The Aviary

My Dear Great Ones,

Hong Kong continues to surprise and delight me.  A few weeks ago I discovered the Aviary at Hong Kong Park, located near the peak tram.

The Aviary is like a large tent set in a park.

Inside is an elevated walkway.  You look down onto a rushing stream and it feels like you are in a jungle

Over 600 birds make the Aviary home.  Here are a few of them:

Have a great week.  Love adios and ping on!

Squatters

My Dear Wonderful People,

I found the following quote off the internet:  Hong Kong and Vancouver are two of the most unaffordable cities to buy property, according to the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey published Tuesday.  In the 2014 survey, Hong Kong was branded the most unaffordable, followed by Vancouver and San Francisco. Australia's Sydney and Melbourne followed in the fourth and fifth positions.

Truly one of the craziest things about Hong Kong is its real estate.   Due to lack of land and high demand, prices for living space is astronmical.  A simple small apartment like mine (700 sq feet) can easily be worth over a million dollars Canadian.  Despite that Hong Kong has some of the most expensive and lavish homes in the World. They cost millions and millions of Canadian dollars.  Most of them are owned by mainland Chinese whose interest in Hong Kong real estate has driven prices sky high.  Yet, there are millions of Hong Kongers who hover around the poverty line.  The government here has build hundreds of public housing projects that provide many with at least a roof over their heads.  Still there are thousands who cannot or will not go to public housing.  Instead they go to the jungle, on the fringes of Kowloon, Shatin, and other places, and live in squatter homes.  While this is illegal the government has turned a blind eye, obviously better to have peace then a social upheaval.  Unlike the slums of Haiti or elsewhere, the jungle is actually, in my opinion, a nice place to live.  It is quiet, beautiful, and serene.  What I find strange walking through a squatter settlement is the lack of people out and about.  I guess they are sleeping, working or staying inside.  As a result I feel very safe walking through a squatter area. As I have declared many times before.  Hong Kong is a very interesting place.

Have a great week.

Love adios and ping on!

Dirk

These signs are everywhere in a squatter settlement, but are ignored.  I saw one sign in the middle of a fenced up squatter's garden.

Lovely real estate on the side of a small jungle covered mountain.

No streets in a squatter settlement.  Just narrow well maintained cement pathways.

Power is shared.

Note high rise apartment buildings near these squatter homes.

Nice location for a home. 

Hard to believe you are in Hong Kong. 

A variety of materials are used to build squatter homes.

Wow.

This squatter settlement actually had a bridge (think drawbridge of a castle) and fence barricading it.

This place is basically a cage.

One of the few people I actually have seen in a squatter settlement.  Guy was hauling water.

This area obviously had seen better days.

A forbidden city in the jungle.

Quaint.

This in my opinion looks great.

This not so much.  Weird.

Public housing or...

…this.

Hong Kong is an interesting place.

Beat the Banana Charity Run

Hello My Dear Great Ones,

Here in Hong Kong most outdoor sporting events are from November to April.  Reason?  From May to end of October it gets too hot and humid to be doing anything strenuous outside.  Except swimming at the beach of course.  Sounds like winter in Canada except opposite.  Yet, I would rather be at a pool or beach than shovelling snow.  Yeah it is tough in Hong Kong.  Anyway I participated with several students and teachers from my school CAIS at the annual Beat the Banana Charity Run on March 2.  The object is to chase a guy/girl dressed as a banana for about 5 or 3 or 1 kilometres , depending on how far you run, and beat him/her so that you can be the banana for next year's race.   It is for a great cause.  The entrance fee goes for cancer research.  But, "Beat the Banana?" Ahhh.  Honestly, I find that rather cheesy, but nevertheless on a rather cool, plus 18, and foggy/slightly rainy morning, I did my part for a very worthy cause.  After fooling around for a while taking pictures I got serious about running the 5 km course and took great satisfaction in passing several people years nay decades younger than me.  It really soothed my slowly developing old age complex.  If there was such thing as an old age banana competition I probably would have had a chance as champion.  This is cause I run on weekdays for about 20 minutes to get to my school; plus occasionally swim, bike, play hockey, and walk.  Imagine an old banana costume.  Probably all black.  LOL.  Cheesy!!!  I really believe that good cardio vascular strength is very healthy for body, mind, and spirit.  And it makes you feel young!

Take care.  Have a great week!

Love adios and ping on!

Dirk    

Beat the Banana

The race took place on the Kowloon promenade.

A variety of fruits and vegetables.

This guy obviously did not get the memo that its a banana race not a cat race.  Sheesh.

Warming up before the big race.

 Bilingual signs gave us helpful tips.  

It was fun leaving these huffing and puffing youngsters in my wake.

Running for a great cause.

Stone Forest

A publicity poster.

