A week in the wilderness

November weather is nice and cool, making it a very good time of year to go exploring the 80% of Hong Kong that is still an undeveloped, mountainous wilderness. However, having noticed that my blog so far is full of pictures of beaches and parks, I'll endeavour to include some pictures of buildings in this entry!

Last weekend I went on a very leisurely hike from the Wan Chai Gap to... Aberdeen! The (mainly downhill) walk went past the Aberdeen reservoirs which look very odd. You get wild, jungley greenery growing down to the sides of the reservoir, but then the water levels were quite low and the baked orange coloured rocks that line the sides of the reservoir look like they've been carefully sculpted by people. Aberdeen itself has a nice waterfront promenade to stroll along, although it's not the most peaceful stroll due to the old women offering rides on their sampans.

The waterfront at Aberdeen

Me and a reservoir

On Monday at 1pm I set off in a bus full of orange and black tracksuited teenagers to school camp. We went to Sai Kung country park, in the Eastern New Territories, where we stayed in the Lady Maclehose Holiday Village (me for 1 night and the students for 2 nights - the teachers were on a rota!). The holiday village was quite similar to the 'camp' that we stayed at when we first arrived in Hong Kong, but this time there were individual bungalows instead of blocks of dorm rooms, so we had our own teachers bungalow where we could hide from the kids. On Day 1, we went on a boat trip to see some corals. Instead of having an expensive glass bottomed boat, the students were equipped with plastic buckets that had glass plates stuck in the bottom. They pushed these against the surface of the water (leaning over the side of the boat) so they could see the seabed quite clearly. It's a great idea, but sadly the corals we were looking at were disappointingly grey and lifeless. We then returned to camp for dinner in the canteen and the poor students had to sit for 2 and a half hours watching an episode of Blue Planet (they dubbed over David Attenborough with Cantonese!), a presentation on coral environments, a video about mangroves and a presentation about creatures that live in the mangroves. I don't think the environmental instructors who were running the programme had done much work with school groups before!

The boats speed back to land

Day 2 at school camp was sunnier than Day 1. In the morning we went a wee walk beside a mangrove. The instructor kept stopping and explaining interesting things about the plants we were seeing, but the student didn't seem that interested and the explanation was in Cantonese. At the end of our walk we got to scramble on a beach that the mangrove was slowly reclaiming and look for crabs under the rocks. Then it was back to camp for lunch, which we needed as fuel for our afternoon hike. We walked up a hill and down the other side to a BEAUTIFUL, rugged, isolated beach. There were warning signs about dangerous undercurrents, but that didn't stop me and a few of the boys having a paddle!

Girls on the beach

Boys on the beach

The rest of the school week was comparably uneventful. The students were still at camp on Wednesday but I had to go in and lesson plan for 3 hours, and on Thursday we all had a day off to recover, but I didn't do anything unusual.


On Friday Cat arrived in town for the weekend. We had a nice dinner in Knutsford Terrace and then took a quick stoll along the waterfront en route back to her hotel. She's been busy with her dad's business aquaintance's family for the rest of the weekend but we'll hopefully have dinner again tomorrow before she jets off home.


Since I wasn't required to tour guide Cat around, I went off on another hike today. This one came from 'The Serious Hiker's Guide to Hong Kong' so it was a bit more strenous. We climbed up from Tai Wai MTR to Amah Rock and then on to Lion Rock, which is about 500m high and is part of the ridge that forms a natural boundary between Kowloon and the New Territories. The views on the ridge are pretty impressive - you can see the whole length of Hong Kong Island - but the haze means that cameras don't really capture it too well. We could tell it was a 'Serious' hike when the concrete path disappeared. Up near the top we had to scramble amongst the rocks. I'm hoping my legs won't ache too much tomorrow!

Elise, Scott and Sarah hold up Amah Rock

View of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island

The scary ridge.

Buddha, Baking and Birds

In the Christmas break I'm going to Borneo, where I might (if the tour company confirm our booking)be climbing Mount Kinabalu! So when Scott suggested a little hike last Sunday I decided I ought to go along. We took an MTR to the end of the orange line on Lantau and then a minibus to a little village called Shek Mun Kip (I think) where the trail began. The start of the trail isn't very well signposted, but it gets better as you get higher up. The path is all concreted so it's strangely like walking on a pavement through the jungle, but the noises and the butterflies whirring past your nose help you to feel like your really out in the wild.

The expedition crew

Temple roof hiding in the jungle

The hike up the hill isn't too steep and there are lots of little distracting monasteries and temples to stop at on the way, as well as 'an audible stream' (that's how it's described in Scott's hiking guide) where we stopped to sit in the shade and I dipped my feet in the pool. After two hours moving uphill in the Hong Kong sunshine it was rather nice get to the top and walk along the flat plateau towards the Buddha. This time I paid bit extra and went for a meal in the vegetarian restaurant. The food no doubt tasted extra good because we'd put in such an effort to get to it!

The 'Audible Stream'

Reflected Buddha

The rest of my week has been quite un-touristy. On Wednesday I went for a few quiet drinks in my local (literally right next to my block of flats) bar. It's called Co Co Duck and is part of a chain. It feels a bit like an old men's pub in Britain (only with that traditional smoky atmosphere) and has tartan fabric on the seats. After our drinks we went for some food in Langham Place, which is the big shopping mall in Mong Kok and discovered that Christmas has officially hit Hong Kong.

