Kong if you're here in June. Next year I'm even going to try and sign up for a team.

> Photos Here <

2 Days!

China must be having a bad week. The pollution levels have been low the past two days. And guess what!!?!! That means clear skies! We have now had 2! -----pause---- 2! days of clear skies in a row! Consecutive clarity!? Wholy Tienemen Square Batman!

Of course this rarity had to happen during the week while I am required to be inside sucking in dried out AC'd air. Oh well. The days seems to be a bit longer now, it stays bright till around 6:30. I am hoping that the cleaner air is a sign of things to come. I remember when I got here in August the air was actually clearer, so maybe this means that while it will be rediculously hot outside at least we can see the sky. In the following picture is the view out my window right now, it's sunny! I can see blue sky too! Wow that makes me happy.

Now what would a LIHK post be without a jab at China? Useless! So here it is. I hadn't realized it, but when Hong Kong originally found out about the T-Square incident, get this - 1 MILLION people marched out on the streets in protest. That's nuts! As much as HK is quite reserved, the slightly un-easy political uprisingness makes me happy. Oh ya, the Beijing appointed nerd who runs this place is yet again letting public opinion become meaningless as his government prepares to rip down yet another historic monument - Queen's Pier. Sigh...

Here's the sky >

Bye-Bye High Rise

Guess what? I am moving again! I figured it was about that one year span where I needed to pack up everything and cause myself extra stress by moving yet again. Actually, Mai and I have been thinking of moving for awhile now. We are staying in Hong Kong, just moving closer to Central / 'downtown.' We found an apartment already, and will be moving June 23rd if all goes to plan. We paid our deposit, so no turning back now. The main reason for moving was location. Where we are now is really nice, but it's a pain in the arse to get anywhere other than a few select locations. I would say moving should save me about 40 minutes a day in travel time to and from work combined. That's a huge chunk of time I could be putting to better use. As soon as we move in I will post some photos of the new pad. In the meantime, I don't know if I have posted many photos of where we currently live, Island Resort. Basically, it's huge. There are 9 towers (I think) that would put Lord of the Rings to shame. Each tower is 60-something floors high and there has to be at least 20K people living in the whole complex. The facilities are amazing, we really need to take advantage while we still can. Here is the view out my window. We live high-up but I have gotten quite used to it. I'm hoping we get at least one Typhoon before we move so I can see what it's like. More on the view in my next post...

Chinese New Year Parade! Awesome busy crazy police defying goodness!

Last night was the New Year night-parade. I was expecting the huge crowd, but not the stupidity offered up by Hong Kong police all night. More on that later...

The parade was amazing. I have never seen so many different types of groups all in one parade with so much energy. There was everything from dragons to NFL cheerleaders from Arizona. I'm not sure why they were there. At least they wore red. Most enjoyable were the 4-5 different lion and dragon dance teams. They moved so fast and intensely it was hard to focus my eyes or my camera for that matter. Other groups included bagpipes, ballet dancers, disney characters, light bulb head people? weird... there were many groups from around Asia as well. The Korean and Japanese groups were fun and didn't get into any fights as a bonus. So many floats, so many people, so many different shades of red.

As for the buffoons heading up HK police. (It is the year of the pig afterall) For some insane reason, it was impossible to cross the two biggest roads in TST. I realize they were the parade route, but there are at least 20 different ways of crossing that don't involve going on the actual road (subways etc.) I decided I would take the ferry to the parade as it was the fastest way. What this meant was when I arrived in TST I was basically unable to move. They had blocked off almost any way of moving from the ferry pier to the parade and the amounts of people only grew as more ferries came in. For some dumb reason you could not get across to the other sides where the parade was actually happening. It's difficult to describe, but basically the police pissed off a vast amount of people for no good reason other than 'safety', but people falling into the harbour due to over-crowding is safer I guess.

In order to watch the parade, I had to walk through a 10 block long mall past the parade route, go through some weird back alley of a hotel that was being used to shuttle hotel patrons from the hotel because the front entrance was blocked (can you say fire hazard?) go underneith an overpass, up and over another overpass which thankfully was blocked off to traffic, and walk up the hill to where I ended up watching the parade at its midpoint. A lot of effort for arriving more than an hour early. My final viewing point was on top of a medion of the highway where the parade route turned around on, so it was quite perfect for viewing. I am proud to say I was the first person to climb on the medion, and about 1000 others followed. Lucky for me as the police were quick to tell everyone to get down. Let's just say it didn't work. About 5 people actually climbed down, some kneeled, haha, and when the police walked on ahead everyone just jumped back up. We watched the first 10 minutes of the parade and were told to get down again. This time no-one got off and the police didn't make a fuss. My excuse was I didn't speak Cantonese. About 30 minutes later the original police guys came by and did absolutely nothing about us all climbing up. Good enforcement boys. I wouldn't have had a problem getting off, as I was one of the only people who could see over the medion, but since no one budged I didn't mind following the crowd.

The parade lasted almost 2 hours, a tad more than the original 1 hour estimated. Let's just say I have no idea how all the fancy buildings got built here. No one seems to have a clue about organization.

And the most amazing thing of the night... the crowd that took 2 hours to build up was nicely dispersed in about 20 minutes.

I didn't take many photos as my lens selection was not the greatest for the front row seat I had, but here's a few I took. Also I video-taped most of the groups, and got some awesome footage. Check back in about a week and I might have a video done.

Happy New Year!

