Some Quirky Things

Hello Excellent Ones,
It has been dreary for like weeks on end.  At times the clouds have been so low that the view from my apartment is nothing but a grey wall and you can't see the top five floors from below.   I can't remember when I last saw the sun, but I am really looking forward to seeing it again.  It has been drizzling a little as well every day.  Still it is @ 15 above every day.   So grey and plus 15 vrs. sunny and minus 40.  Ah I think grey and plus 15 will be good.

Today I will report about a few of the thousands of quirky things that I encounter in Hong Kong almost every day.  Quirky is different, quirky is interesting, I kind of like quirky.

Hairy Crabs
Every January-March it is hairy crab season.  Millions and millions of these creatures are thrown into baskets, live, with a little ribbon tied in a bow to keep their claws under control.  Sometimes they are stacked neatly.  Kind of cruel, but the Chinese love them.

Mini Austin
Hong Kong has great cars.  All, however have their steering wheel on the right side rather than the left.  Rather weird.  Lots of German and Italian hot rods rule the road, but there is a niche for Austin Minis as well.  Came by a garage that fixed only Austin Minis.  Hmm.  Rather interesting.

Blossoms
Ok I admit it.  I like flowers even though as a big, burly guy I am not really supposed to admit it.  Yet I enjoy the blossoms that abound here year round.  It makes my day.  And  they have this amazing year round flower market.  I will have to a blog just on that some day.  It is pretty great.

Quirky signs
Chinglish is much better in mainland China than here in the Special Administration Region, but occasionally there is an interesting sign.  Have a Blossoming good year every one.

Dogs Wearing Coats
When the temperature gets down to 12 out come the dog coats.  The poor dogs might get cold.  Pansies!  Canadian dogs are much tougher.  Many of the jackets are designer Chinese coats.  Rather amusing to observe.  In the summer out come the razors and many dogs are sheared to a fine stubble so they can survive the heat.  One sheltie is sheared like a lion with a lovely mane.  Now why did I not think of that with Lady?

Oranges
There are millions of oranges now.  They are going real cheap.  A pound for about fifty cents Canadian.  Cheap.  Bought a giant mandarin orange and tried it.  It was super sour but it was an interesting size.

Have a great week everyone.

God bless you.

Love adios and peng on,

Dirk

Panorama Views

Hello Fantastic Ones,
One of the great features of my new camera (Fujifilm Finepix S2900 Series) is the Panorama one.   Today I  have put my favourite shots on display.  The blog site won't do the pictures justice due to how small it makes them, but if you can enlarge them I think you would enjoy them.  Have a great week.  I am rather sick with the flu so pray for me.

Love adios and peng on!

Dirk  

Shun mon Springs

Hello O Excellent Ones,
On Saturday afternoon (today Feb 11) I went with a group of high school students from my school to the Shun mon Springs youth center.  Located up in the hills of Shatin it is a tranquil place surrounded by jungle and the sounds of a murmuring spring (hence the name) that makes you feel instantly relaxed.  It is run by an organization called the St Stephen's Society, which was started by the legendary, (to Hong Kong anyway) Jackie Pullinger.  The facilities are top notch, but the people who run the place are even better.  All have a fierce devotion to God, Jesus Christ and helping the boys, who attend the center, to get better and eventually become contributors to society.  The boys, who come from all walks of life, have some how failed at family life, school, or lost their way to drugs.   Shun mon Springs gives them a chance to find their way by following the Lord: The Way, The Truth, and The Life.

Most of the students I took from my school today come from good homes and are all relatively well to do.  They also all attend church and have a good genuine faith in the Lord.  Still it is rare for them to interact with kids from a lower socio economic bracket than themselves and especially with those who have had trouble with the law.

Yet by worshipping, playing sports, and then having a barbecue together all the kids, my school and the center kids, were allowed to be just kids and it was a positive experience for everyone.   Worship was interesting in that the songs were sung in Cantonese and English.  It was beautiful really.   After worship the girls, especially, had a screaming good time going up the climbing wall while the boys got rid of some testosterone playing soccer, basketball, and ping pong.  Well,  on second thought the testosterone release may not have been that strong with ping pong.

