Big Wave Bay

Hello Great People,
Big Wave Bay (BWB) is great.  It is a small village with a splendid, well maintained beach and like its name suggests, there are days when the waves are big and fun to ride. On Saturday I took the girls, Elsie and Noelle to BWB and they loved it. The journey to BWB is rather fun too.  First there is a 15 minute hike through the neighbourhood to the Kowloon Bay pier.  The older buildings in my neighborhood were only allowed to be built to a certain height due to their proximity to the old airport.  Once that was shut down and the airport moved to Lantau island new buildings like my Skytower were built and they tower over the old pre new airport relics like  redwoods to pieces of grass.

After getting to the Kowloon pier we hopped on a ferry for a 12 minute ride across Victoria Bay to Hong Kong.  Once there you have to pass through a fish market. It is very interesting if you can stand the smell.  After a four stop subway ride you alight onto a bus terminus and grab the number 9 for a harrowing ride on an impossibly narrow road that winds along the edge of a jungle covered cliff.  Then the bus plunges down to sea level where you alight on a lovely tree lined road.  After a pleasant 15 minute hike one finally alights onto the beach of Big Wave Bay.  After setting up base camp and renting a body board for about 20 dollars Hong Kong about 2 bucks Canadian you are ready to ride the surf.  Great fun.

On a random note the next day we went for a bike ride and encountered Woody, Buzz Light Year, and little Aliens.  Pixar has a show going on at the Heritage museum.  Typical Hong Kong.  Expect the unexpected and bizarre.

Till Next Time,

Love Adios and Peng On

Dirk   

Amah Rock

Hello Great People,
The rainy season is upon us.  It has been raining every day for a week.  It can come down pretty hard, but it is really warm, like a luke warm shower.  Today was torrential.  In fact it was a red rain.  The weather bureau ranks the amount of rain that comes down by colors.  Red is pretty bad, you go out in that and you are drenched instantly, while black rain is pretty, pretty bad.  Actually really pretty bad in fact.  Black rain causes flash floods and it is best to stay inside.  Have not experienced black rain yet, but I have heard the legends.

It stopped raining for a while this afternoon so I took the girls, my daughter Elsie and her friend Noelle, on a hike up to Amah rock overlooking Shatin.  We then walked on over the mountain back home to Kowloon.  It takes about two hours and walking through a semi tropical jungle after a rain storm is pretty nice.  It smells nice, but is awfully humid.  The girls saw their first wild monkeys.  They were frolicking up in the trees, one jumped from branch to branch.  Looked like fun.

We clambered down through the jungle as it was getting dark and took some good night shots as bats flitted unnervingly around our heads.

When we get into Kowloon we saw a Sheltie puppy and of course Elsie and I swooned as we thought of Lady.  Elsie gave the pup plenty of pets.

Elsie and Noelle are certainly enjoying Hong Kong.  They love the food, the swing dancing, and are awed by the sights and sounds.  They both managed to get an English tutoring job on Saturday and have a few more interviews next week.  So it looks like their little holiday is coming to a close, but that is ok.  I am sure they will still find plenty of play time.

It is great to have company again and things are going good.

Love, Adios and Peng On

Dirk 

Jungle, Beach, Dress Up day, Nunnery

Hello Beautiful People,
Tuesday was a day off so I took a friend from school and the girls, Elsie and Noelle, on a two hour jungle trek.  It was hot, it was hilly, it was buggy, it was fantastic.  We ended up at a very isolated beach and basically roasted for several hours on the sand and rode the waves.  Great fun.  Later we roller coasted in a little boat over some pretty massive waves back to Sai Kung, a small town near Kowloon.  What a great day.

Later in the week there was a dress up day at school for the primary students.  Many of the kids dressed up in traditional Chinese clothing and there were also some great dresses from Korea, Japan, Africa,  India, and Malaysia.   It was excellent and a great way to build up the CAIS community.

Today we went to the Chi Lin nunnery.  The garden was stunning.  Literally an army of workers keeps it up.  So overall it was a good week.  It is great to have Elsie and Noelle with me and they are certainly enjoying Hong Kong.

Till next week,

Love, Adios, and Peng On,

Dirk

Ocean Park

Hello Great People,
The big news is that after several months of being on my own I finally have company!  Elsie my youngest  daughter (20 going to be 21 June 21) arrived last Sunday and is with me now for the next three months.  She brought her friend Noelle along so my little apartment has been de-bachelorized and rearranged and tidied up.  It is taking me a little while to find things again, but it is great to have the girls here.  Next week they will both be working at an English tutoring place in the neighbourhood.  They will also be offering some private tutoring as well so hopefully within a week or two they will be teaching a lot of English to a lot of people for a lot of cash.

The girls certainly like Hong Kong.  They loved the markets, bird, ladies, and fish, plus they have gone swing dancing twice already.  I took them to a Bible study/potluck at an authentic Chinese family's apartment.  The apartment was in a slummy building, but the actual apartment was nice.  It was a great experience for us all.

Talk about experience I went with a group of guys to a theatre that we rented.  There were only 20 seats but they were all lazy boy recliners.  Popcorn and drinks were unlimited so we watched THOR! in 3d on our lazy boys.  Pretty sweet.  Hong Kong is full of surprises.

On Saturday I took the girls to Ocean Park which is an aquarium/amusement park.  I am not an amusement park type guy, I would rather bike through a jungle, ski down a monster mountain, or windsurf on a wild and windy day for amusement, but once every ten years or so, when every thing absolutely works out I will drag myself to an amusement park.  I find them expensive, hot, and since the patience to wait in lines is not a strength of mine, and I am resigned to the fact it never will be, I find them annoying.  Yet Ocean Park was ok.  I was with Elsie and Noelle, the aquarium was amazing, there was a Panda exhibit, and a few rides were actually ok, especially the rotating spiral tower one which gave an amazing view of the South China Sea.

The girls are also enjoying the weather, plus 30's this week, and we have been cooling off in the Skytower pool every day since they got here.  While they have been adjusting to the time change and weather pretty well the girls are having trouble keeping up to my walking speed.  Since I don't have a vehicle I tend to walk a lot more and with daily PE my walking speed has improved a great deal.  Poor Elsie just can't keep up yet, but I am working on her exhorting her with inspirational words like calling her, "gramma."  I am sure my baby will be able to keep with her almost 30 years older dad soon.

So overall I am happier now and the summer looks good.

Love, Adios, and Peng on,

Dirk