My Dear Great Ones,

I have over my life seen many magnificent natural and manmade wonders.  Rocky Mountains, the pyramids, Grand Canyon, The Empire State Building, the Northern Lights,  the Great Wall, underwater sea life in Lombok, the Calgary Tower (ha ha) etc, but I now have seen a wonder that ranks somewhere in my top five, even though the ancient leaders of the Ming Dynasty called it the, "The First Wonder of the World."    The Stone Forest (Shilin in Chinese) is AMAZING!  It is located about 120 km from the average sized Chinese city of Kunming, population @ 8 million. Kunming of course made the news just recently when  terrorists attacked innocent people at the main train station.  More on that later.  The city is a thriving, prosperous place, lots of Starbucks, and Mcdonalds.  You know a place is well off when it has lots of Starbucks and Mcdonalds, eh?  Kunming's altitude is higher than Denver's or Calgary's.  It lies at @ 6000 feet, 2000 meters above sea level.  And the air is dry, dry, dry.  I was wheezing at times like an old man.  Ok, I know what some of you wise guys are thinking: a really old man ok.  There is a saying in Kunming, which kind of goes like this:  "If you visit Kunming without seeing the Stone Forest you have wasted your time."  Thats a little harsh, but indeed I think the Stone Forest is worthy of anyone's bucket list.  

However, the real reason I went with Celia to Kunming was to visit my old, old as in we have been friends for decades, old as in the fact we are in our 50's (gasp), friend Brent.  Brent was with his wife in Kunming visiting relatives.  They live in "exciting," Lethbridge, but met in Kunming.  Their first date was at the Stone Forest!   

At the Kunming airport Celia and I were greeted by Brent and his brother in law, and then watched in awe as a four man military patrol armed to the teeth marched right by us.  Welcome to Kunming.  This show of strength was replicated at the Stone Forest as well.  Obviously the Chinese have taken the recent terrorist attack very seriously.  Yet the soldiers seemed really young and were rather short.  But their submachine guns looked very real.

After a good night's sleep we headed to the Stone Forest with Brent's brother in law as our driver.  On the way we were stopped at a highway toll station by some very serious looking police men.  All papers and documentation of our driver were fine, but there was tension as they surrounded him and talked rather sternly.  Later he told us the police were a little curious about why he was transporting two westerners in his vehicle.  Sigh......Although Kunming and a lot of China is prospering and looks very western, communism and its inherent paranoia still rears its ugly head.  Or the terrorist attack has made everyone in authority a little edgy.   Nevertheless we managed, after that excitement and enduring an hour long traffic jam, to get to the Stone Forest.  

At first I was a little appalled.  It reminded me of Disneyland, with the high entrance fee, the music, the flashing billboard promoting it in vivid color, and many of the women visitors were in dresses and high heels. At the edge of the Stone Forest there was a stage for ethnic performers and a well manicured lawn.  And the crowds!  Yeah there were a lot of people.  This is a natural wonder? 

Yet once we started hiking into the forest the crowds thinned into nothing and you could not hear the gaudy music.  High heels are obviously not good for hiking!  And sweating up nice clothes!  No way.  I could not help but think of Alf the geologist as we meandered through the labryinth of rocky pinnacles.  I think his heaven will be like the Stone Forest for the rock formations were amazing, fantastic, wonderful, awe inspiring, and any other adjective you can think of that means wow.  I will now let the pictures tell their story, but first some education:

What is Karst?

Karst is a landscape formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks including limestone, dolomite and gypsum. It is characterized by sinkholes, caves, and underground drainage systems (Fig. 1). Nearly all surface karst features are formed by internal drainage, subsidence, and collapse triggered by the development of underlying caves (Palmer, 1991). Rainwater becomes acidic as it comes in contact with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the soil. As it drains into fractures in the rock, the water begins to dissolve away the rock creating a network of passages. Over time, water flowing through the network continues to erode and enlarge the passages; this allows the plumbing system to transport increasingly larger amounts of water (Gunn, 2004). This process of dissolution leads to the development of the caves, sinkholes, springs, and sinking streams typical of a karst landscape.

  

The info below was seen on some signs with Chinese writing on the top.  Obviously someone  translated it  into English so it may read a little awkward to some of you.  Kind of like my writing at times.

Our human's?  Hmm.  

A small Stone Forest rising out of a lake.

Note the people below.

A lovely lawn at the front of the wonder.

Tranquil.

A path into the depths of the Stone Forest.

Brent is in the background.  

Lovely.

Oh yeah I am here!

Entering into the maze of rock.

The paths through the forest went up and down and all around.  Thankfully there were signs, in English, or pretty good English to help you find your way.

Strange and interesting rock formations were everywhere.

Brent heading down some rather unsafe and steep steps.

Amazing.

Celia going down into the depths of the Stone Forest.

Stone Forest.  Good name.

Some of the paths were narrow and the cliffs were dramatic.

Brent squeezing through an opening.

Looking up from below.

An angel appeared during our hike.

Spectacular.

Amazing.

Fantastic

Awe inspiring

Wow

As an extra bonus, ethnic dancers and military men were seen near the Stone Forest.

Gulp!

Ethnic dancing and costumes everywhere.

Cowgirl meets Chinese ethnic girl.

Have a great week everyone!