The barbecue was, well, different.  Little stands for the charcoal were lit up by mini blow torches.  Of course by the time the coals were perfect starvation had driven most of us to eat half cooked food, or burnt offerings, and thus there was no more room for a well cooked piece of flesh.  Barbecues are always the same, in that sense, around the world.   There were hotdogs, but no buns, ketchup or musturd.  Heck you might as well eat the dog raw then, but there was also fish, fish balls, pork chops,  chicken and mushrooms wrapped in tinfoil.  All good and interesting.

Yet the best part was getting to know the guys and one aspect I like about Christianity is that having meals and getting to know one another while stuffing your face is very Biblical.  Jesus did it all the time.  So pray for the kids, all the kids, that got to know one another today, and maybe in the future they will treat those from different socio economic brackets than themselves with kindness and respect, rather than ignoring them.

Love adios and peng on!

Dirk

Tai O

Hello Tremendous Ones,
I have been in Hong Kong for almost two years and it still amazes me.  On Saturday I went to Lantau island.  The ferry ride over was peaceful and nice.  On the other hand the hair raising, nauseating, roller coaster like, bus ride, up and down over the mountainous Lantau terrain was not.  Still Tai O was very interesting and I will let the pictures and captions explain why.

Love adios and peng on!

Dirk

Hiking Hong Kong

Hello Excellent Ones,
I have over a week off for Chinese New Years and have decided to spend the week hiking and biking Hong Kong's incredible trail system.  Seventy percent of the Hong Kong territory is natural and hundreds of kilometers of hiking trails crisscross the territory.  Built by the British they go up and down over mountains, along ridges, and through jungles.  They are great.  I was not a great hiking fan before I came to Hong Kong, but because the trails are so interesting here I am converting.  So this week I am going to provide you a few glimpses of what I did each day.

Monday 23/January
Today was Chinese New Year.  Kung hei fat choy.  That is a new years blessing, means hope you get rich.  Went on a rather cold, rainy day, plus 10, ok I am becoming a wimp, with an old, 63 year old, but very spry and in shape friend named Gary, to Pat Sin Long Peak.  Lots of climbing, when we got to the peak the wind was howling and the cloud cover was thick.  My hands actually became numb.  I had forgotten what that was like.  We also got rained on, so not ideal, yet there were some decent views.  Later ate Thai.  Pineapple chicken is great.

Tuesday 24/January
I took the ferry from Kowloon Bay to Hong Kong island.  From there I hopped on a subway, transferred to a bus and alighted at the Dragon's Back trail head.  Up, up, up I went until I walked along a mountain ridge (the Dragon's Back) and if it wasn't for the brush I would have been blown into the South China Sea.  The view was great even though it was again, like yesterday, cold and cloudy with a threat of rain. Still it was a great hike, a clear day would have made it even greater, and I enjoyed it.  Walking through a jungle later was fun and seeing four little dogs all wearing Chinese style coats was amusing.  The master tried to get the mutts to sit so I could take a picture, but they didn't cooperate.

Wednesday 25/January
A winter monsoon invaded Hong Kong bringing cold temperatures, 8 degrees and rain!  I headed to Cheung Chau island, a small island shaped like a dumbbell, a half hour ferry ride from Hong Kong.  I was going to hike the island, but the wind and rain kept me to exploring the narrow streets, which have numerous eating places and shops.  Snacks like spicy fish balls, squid on a stick, dried fish, sushi and numerous other delectable seafood treats were offered.  Yum!  I say that in jest believe me.  Despite the poor weather conditions there were a lot of people out and I found it interesting.  The weather outlook is not promising for Thursday either.  Maybe I will have to explore a museum tomorrow.  Oh no!

Thursday 26/January
The plan was to go to Lantau island, but winds, cold! and low lying clouds caused me to scuttle those plans and seek the relative shelter of the Amah rock to Lion rock trail.  This trail is relatively easy to get to, relatively challenging, and has spectacular views of Shatin, Kowloon, and Hong Kong.  Most of the walk is through a jungle, which is protection from the wind, and is always interesting especially with monkeys having fun playing in the tree tops.  My friend and I had a good trek and found the energy to get up to Lion Rock which like mentioned before affords incredible views.  Today however, all we got was an incredible view of thick cloud cover and a blast of cold, winter monsoon winds from Siberia.  Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be better.  Yet weathermen are all alike around the world.  Liars!! But here is hoping for a sunny day.  It would be nice to see Mr. Sun again.

