War Relics Trail

My Dear Great Ones,

Hong Kong continues to surprise me.  Within walking distance of my home is the wonderful War Relics trail.  As explained above numerous tunnels, pillboxes, and observation posts were build along Smuggler's Ridge before and during the early days of World War II  to ward off the enemies from the land of the rising sun.  To no avail.  Japan conquered Hong Kong in 18 days.  Their superior numbers overwhelmed the brave defenders of Hong Kong.  The city would be under Japanese control for three and a half years.  

      What pleased and surprised me about the bunkers was that you could actually see and explore them.  They were in really good shape and there was only a touch of graffiti on one of the bunkers.  Not bad and quite a reflection of how decent and respectful Hong Kongers are.  The trail up to the bunkers and beyond offered great views of Tsuen Wan and the natural wonders of Hong Kong.     The War Relics Trail is an interesting and worth while hike and I highly recommend it.   

A bunker near a fantastic observation post.

Some of the bunkers were deep in the jungle.

Some of the tunnels had names.

The views were spectacular.  It was a cold gray day.  Only 8 celsius.  I actually wore pants.

Tsuen Wan.

The tall mountain in the background is called Tai Mon Shan.  "Tall Mountain."  There was frost on top of it on this day. The first time I have heard of frost in Hong Kong.  Wow.  Global warming?  hmmmm

The trail was up and down and interesting.

Have a great week.  

Love adios and ping on!

Dirk

Sunset

How strange this fear of death is! We are never frightened at a sunset.

When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator.

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.

The true purpose of education is to teach a man to carry himself triumphant to the sunset.

I like that time is marked by each sunrise and sunset whether or not you actually see it.

Mediate on what is true, right and good.  No matter how bad your day there is a beautiful sunset at the end to remind us there are always things to be grateful about.

Have a great week.

Love adios and ping on!

Dirk

A Jungle in Malaysia

Hello My Dear Great Ones,

Malaysian jungles apparently have incredible bio-divesity as compared to North American or European forests.  Being practically at the equator, surrounded by water and not having your forests destroyed like in other countries obviously helps a lot.  Celia and I had a little tour through a jungle on our trip to Malaysia over Christmas.  The trip we took was pretty rough in terms of how poor the trail was and we had to hire a guide.  Yet, we saw some very interesting trees and plant life. 

The entrance to our a little jungle adventure.

 Off we go into the depths of the jungle.

 Some interesting fungi feeding on a downed tree.

 Some of the trees, this I think is Ironwood, were super tall.

 This is a small sample of a Shorea Faguetiana tree.

 Giant curly roots hung from some of the trees.

 The chocking fern on this tree will literally choke it to death.

 The curly branches were amazing.

 More vines chocking a tree.

 The trees were massive.

 This tree was like a wall.

 Amazing curly roots.

 Curly roots going up into the sky.

 Bamboo growing out of a dead tree.

 Near the jungle was a plantation of palm oil trees.  Boo.

 Almost like the Redwoods.

Praise God for the amazing diversity of plants and trees in this world.  I pray and hope Malaysia does not waste the great gifts that they have.

God bless you all.

Love adios and ping on!

Till next week.

Dirk

Needle Hill Again

Dear Great Ones,

Needle Hill is for sure, one of the "must do's" when you come to Hong Kong.  The views of Kowloon, Shatin, Hong Kong island, Lantau, Victoria Harbour are magnificent.  You also get a good appreciation of how much nature there is in Hong Kong.  Plus it is a great workout to get there.

Here are Elsie and Josh about to embark on their journey to Needle Hill.

Josh found a kite on the way and had some fun.

Celia meanwhile took a few selfies.

At the precipice of some serious climbing.

Lots and lots and lots of steps.

The reward for all that climbing are great views.  Shing Mun reservior.

Shatin.

The buildings of Tsuen Wan are on the right.

So many steps.

Shatin.

Our destination: Needle Hill on the left.

Plants still blooming in December.

Destination in sight.

Great views from the top.

View of Tsuen Wan.

Dramatic.

Heading back down.

Great times on a great hill.  Needle Hill.  It rocks.

Love adios and ping on!

Dirk