Korea - HK - China - KORKONG! - Page 5

One last pic of blossoms in Korea, there will be none in Hong Kong or southern China, it is blossomeless.

Behold the departure hall of Gimpo airport. It is massive and unoccupied. I am not sure when Incheon airport took over, but these days only a few mainland china flights and 500 flights a day to Jeju island leave from Gimpo.

As I said, I headed into the Gimpo Lotte megamall, found Din Tai Fung, had beef noodle. This was very HAPPIFYING.

Then in the mall I judged an art contest.

The departure area of Incheon airport, as a contrast to Gimpo above. It is a great airport.

To spend my money, I ordered a single origin slow nitro pour over Guatemalan children hand picked single roast Americino espresso platinum limited. It cost about $10!

My view right now...its an airport.

Here it is, the Salvation Army Booth Lodge for homeless male travelers of questionable morale foundations who look like they might be suckers who will make donations to a global terrorist organisation.

This is actually the view out of my hotel window. Unfortunately the window does not open. My hotel is built into the side of the cliff that runs along one side of a small part of Nathan road near Mong Kok.

The subway station that marked the start and end of my trip is about as far away from central Hong Kong as possible, however it still exits into a megamall. Inside there were actually quite a few restaurants open for breakfast, which is very cool. I lined up for a freshly made custard egg tart.

Here are just a few of the thousands of apartments in this recently constructed suburb. You can see the mountains behind it, in the fog. I was in denial at this point.

Cool looking mountains, cool looking fog, cool looking sewage treatment plant, lets go!

The path up to the start of the trail was a concrete goat track, and everything that you are no longer allowed to throw out with the normal garbage is illegally dumped along here. Tyres, medical waste, batteries, mattresses, halogen lighting, fridges.

There was shit dumped everywhere for a couple of km.

I was glad to leave the rubbish behind and get on a trail, which was rubbish free, but too steep for rubbish to accumulate on.

That sign doesnt apply to me. It is actually a bit confusing, the official government website lists this trail as a recommended but difficult trail, and yet all the way along it, no entry signs.

A bit of view before ascending into the fog.

Despite not being that high, due to the steepness, it looked very high today.

Fog approaches.

I would be heading that way, into the fog, and rain, and mud.

Bonus pre fog shots.

I actually thought the technical parts of the climb were behind me, but no, they kept coming, lets scale a cliff in the rain!

Ascend a cliff into the fog.

Then a rope appeared, with a few bits of half arsed string hanging from the bottom of it. I tried not to trust the rope!

Complete fog by now.

Between some of the peaks it was a very dense forest, with flowers.

I believe this is the summit proper. No summit marker to know for sure, but I checked on google and the altimeter on my fancy watch. Time to turn around.

I realised at one of the other peaks I had failed to do the angry selfie, so here it is. Also it was time to put my gloves on!

Every now and then the fog would part briefly, and I would scramble to take my gloves off and take a photo. Usually the fog returned before I could take the shot.

Last one for today, after this point everything was just too wet to bother trying!

Here is a market. The towering apartments make it more interesting. I really dont mind the smell of durian, some people cant stand it. Maybe I just have little or no sense of smell.

Whenever a place is not occupied in Hong Kong, this occurs. Worse than that, later in the evening I saw a bank that had closed for the night and pulled the roller shutters down over their glass doors, and people were busy taping signs to the door minutes after closing. Every morning when they open up they have to cut through the tape and paper to get into their bank.

Another market, I like the markets, they make for good photos.

The obligatory how the hell do they climb all over bamboo and not die photo. This one also features giant tarps, flapping around in the breeze.

I stopped to take in a senior citizens soccer game played on wet concrete under lights. Awesome.

Egg tarts, they are not just egg tarts anymore, now they are a glasses shop.

In one of the nice new malls, there seems to be a mens shed setup, sponsored by Nike. In Australia mens shed is where lonely old men go to do manly things and wait for the end.

Laneways between the buildings are where it all happens, generally chefs smoking.

I hear they are nice on the inside!

Now for 3 similar shots from an overpass. Here is shot number one, which involves a market. I have seen lots of photos from this spot taken by other people with longer lenses. Here is mine with a wide lense.

