Hike up Tai Mo Shan

My Dear Great Ones,

Celia and I are so fortunate to live at the foot of Tai Mo Shan mountain, the tallest mountain (957 meters) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR).  It is interesting, ruggedly beautiful, and offers tremendous views of Hong Kong.  Here is some photo evidence from a hike we took up the mountain last week: 

A great view of Tsuen Wan.

Heading up.  Some of the views remind me of the Crowsnest Pass in Alberta.

Below is the Shing Mun Reservoir.  We live just below it to the right.

Crazy.  Crowsnest Pass?!

Rock formations are amazing as you get closer to the top.

While the mountain reminds me of the Crowsnest Pass walking through a grove of young bamboo brings you back to the reality that you are in a sub-tropical climate.

Up near the peak are amazing boulder fields.

The way down is on a nice windy road.  A communications tower on the peak has a great view of Shenzhen.

Ta Mo Shan.  Amazing place with a host of great trails and views to enjoy.

Have a great week.

Love adios and ping on!

Dirk

It is a Little Different Here

My Dear Great Ones,
It is a little different here.  The day before Chinese Year started many of the kids at my school dressed up and did a dragon dance during recess.

 

The bird market is always interesting:

 Orchids available at the flower market:

  

Steps with padded seats going up.  Ideal for texting, smoking people watching.

Have a great week everyone!

Love adios and ping on!

Dirk

Dirk Goes Skiing

 

My Dear Great Ones,

Celia took some excellent photos last week during our ski vacation.  Some of the pictures had me in them.  Here is a sample of a few of those:

 

Have a great week everyone!

Love adios and ping on!

Dirk

Shiga Kogen Ski Area

Hello My Dear Great Ones,

As usual Celia and I celebrated our Chinese New Year's by going skiing in Japan.  This year we went to a ski area called Shiga Kogen, which claims to be the biggest ski area in the country.  Actually it is several areas connected by little bridges, or tunnels to each other.  Well it took us five days to explore everything.  We both were impressed by the snow, wow does Japan have great snow, in fact we skied in a few blizzards, the amazing scenery, and the variety of runs.  Most were easy to intermediate, and there were many trails through the trees.  All in all Shiga Kogen is a wonderful ski area.

Map of the ski area.  There are about 21 ski areas all joined up together.  Tickets are only about 45 bucks Canadian.  And that gives you access to all 21 areas!  A great deal considering the quality and quantity of runs offered.

We stayed in the upper floors above the Restaurant Aspen sign.  The whole place is called Aspen Shiga. They played John Denver songs all day in the restaurant.  Guess where John Denver came from?  Aspen, Colorado.  There were Colorado posters and license plates hanging on the walls as well.  A little surreal.  But Aspen Shiga is right by the lifts.  Perfect! 

Yet despite all the Colorado ambience our room was 100 percent Japanese.  Sleeping on the floor hardens the ole back.

A view of some of the slopes.

Happy skiers from Hong Kong.  The whole world was there.  We heard German, Australian, Chinese (mandarin and cantonese,) English English, Canadian, and of course Japanese.

Check out the hundreds of skis.  Shiga Kogen was not crowded at all, but there were tons of ski classes all wearing the same clothes and skiing on the same skis.  They were like locusts, converging on a run, devouring all space and snow in their wake.  But outside of that there were no lift lines or crowd issues at all.

On top of the World.  The views were marvelous.

Snow was awesome!

Celia taking a Selfie with me coming up behind.

More great views.

Celia graduated up to intermediate level.  Ya hoo!

Lots and lots of runs to explore.

Lots of trails through the forest.  Beauty.

Achtung!  Junction attention!

All in all Shiga Kogen is a wonderful place!

Have a great week!

Love adios and ping on!

Dirk