P.S. The fireworks were wet... to be continued

Other Guam Info

Video by some amateur from Guam. It's nice because it is the only footage on video of the phoons, as I played all but one half, and was taking photos at that time. The audio is terrible. The video is also pretty terrible. I should have mine up after Chinese New Year. Here's the link to it anyway.

Guam Reflections

It was only last weekend but Guam seems so far away now. Coming back to reality and living amongst 8 million others will do that to a person. As short a trip as Guam was, it left a superb impression on everyone and many are planning a return trip next year to defend our drinking/sportsmanship trophy. At the end of the tourney, we came away with 2 wins and 2 losses, the odd thing being we won our first two - odd being because we had literally just hopped off the plane and almost everyone was still hung over from drinking before/during/after the flight. Our coach received the only yellow card of the weekend, on the plane.

So we were on our best behaviour as to represent the town of Hong Kong well. We started off the weekend on Saturday with 2 smashing wins against rather sub-par hooligan/island teams from Guam. Within 5 minutes of the first match the opposition had spat at, punched at, and threatened our huge prop who is ex British Navy and now heads up Gucci security for all of Asia. Fools. We roughed em up good and came away rather unscathed. I think the score was something like 14-0. The first games of the round-robin were only 8 minute halfs, so 14 points is a tonne. The idea behind it was that it was a fast paced game, 10's they call it, meaning only 10 men aside.

The 2nd game was much the same. We won in a shutout again I believe over a team of Guam inmates (I might actually be right in saying that) and were trotting around like mockingbirds should. The 3rd game is where we got a good taste of ass-kicking. We lost something about 35-0. Which is pretty appauling. We did well to make it to the 3rd game though, so none were about to cry at the loss. Especially since it was against the stacked team from Guam Rugby Club. We weren't even in the same league, not even close. No worries.

On Sunday we came into the playoffs well rested and highly optimistic. Too bad the night before was spent eating and drinking at an all you can eat surf and turf. Does American beer count as alcohol? Assuming it doesn't, we were all totally sober by law (Canadian beer law that is). The only booze they had on the island was labelled with some foul 'Bud' type logo. I guess free is better than none. Despite a good effort, we lost a tight match in the first playoff, so our weekend of playing time was over. Many actually prefered the early exit, as it gave us time to enjoy the palm tree lined beaches and more free beer.

Sunday evening was the awards 'banquet' where we were crowned 'Best Sportmanship' trophy winners. Possible because of our decision not to streak the field during the championship game, maybe because of our lovely singing all weekend, and maybe cause we played some good rugby. It was a toss up to which reason swayed the judges.



Monday was the day we left, but not until the evening. Most of the Mockingbirds (Typhoon touring name) decided to soak up some sun on the beach. It was like being in Japan with all the tourists walking around. The water was nice, but beware of foot-slicing coral if you ever go. Some of us rented water bikes which were quite enjoyable. The day ended too early, but it just makes me want to return even more next year.

Congrats to the tourney organizers, it was a great weekend!



A rare site, passing out under the large tents.



We called this the 'Gimp' mask. It was generally to be worn by anyone forced into slightly risky behaviour or deeds of fouling other teams.

Go For The Jackpot!

On the Slop Machine.

I have developed a really good eye for finding funny typos. Photo courtesy of Mai's cell phone.

New Year Blue Skies!

On New Year's Day Mai and I went on a small walk up the mountain beside our building. It's a nice little walk, there isn't any actual climbing, it's a paved pathway. It was a very nice, and the skies were the nicest I'd ever seen them in Hong Kong. The time of day we went was perfect lighting, as the thin clouds shaded the bright sun just enough. Mai brought along her pet bird, Takuro-Chan. He really enjoyed it as he was singing along with the wild birds at one point sort of.



I have concluded I have the best eyes out of anyone I know. I managed to spot this lizard about 20 metres away in a patch of green and red leaves. The lizard is also red and gree, thus it was nearly impossible to see. Somehow I spotted it, and zoomed in enough with my new lens to get a decent enough photo. There were actually two, and they darted off shortly after I had spotted them.

Yuen Po Bird Condo

Mai and I went to the Yuen Po St. Bird Garden. The birds there are fancy, they live in condos.

Siu Sai Wan

I realized recently that I have not posted many photos from the neighbourhood that I live in Hong Kong. It's called Siu Sai Wan, and is pretty much as far East as you can go on Hong Kong Island. If you take a boat out of the harbour going East, we're in the last big building you would see before the Ocean. Our apartment doesn't have an ocean view, rather we look at a mountain, but the prominade and other side of the building have great views.

This first picture is where we live. The building is called Island Resort. It's 60 odd stories high.



These are some boats in the bay down the road from us. It's mainly a industrial area, and this is where a lot of boats drop off their cargo. It's not very large, compared to the docks near Kowloon.



The next few are just random pictures walking around the street. It's not the most exciting place to walk around. There's mainly office buildings and industrial studios. No shopping malls! Only a few located where the main residential buildings are. Our building is on top of a mall for instance.




This is a hard-court soccer field to the side of our building. Most of the time you can just walk on and kick a ball around, but they do have many organized games that go late into the night sometimes.



This is the 6th level of out complex. It's the 'main lobby' area where you can walk around, see the pool, have a glance out over the ocean etc.



This pictures gives a good idea of how tall the buildings really are.



This is the view looking back towards central Hong Kong Island. You can't see the central district, but if you follow the harbour to the left, that's where you would get.

Mongkok Funnies

-Thanks for the warning. I'll grab an umbrella.




-Battle of the NBA superstars for Mongkok street supremacy!



"I like the brown one, no maybe the green one. It matches my hat."

-Good to know HK city workers are just as lazy as every other country.