Races and Farewell

On Wednesday we FINALLY made it to The Races in Happy Valley. Apparently this is the thing to do in Hong Kong and sure enough there was a large crowd.  The announcements were divided into language sections, which meant the English language area was an expat magnet. It was funny for me to see so many expats at one gathering in Hong Kong after living in Kowloon, it felt like being in London.  =P

The beer and atmosphere were excellent, and in summary it is totally worth going for a fun Wednesday evening out.  But rather eat before unless you are the betting kind, in which case the odds are not in your favour you'll be scoring with the food.

And the BIG NEWS of the week is that on SUNDAY 25th November J proposed and I said Yes!!
We are ENGAGED! =D  Here is a photo of us at the Races 3 days later.

Sadly this is my last night in Hong Kong this year, tomorrow I fly back to Holland for work and then we take a wonderful vacation in South Africa with my family.  But I will return to Hong Kong! Next year starts a new chapter in our lives together and I can't wait.

The journey of discovering this city has been an elaborate and vibrant one, and in the end I can honestly say I like it here. J did propose at the right time since I will admit I had my doubts earlier this year about whether I could really live here. But through writing this blog and opening myself up to new things, I can see that Hong Kong has a lot to offer and I like to think of it as a prism - depending on what light you shine on it, you'll see different colour beams shining though.

This ends my formal blog quest of writing during my three months stay in Hong Kong.  No doubt I'll drop a few nougats of information in the future as I haven't quite covered all ground just yet, but until then, FAREWELL.

Hiking through the Butterfly Park and seeing much more

This week saw a fabulous combination of the work-hard, play-hard scenario. Monday to Wednesday were long hours in the office, only finishing around 1am and starting 9am. But then Thursday made up for it with a DOUBLE Thanksgiving celebration to mark the first time I celebrated this holiday. We attended one gathering in the afternoon and a second in the evening, both with a great mix of new and interesting people that intrigued the social side of me. And of course the food. Lots and lots of good food. Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, squash, mash potato, it was all there followed by perfect dessert items of cookies, pumpkin pie, key lime pie, pecan pie, apple pie, cupcakes, ice-cream. You get the idea. To compensate for this holiday indulgence another hike was in order this weekend! 

Today we visited and hiked through Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, aka 'the Butterfly Park', in the New Territories with friends. This is a park on one of the highest mountains in Hong Kong and we climbed almost to the top (to discover a very underwhelming statue I might add but of course that wasn't the reason for visiting).  The park is a working farm on terraced slops, with green houses and orchids. Originally setup to provide for windows and the poor, it has pioneered productive farming techniques for the type of land, climate and steep slopes. It is also a sanctuary for wildlife that have been injured or have been imprinted. In all, a good day out with a good cause. 

Photo impressions of the day:

A Muntjae:

Wild Boar:

The Hong Police take in snakes that are found:

Pink Flamingos:

Owl without it's wing:

 The vegetation reminded me of what I used to see in my Grandmother's garden in South Africa.

Man made waterfall

Chaozhou Chicken-Feet cuisine and other usual weekday activities

For the past weeks since I have returned from KL I have noticed a strange phenomenon:  a week-day routine has formed. Even with our crazy hours/schedules and haphazard adventures, there is a thread of expected activity of work, shopping, clothes to laundry etc, which in my case is a good thing.  My eyes are noticing the smaller details now during my walk abouts - a new dish on a menu, new dessert restaurant opening, even observing and learning some Chinese characters (I can read opening times- yay!). But even with the repetitiveness there are still interesting finds and delights, and this post is a collection from the past week.

1. Christmas decorations are appearing and Christmas jingles can be heard in the evelators and malls.
So with that are the inevitable Christmas Gift options popping up.
I saw this Marie Antoinette Action Figure in the stores this weekend. I like the originality but I can't see Barbie stepping aside just yet.

2. My favourite food item of the week: Rambutan. They are like a lychee inside, clear sweet juicy insides with a almond size pip. Good to satisfy my South African lychee craving.

3. For the street food sellers catering to Western tastes there are no waffles on offer but rather 'Checkered Cakes'. And eggs soaked in tea.  And egg puffs.  Very logical names I'd say.

4. One of the delights of shopping these days is seeing how many Happy Stamps I will get after paying. Usually one loyalty stamp for 60 HKD spent and when customers collect enough stamps they get the prize indicated at the marker. Each store has a special collection brochure printed for this season and their own incentive prizes and goals... So far I'm collecting Welcome stickers for a Blender and MarketPlace stickers for a Backpack. But with only two in the house to shop for numbers are slow, and the question is will I ever reach the goal in time before the end of the year. Only 10 days left in Hong Kong this year for me... Eeek, probably not going to make it ;-)

5. And on the subject of food shopping... anyone with a craving for pumpkin? These beauties will surely do the trick. I just can't see them fitting into any Hong Kong sized kitchen though.