Christmas in Langham Place

Yesterday I went back to Hong Kong Park, on the island, for a proper explore. The park is right in the busy part of Hong Kong Island so you have the surreal feeling that your in a giant tv set and either the lush vegetation or the shining sky scrapers has been superimposed on a blue screen. To add to the surreality, the park also contains a marriage registry so the main paths are full of just-married couples queing up to get their photos taken in the most picturesque spots! If you can wind your way along the paths without tripping over the trails and tripods, you can also visit the Museum of Tea Ware (exhibiting a variety of tea pots) and a huge aviary containing around 600 birds before taking in the conservatory (which I didn't have time for) and the waterfall!

Where did the skyscrapers go?

The Aviary

The Bank of China tower from behind the waterfall.

This morning I woke up to the sounds of bagpipes! It's not the Fair day... but there is some kind of celebration going on in the sports ground that my windows look over. I always thought that when I live abroad I would start to get nostalgic over the sound of bagpipes but sadly that effect hasn't kicked in yet. I don't think the pipers were particularly experience - they seemed a bit out of tune to me!

Bagpipers out my window!

I'm going on another hike this afternoon so need to go and get my suncream on, then it's off to school camp tomorrow which should be interesting.

Intrepid adventures in the New Territories.

My students had tests this week, so the whole school officially finished at 1pm on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. On the Wednesday, 3 of my first year girls invited me to go and have lunch with them. I asked if Mr Macauley (Rich) could come too, and so we all went to McDonalds! The girls are really good at English, but also REALLY hyperactive so it was quite hard work keeping track of their conversation for more than an hour, but then they took us on a wander through Tin Shui Wai Park which is really quite pleasant and not particularly far from our school. It was nice to see a bit more of the area we teach in.

Me, Kelly, Clarissa and Summayah in Tin Shui Wai park

On Thursday I decided to go on another Tin Shui Wai adventure, to the Hong Kong Wetland Park, which a pink signpost (they have LOTS of them in Hong Kong directing you towards tourist places) indicated was only 12 minutes walk from our school. The Wetland Park is man-made, but borders on a natural marsh reserve. It was partly built to compensate for all the wetlands that were drained to build new housing in the area, and to educate the local people about the value of the little protected parts that remain. My kids at school had told me the Park was boring and full of mosquitoes, but I was quite pleasantly surprised. The walkways around the park are carefully constructed so you don't really see all the other visitors (although you HEAR the visiting school groups!) and the different areas of the reserve look natural rather than man made. There was a mangrove section which you cross using a floating boardwalk and I got quite excited by being amongst a geography-textbook habitat! I also saw some of wildlife... although not necessarily the most exciting of species.

Little Egret

Crabs in the mangrove mud

Butterfly

Today was my third adventure in the New Territories. I went to the East side this time, to Clearwater Bay Second Beach. I've been meaning to go to a beach for a few weekends, but the weather wasn't too great, or I couldn't find anyone to go with, or I got distracted by going to Disneyland, so today when I woke up and realised it was going to be a bit of a scorcher, I decided to head out alone. I'd never been to a beach alone before, but it was a really relaxing experience. The only downside was that I had to leave all my stuff unattended on the beach while I went for my swim in the sea, but the worry was well worth it when I got to think 'It's NOVEMBER and I'm swimming in the sea!!!!' The beach was a really good place to chill out as it's not got any towns around it and the road is up the hill from the beach and hidden amongst the greenery. It was so lovely to just listen to the sounds of the waves crashing on the floor rather than the traffic and the car horns and the pedestrian crossing beeps that you get in Mong Kok. I must try to go back again before it gets too cold.

Clearwater Bay Second Beach

The soothing sound of waves on the shore

The intrepid explorer chills out on a rock

Disney!

Yesterday I went to Hong Kong Disneyland! It was a beautiful sunny day (you'd think that's normal here but actually it had been rainy for much of the week) which lifted our spirits right up, even before we'd reached Sunny Bay MTR station and got onboard the magical Disney MTR train with the Mickey Mouse shaped windows!

The Disney MTR

The park is smaller than the one in Paris (and much, smaller, apparently, than the one's in America) so it's not exactly a thrill a minute, but if you're excited by the thought of meeting Hong Kong-ers dressed up in Disney suits and trying on silly looking Disney hats, then there's more than enough to keep you going all day.

Fiona and a silly hat

Almost as soon as we arrived (after our first silly-hat trying on detour) we found ourselves outside The Festival of the Lion King show, so we popped inside and were just in time for it to start. I've never seen the Lion King musical, but I imagine the costumes and props were pretty similar, and I was rather impressed by them. The story seemed a little rushed, as they were trying to fit the whole of the Lion King into a half-hour long performance, but it was fun all the same. The opening number was Circle of Life, just like we sang it in the Rev concerts last year.

Hanna, Jenny, Alice, Me and Fiona

We managed to get our photos taken with Alice in Wonderland, Mickey and Minnie, and Woody and Jessy from Toy Story, which was slightly embarrassing but really good fun. Minnie even gave me a kiss on the cheek! My favourite ride would be a toss-up between the Winnie the Pooh ride (where you travel through scenes from various Winnie the Pooh stories and they do some very clever pretend rain for the one where 100 acre wood floods) and the Buzz Lightyear ride where you get laser guns to shoot at the evil Zurg and I scored more than anyone else and managed to reach Level 5, which makes me a 'Space Ace'! Sadly, when we went on it later in the day, my gun was malfunctioning and I got zero points.

Fiona and Hanna get the evil Zurg

After the fireworks behind Sleeping Beauty's castle, we had to hop back on the MTR and return to the real world...




... where not much is happening this week! The students are starting their Term 1 tests on Wednesday, so it's all a bit studious at school. Think I'll go back to the magical land of Disney!