Friday 27/January
No sun, lots of clouds, no hike.  Wahhh.  Instead I headed to a park relatively close by called Lok Fu.  Kowloon and Hong Kong are sprinkled with all these little parks, which when you consider this place is one of the most densely populated places on earth,  are badly needed to keep everyone sane.  It is basically your backyard.  There are also a few random hills scattered in Kowloon and because they are well forested  they are like an oasis in a concrete desert.   Maybe tomorrow the weather might be a tad better and I will embark on an adventure.

Saturday 28/January
The weathermen are as useless in China as they are in Canada.  Big prediction for today was cold, plus 12 (come on it feels cold when you have experienced plus 25 for most of the year) overcast, with rain.  Dead wrong.  It was sunny, plus 25, blue sky day baby.  I went to Mui Wu on Lantau Island.  Lantau's claim to fame is that they have the airport, the Big Buddha, and Hong Kong Disneyland.  Yep you can see Goofy dressed up in old fashioned Chinese clothes for lots of Hong Kong dollars.  Otherwise Lantau is relatively unpopulated, a few villages here and there and has some great beaches, plus lots of thick jungle and mountains.  Its quite beautiful actually.

Today I saw village homes (three story houses that are common in rural areas) fishing boats, a waterfall so sad I did not take a picture, a cave so sad I did not take a picture, jungle trails, incredible views, a dancing dragon grooving to the beat of ear splitting drums and cymbals, the dragon was trying to chase evil spirits away out of homes, kinda of impressive,  free ranging cattle, (which are common on Lantau), a vendor bundled up to the plus 20 evening cold, selling bananas and roots in front of Mcdonalds, several fishing boats, cool birds, elephant grass, a slick ancient stone walkway through the jungle, more hazardous to walk on than useful,  and finally huge container ships bringing in no doubt high quality items from China to a Walmart nearest you and by the way do you like this excellent example of a run on sentence, which my old high school English teacher would have lambasted me for.  I am even tired rereading this.  Whew.  Needless to say I had a great day.  I expect the weather I experienced today on Lantau will be similar to that in heaven.  I did stop once and reminded myself, today is January 28, yet it feels like a July 28 in Canada.  Boy is it tough not to feel a little giddy over the weather here at times.  Ya hoo!  Sorry folks.  I will try to restrain myself next time.  So that is it for this rather long and exhaustive entry.  Next Wednesday I get back to the grind, thankfully it will be a short week, and I can rest up on the weekend.  My brother's right.  Hong Kong is paradise.

Till next week.

Love adios and peng on!

Dirk

Faces

Hello Great Ones,
This entry will be kind of different.  I call it faces.  So enjoy.  Have a great week.

Love adios and peng on,

Dirk

Chinese New Year

Howdy Great Ones,
While Hong Kong and the rest of China celebrate the New Year Dec. 31- Jan. 1, like most of the people in the world, and they blow up lots of fireworks, it pales in comparison to the hoopla of Chinese New Year.  CNY (get it)  occurs on a different date every year, because it is based on a lunar calendar.  Sometimes it occurs in early February, other times it happens in late January.   This year CNY starts on January 23.  The New Year is also given a name based on the Chinese Zodiac, I tried to comprehend how they determine this through Wikipedia, but I don't have the energy to try to understand what they were talking about.  Needless to say I have just experienced the year of the Snake and we are now moving on to the year of the Dragon.

So thats cool.  Dragons are everywhere.  It seems every business, including my school and apartment complex, have CNY displays.  Some of the traditions that I think are great about CNY are:
1.  The house gets a thorough cleaning.  Ghosts and bad luck are literally swept away with the dust and debris.  Oh if it was that easy.
2.  New Year displays have blessings and encouragement written on scrolls.
3.  Families get together for big feasts and celebrations.
4.  When kids wake up on New Year's they go to their parents and wish them a happy new year.  In return they get red envelopes filled with money.  Hey not a bad tradition if you are a kid.
5.  Reconciliation, ending of grudges, peace, and happiness are all encouraged.  I really like that one.
6.  The Chinese factory workers, plus international school teachers, and many others get a week long holiday.   The biggest migration of people in the world occurs during CNY as 100's of millions of people head home for the holidays.  For many workers it will be the only time they will see their kids and other family members for the entire year.  Travelling in China is not recommended during this time.
7.  Lots of displays and lots of fireworks are going to be blown up.

I plan to explore and hike the trails of the Hong Kong territory during the CNY holiday.  I have a guide book and the hikes look spectacular.

So till then God bless you all and enjoy your week.

Love adios and peng on!

Dirk