6. And last week we were treated to dinner out with friends, Chaozhou cuisine style. Pronounced 'ChowChu' to my ear, this cuisine is from a fishing area on the east coast of China directly opposite Taiwan.  Surprisingly I enjoyed all the dishes!

On a side note: I say surprisingly because I will admit I'm not the biggest fan of Chinese food, sad I know considering I'm in Hong Kong.  But my recent diagnosis is that I'm not a fan of Hong Kong style Chinese food.  Eel, Jellyfish and Prawns with the shells on and then deep fried just don't blow me away like they seem to do for other foreigners. 

But with the Chaizhou dishes I ate it all -  Goose, duck, shrimp, even chicken broth with the chicken feet left in. Finally the noodle cake, with vinegar and sugar it was very more-ish.

7. Walking home one evening after sun set, the pink and yellow flowers with the streetlight shining through make a colourful composition. Some nature in the middle of the city.

8. And to end, Sunday's Cocktail treat with J at the Shangri-La hotel TST East. 

I had the Pomegranate Pineapple Martini, sweet and refreshing.

 Cheers!

Wilson's Trail section 1 + 2

Saturday saw an adventure outside of the city to explore some of Hong Kong's great hiking trails.  This is definitely one of the major plus points about Hong Kong, within 45mins you can enter a nature reserve and feel like the city is a million miles away. Ok, maybe not a million miles, but certainly far enough that you can observe it without feeling part of it for some time.

The plan was to hike Wilson's trail section one and two backwards from the Tai Kao MTR to end at Stanley beach for some R&R. Well the good news is we did make it to Stanley beach, but with a lot less time for R&R than originally expected. The hike was 12 km and took us 5 hours with a 30min pause in between to buy some water and snacks. Section 2 that we did first is marked Fairly Difficult and section 1 that we ended with (in the dark) is labeled Very Difficult. They got the ratings spot on.

Section 1, the last part, was tough. I'm no stranger to exercise, but I can say I'm glad I pushed myself on those squats during BodyPump recently. The number of stairs we climbed was more than I have ever encountered on my travels and my gym training paid off. Add to that rain and slippery mud slopes and trails that go up and down over many peaks covering over 1000 stairs.  So yes it was an adventure, many fun memories and the views and surroundings made it totally worth the sweat and effort. 

I found this write up that gives a good impression of what a hiker experiences along the way... the excitement, the relaxation, the exhaustion:

"The first peak was ok – especially as we could not see behind the first hill, so we did not know what was coming next ... many places along the way to the summit, the views of HK from atop the peak are simply breathtaking. It is like looking at a Hong Kong we’d never seen before. Lush greenery stretches out for miles together, only to be broken by splashes of pink, red and white. Blue waters beckon with lazy abandon near the reservoir.

We walked down the steps of the first hill – knowing that we had to climb them all up again, and many more! The climb started off and after a few minutes, it hit us. The gradient of the second set of steps was really really steep. For most of the climb on the second peak, we had to bend our upper body forward just to maintain balance. And each and every step was an effort. There was no breeze, no respite from the heat and from where we stood, all we could see was a very steep incline with seemingly no end and just flights and flights of steep steps to negotiate. Simply put, the second peak is grueling. "

Finally we arrived at Stanley with relief to have made it just as it turned dark.  The German calorie-packed dinner at the end was a great reward together with the good old feeling of 'WE DID IT'!  Hopefully I'll get to return to Stanley and explore it more in daylight, from the little walk around it appears to be a calm with a well constructed seafront boulevoud.

Some visual impressions of the day:

 The red trail on the island is the route we took.

Starting off with a foot massage done the local way - walking on pebbles.



Funny sign along the way.

Wartime outdoor stoves during the Japanese War 1942, never used though.

Tree taken over old building (toilet?):

Nature at its best.

Nature trail:

Still feeling fresh!

And the steep stairs start

We think we are doing pretty well, but had no idea what section 1 would be like at this point

And the stairs go on..

The views getting more impressive:

My local tour guide:

View of other side of island:

Did I mention  there were stairs? The ones below were still the warm up.

We did get a helpful warning at the start of Section 1:

At this point we thought we were almost there. Not a chance. We still had to conquer both those hills up ahead, the 'Twin Peaks' they call them.

I didn't get my camera out for the real tough sections, my energy was all focused on beating those steps. During the late afternoon the rain started and we found ourselves walking in a cloud. A very special moment to be surrounded by misty mountains and not much else.

Finally reaching Stanley Beach at dusk

Our reward!

The surprise of the meal were the delicious Potato Cakes... we had the Duck Breast, red Cabbage and Apple Sauce, can recommend!

Another wonderful day in Hong Kong :-)