"We gotta roll, bro" was my wake-up call once again. This morning song seems to becoming commonplace.
A pleasant afternevening in Stanley
Blaine and I were just asked to meet up with Blaine's aunt Judy at Central, Hong Kong and then we will be transported to Stanley once again. We were picked up by the first and only Toyota Prado I've seen all month. In summary:
- Warm welcome into the household again, given two comfy beds to sleep the night in.
- One wall in said bedroom housed a screen for an XBox360: Fifa '11 was the youngest cousin's fav.
- Delicious dinner cooked by Judy's Phillipino maid (scrumptious lasagna and veggies)
- Blaine getting a chance to chill and hang with his cousins
- Somehow being invited to an adult dinner party that evening
- Mingling
- Everyone barefoot, as is custom
- 2nd dinner (what fascinated Blaine and myself is that the gammon was found hiding in a bread loaf)
- Mingling
- More mingling
- Got well tipsy on the most amazing red wine that I will never hear- or see of again.
A paddle, mountain and an appetising reward.
The next morning: "Alex, show your face..!" comes Blaine's aunts voice up the stairs through my pillow. Blaine has been awake for an hour or so. "Fancy a paddle?" I was up immediately. 3 wheatbix's and 1 banana later I found myself carrying my own kayak alongside Blaine. Blaine's uncle strapped 1 single and 1 double to the roof of the Prado. Next thing we knew we were paddling once again in the South China Sea over Deepwater Bay. I wish I could share with you the scenery of Repulse Bay as I saw it that morning, but I do not have a waterproof camera.
Blaine and his uncle were in the double and were zooming in front of me, 4 arms vs 2. As I type this I feel how stiff some of my muscles still are.
Some interesting things of the voyage:
- We watched from the watery sidelines as 2 of Blaine's cousins competed in the finals of a local rowing competition.
- In the 4km of kayaking in deep oceans I'm proud to say that Blaine didn't fall out at all.
- I didn't fall out at all almost.
- As I hit the shore, I tried to get out...and I did get out... But face first. Great. Just in front of the entire beach population.
- I have decided that I just want to paddle for the rest of my life. Now I just have to get an ocean to Johannesburg, South Africa
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Repulse bay, we came in from the left corner and continued through the opening to the bay. (my sea navigation seems quite poor in that description). In essence: We were in the blue part.
A lot less boats on our particular day but the same beautiful blue skies. |
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| My kayak, 'n epic V10 nogals. |
Dragon's Back Trail
After a quick shower, The whole family, more cousins and the dogs trekked along. We set off hiking the Dragon's Back route, a simple 4km's with breathtaking views of ocean at both sides, golf courses, bay side villages and smells of all things natural.
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| View from the one side of Dragon's Back |
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| Robert and myself staring down at the golf-course. Looks like a lovely place to tee off from to me. |
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| A nice photo of Blaine's Hong Kong family and myself blending in. The dogs are called Bettie and Lucky ^_^ |
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| Blaine unaware of the scene behind him |
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| Me, since I wanted a photo like the previous one as well. |
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| A postcard worthy photo from Dragon's Back of the bay-side village. |
Dinner!
Straight from this hike we were all swept to the golf course country club that we had marveled upon during our hike. With only 300 members with a membership deposit that made my jaw drop, we were refreshing ourselves fir dinner in the washrooms of the most exclusive golf course in Hong Kong...the...something something golf course. We went sitting under the open skies with a refreshing sea breeze playing over our faces. I ordered some angel hair pasta and Blaine a steak and rice in the form of a fort. Blaine did his plundering with valor. We enjoyed some fantastic food, beer and wine, all the thanks to our hosts.
Museum day commence!
#1 : Hong Kong Museum of HistoryThe next morning Blaine and I woke up back in bed at the Medical residences and set off for rounds. The sun was shining like none other after rounds, Maggy and Blaine and I set off for the much recommended Hong Kong Museum of History.
