Peng Chau

Hello Tremendous People,
Hong Kong is amazing.  I am still discovering new places to visit.  Yesterday I took a ferry ride from Hong Kong to Peng Chau island.  No cars are allowed on this island.  So only biking and walking allowed.  Great!  So it was nice and quiet.  There are a lot of old people on Peng Chau.  It must be the final earthly stop for a lot of Hong Kongers.  Not a bad last stop.

 Went for a walk through the island's jungle and saw papaya and banana trees.  The beach was pretty well deserted and  I fell asleep on it after reading for an hour.  After meandering for another hour and eating at a quaint Thai restaurant l left for home happy to have discovered such a pleasant little place.

Have a great week.

Love adios and peng on,

Dirk

Kowloon Walled City Park

Hello Awesome Ones,
One of my favourite places on earth is the Kowloon Walled City Park.  I have done a blog on this park before, but it deserves another.  If you google Kowloon Walled City you can see what it was like before.  Now it is an incredibly beautiful park.  Several different pagodas, surrounded by unique vegetation, waterfalls, ponds, and statues makes it really unique. It is a great place to relax, pray, and get your head straight again.  And it is only a 15 minute walk from my place.   Enjoy the pictures.

Love adios and peng on,

Dirk    

Chinglish

Dear Great Ones,
One of the saddest things that I have heard is a Chinese mandate to improve their English language signs.  This will end one of the most fun things about being here.  Reading the "English" translations of some of the signs here always provides a light moment.  These translations, also called, "Chinglish" has inspired one German to actually publish pictures of several Chinglish signs.  His books have sold well and he has been interviewed on TV.  Here is a small sampling of what I have found here in Hong Kong.  Enjoy and I am sure some of the signs will make you laugh.

Love adios and peng on,

Dirk 

Bamboo

Hello Excellent Ones,
One plant that I see everyday here in Hong Kong is bamboo.  Here are some facts about it from the always, cough, cough reliable source Wikipedia.  Bamboo is grass.  It can grow a 100 cm a day, humans eat bamboo sprouts, Pandas eat tons, it makes up 99% of their diet, bamboo is used as medicine, paper, textile, furniture, pipe, water processing (cleaning), weapons, furniture, fishing rods and bicycles?  Bamboo is the Chinese symbol of longevity.

It is also used as scaffolding.  Light and sturdy you see it everywhere in front of buildings.  While China seems to have a lot of fussy rules about everything they don't seem to have any standards for putting up bamboo scaffolding.  The only safety equipment workers put on are helmets.  Otherwise they wear no safety straps and as for footwear?  I have seen one worker 50 feet up wearings socks and flip flops.

So enjoy the pictures of the bamboo scaffolding.  Note the men high on top strapping bamboo together with black electrical tape.  Pretty amazing.  And kind of scary.

Till next time.

Love adios and peng on,

Dirk