9 March 2014
A lot less fog
Another morning, another hike, this time up the devils peak in eastern Kowloon. The hiking hong kong blog spot dot something dot hk site rated this only 3/10, I think this is harsh because the views are great, theres a cemetry and a large fort used to shoot Japanese people in both world wars.
I had not been to this part of Hong Kong before, when I got off at the station there were all sorts of banners proclaiming the 50th anniversary of the original public housing project.
Despite that, you step off into an area with 3 nice modern shopping malls, complete with a Food Republic and roof gardens and whatever, so its really not like Daveron Park or Noble Park or Blacktown or whatever shitty part of your city in Australia or wherever. At least not on the surface.
It is however definitely cemetry town, with a massive amount of double decker busses lined up to ferry people over the hill to the massive compound, complete with multiple cremation chimney stacks whos smoke I got covered in whilst hiking nearby above them. An interesting thought, I am now covered in Chinese ghosts.
On the way back I stopped for a second coffee and used a Citibank ATM for the first time since getting here. Top travel tip, the Citibank visa debit card works as advertised, no fees, no currency conversion scam, it even tells you the rate you are getting before you accept the withdrawl. I got 7.03:1, google told me the current rate was 7.04:1. So within one 700th of the forex rate. By comparison, travelex were offering 5.6:1 at Sydney airport!
Time for another story, when walking back to the station past a taxi stand, I saw two old ladies who would have been over 80 years old run out into the street in a race to get the taxi, just like in tv shows set in NYC. When lady 1 got it, lady 2 smacked the roof of the taxi repeatedly with her umbrella. This was particulary weird because there was already another taxi coming which she was on board no more than 20 seconds later. Perhaps Hong Kong amazing race for elderly citizens is a real thing?
Even the view from the MTR station is rewarding. Looking straight back up the bay, Hong Kong island to the left, Kowloon to the right.
The top of this is where I am going.
Decided to take this photo whilst half way up, just in case another fogpocalypse rolled in.
I wasnt expecting to cross over the ridge and see this view. Very clear day looking out at the various pirate islands of the south china sea.
Heres the cemetry. Very busy on a Sunday.
I found an unmarked path going straight up, by unmarked, someone had tied a yellow ribbon. I have learnt from various hikes that there must be groups of people that use either yellow or pink ribbons.
This wasnt a particularly long hike, but it was good to get off the paved path and head up some slippery hand cut steps to the top.
Which brings you to this pillbox. If I was an invading Japanese soldier I would be in trouble right about now.
Surprising you can climb all over it.
One last shot of ruined military position.
Its me, again at risk of stepping backwards off a cliff.
The view from up here is rewarding. But also exhausting. Because I can see a lot more mountains to climb, and I can see a lot of tracks going up all of them.
From this vantage point many of those mountains look enormous, with cool observatory / weather station / bond villain hideouts on the top.
Back in the mall for lunch, and I am reassured that I wont get bird flu from cold chicken by the nice people of the State General Administration of the Peoples Republic of China. Good to know.
Bonus photo - panorama. WARNING: this is 8192 pixels wide, between 4 and 8 screen widths. Click at your own risk.