Amah Rock Lion Rock Hong Kong Soccer

Hello Everyone,
Had another interesting week here in, do I dare say, warm Hong Kong.  My parents say it is rather cold and snowy back home.  Here it was a little cooler today, the temperature plunged from plus 25 yesterday to plus 24.  Oh no.  Time to get the parka out.  Christmas decorations went up at the school.  At plus 25 or 24, with plants and trees green and blooming and kids and everyone wearing shorts it is hard to wrap Christmas around in my head.  Christmas without snow and cold just doesn't seem right.  I'll get over it.  There I just did.

A little observation about how people handle the constant heat here. At school the kids always have a water bottle as do the teachers.  Kids will literally fight over shady patches on the courtyard to play in during recess and gym.  Kids stand in open doorways to get cool from the air conditioners blasting cool outside.  Most kids here have zero concept of what a snowsuit is and none have worn mittens.  Hmm.  As for me I've worn my coat maybe twice, and taken it off within a few minutes.  As for long pants, I may have worn them twice since I arrived.  My legs are getting hairy and brown.  Its rough.

On Wednesday night I went to see Hong Kong's national team (ranked 137 in the world, even lower than Canada) take on Paraguay ranked about 20th.  The Hong Kong stadium is nice, but most Hong Kongers, stayed away and there may have been 2000 people in a 45 000 seat stadium.  They obviously had no interest in watching a slaughter as the poor Hong Kong team got outclassed in every department and were destroyed 7-0 by Paraguay.  The South Americans looked like men among boys vrs. Hong Kong.  Yet, it was fun to watch Paraguay show off their skills.  Their ball handling and passing was amazing and me and the other fans yelled our appreciation.  In the second half I stood by the hardcore Hong Kong fan club.  They cheered anytime their team gained possession of the ball, which was like 10% of the time.  That was all they really had to cheer about.  Kinda sad, but it was an experience.

On Friday morning under a blue sky and a calm plus 26 I led a grades 1-3 sportsday.  This is November?  It is summer, like the 10 days or so we get back home end of July or start of August.  Oh yeah I already mentioned the weather, sorry I'll move onto my hike which I did today, Saturday November 20 on a rather crisp plus 24 day.

I first took the train to Lion Rock park and once there clambered through the lush green jungle up to Amah rock where several people were having lunch to the wild beat of Chinese folk music blaring through a transistor radio.  That is weird.  Many Chinese hike with a little radio blasting all the latest Cantonese hits.  Talk about killing a mood, yet I have learned to move on quickly and am soon enveloped in the quiet of the dense forest.  From Amah rock I climbed for about another half hour up to Lion Rock which dominates the skyline of Kowloon.  There are great views from Lion Rock, too bad the air pollution was kind of thick today.  Hopefully next time it will be clear.  Most of the path today was a meticulously laid rock path, but up on the top near Lion Rock it was pretty steep and rough and the flimsy rope, I think it was a safety feature, to prevent you falling several hundred meters into the jungle, is what makes China so interesting.  Some rules and some parts of it is so overdone, yet when you drive a car or climb up to certain areas on a hike it is wild and unregulated.

Nevertheless, and I hate to admit, but I am starting to like this hiking thing.  It is really interesting here and the views are amazing.  So for the next while until the weather gets hot and humid and the only thing you can really do outside is hang by a pool or laze at a beach I'm going exploring.

Have a great week everyone.  Till then:

Adios,

Dirk