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| The Hong Kong Museum of History, courtesy of Googley |
Allow me to summarise 3 hours of the Hong Kong Museum of History respectfully in 10 bullets:
(please excude my crude summary, world)
- Hong Kong has 3 main rock types: granite, basalt, schist
- There are islands because a long time ago the landscape was hilly, then as glaciers melted the ocean level rose 100m and thus made Hong Kong islandy
- Britain could not find anything of worth to trade to the Hong Kong and Chinese people with so they semi-consciously got Hong Kong's people addicted to opium and thus now they could trade. At the end of what is known as the second Opium War, China ceded Hong Kong to Britain. The paperwork stated that Britain was to be responsible for Hong Kong for 99 years. (This is all crazy condensed)
- Japan invaded Hong Kong for 3 years 8 months during WWII. These were extremely dark times for Hong Kong
- USA bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japanese soldiers in Hong Kong were captured and sent back to Japan.
- Hong Kong celebrated a lot.
- Hong Kong was handed back to the People's Republic of China
- Hong Kong is now known as Hong Kong the Special Administrative District Of The People's Republic if China.
- Happy times and many a firework
- :)
If you are in need any knowledge of Hong Kong whatsoever about anything ever, please ask Blaine, myself or a reputable encyclopaedia, I am confidant that between the three of us feel we will be able to answer all your questions fully.
#2: Hong Kong Museum of Science
Next, Blaine and I took on our 2nd museum of the day the Hong Kong Science Museum. Allow me to summarise:
- FUN!
- Giant machine spanning 4 stories that sends bowling balls around in a roller coaster, making noise, music and doing it all over again over a total of 4km of tracks.
- Room of mirrors, which was waaaay cooler than expected
- A wall of water seemingly dripping upwards or stationary jiggling about. Working on the same principle as wheel hubcaps appearing to spin backwards in movies.
- Just Blaine and me hanging, pulling, getting shocked, putting out faces into eyepieces, playing with light, laughing and absorbing knowledge that I doubt we will ever use.
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| The Energy Machine. You are loud and I want you in my living-room. |
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| Fooling around in the room of mirrors. "The vanishing body" |
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| Blaine being the human kaleidoscope as he is |
Dinner with a hint of Starfruit
Blaine and I realised we hadn't eaten dinner and we ended up eating streetfood morsels at Mong Kok. We ignored the temptation to go to the nearest MacDonalds this time. This was very much worth it because I had finally found and drunk Starfruit juice, a promise of which I had made to a friend.If I could describe to someone what starfruit juice tastes like... I would be torn between a cross between an apple and a pear, with a very mild sour taste, but also knowing that it still ends up leaving a sweet taste in your mouth. It really does look like a greenpepper from the outside and amazingly resembles a star when cut transversely.
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| The haven where the elusive starfruit can be spotted in the middle of the lowest row. SUCCESS! |
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| Unknown sausages, waffle balls, a daddy can of beer and a cup of starfruit and dinner is complete. |
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| An after dinner snack of beef dried sweet something. I describe it in the following words: sweet...preservatives...smoke...gelatin...beefish...tasty |
Our beds felt crazy good the moment we realised that we had not sat properly once the entire day.
Tim Ho Wan Today, Maggy and I completed the challenge of
The World's Cheapest Michelin star (What are Michelin Stars?):
We journeyed
to Sham Shui
Po to get a taste of the world's cheapest Michelin
star* at Tai
Ho Wan "The Dim sum
Specialists" restaurant. It seems that dim sum
turned out
to be a larger thing than I could have imagined. This was delicious
.
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| Maggy my translator and myself. The drinking and/or dishwashing tea jug can be seen in the middle. |
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Dim sum #1 Baked bun with BBQ pork
This was a very soft an delicate pastry yet very crispy. The pork inside is sweet and just yum. |
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Dim sum #2: Vermicelli roll stuffed with pigs liver in soy
This was new. An acquired taste. It was enjoyed sort of. |
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Dim sum #3: Steamed mixed vegetable with spicy sauce
The transluscent covering is slimy and sticky but is great tasting and keeps all of the nice ingredients inside. |
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Dim Sum #4: Eggplant stuffed with unknown meat
This was just delicious. I really despise eggplant and this left me doubting any prejudice I have ever had about anything. |
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Blaine and I ordering sweet and sour pork for the first time in Hong Kong. Why has it taken us this long?
(in the cafeteria) |
Let me go sleep, once again I am awake in the wee hours in the morning writing away at this blog thing that is a monster with an insatiable hunger that, the more I feed it, the more I get to understand the blessing that this tour is, how
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