Shot 2 of 3, with a 7-eleven sign.

And shot 3 of 3 with many double decker buses. They are noisy and expel a gaseous blast of super heated air.

I was turned away from 2 places due to being along, so I headed to a nanna place and had the Hong Kong specialty of won ton noodle soup. The picture looked better than what I got, it showed a heap of bok choy and I got none. Perhaps I should not complain as it was less than $5. Also, won ton noodle soup is really just MSG water to which I add copious amounts of chilli and pepper until its chock full of lip burning flavour.

I did a bit of work first up, audited the performance of the segregation at source of waste in Hong Kong. Astute observers will know that Hong Kong is now sinking in 'recycling' because China doesnt want it anymore. Similar to Australia, except we have a lot more room to hide it in Kaniva and other places the Hells Angels want to put it.

This is the entrance to a big garden. These guys at the top of the stairs were strumming a guitar and singing. I walked up the stairs and they told me I cant come in this way because they are praying. Its a public garden. I went in that way. The guy got angry with me. The red army needs to come here and SHUT THIS BULLSHIT down.

Here is the garden. It is actually really nice, a great oasis along the very busy very grey Nathan road.

If you come here in the evening, you cant move, its the underpass to the avenue of stars to gawk at the buildings on Hong Kong island. At this time of day it was just me and the cleaners.

Now for some photos of buildings and the water, here is one with some stuff in the foreground in the way. You can see the peak ascending into the clouds.

And this one is a crop, all mountains in cloud, as well as some buildings.

He faked his own death and now lives in Byron Bay working as a busker.

It was about to pour with rain. Eventually it did, but it took a lot longer to arrive than I thought.

I think they are actually demolishing this rather than extending further into the sea.

This is a giant blue colored building that was full of white people eating a buffet breakfast. So I suspect it is a hotel, no idea what brand. 100% white people. I pressed my face against the glass and gawked at them. Stop eating bacon, it will kill you.

That is the old runway at the old airport, if you squint you can see the new overseas passenger terminal, which no ships use.

And as mentioned, all of a sudden the water side walking path hits a very weird dead end. The end of the line.

I thought I found a way back to the water, instead I found this van abandoned in a field fall of churned up rubbish.

I was now into uncharted territory! Not really, everywhere is still shopping malls at the bottom of the mega apartments.

Cool colors. I thought so anyway.

Eventually I made it around past the shipping terminal, I could not work out how to get to it. Nearby is a giant convention centre place called something like International industrial development zone for foreign and global investment corporations for the significant investment of Hong Kong and global pan Asian interests and developments. Except it never took off, so its being converted to a mall. Inside currently, a computer game tournament, using Razer phones rather than actual gaming computers.

Then things got even weirder. Basement 3 is a huge car yard. Lots of different dealers. Lots of supercars. I fled pretty quickly as there were some shady looking characters arguing about a pearl white Lambo with a hideous body kit. Black leather coat guys wearing sunglasses indoors.

Instead I continued on further along the coast, and came to an Aeon mall. Where am I, Hong Kong or Japan?

Inside Japan mall, I avoided all the Japan food and went to Fairwood, which is Hong Kong food Mcdonalds. But I had vegetarian! Its Quinoa patties with pumpkin sauce and ancient grain rice with beans and mushrooms. A really good healthy $5 meal! Earlier I saw my stomach reflection in a building window and was ashamed.

Also inside Japan Aeon mall Hong Kong version you can dress your kids up as fire fighters and stick them in electric cars. I wanted a turn. The little fire fighter outfits would not fit.

It was very much raining now, so I followed the highway, well I followed under the highway. A lot was going on under the highway, all kinds of musical and art performances. Everyone wearing purple. I smelt Jesus. I was right. I ran away fast.

Here I am on the far side of the cruise ship terminal thing, which you simply cannot get to. Is there a tunnel that lets buses go out to it? Or is it actually closed off for good even though its almost brand new?

I stopped for a late second coffee and watched the rain, and a sewing themed park in the newly re developed area of Kwun Tong. It seems to be an area in transition, lots of big new shiny commercial buildings but also old residential buildings.

Time to board the train back to my hotel room. Not a bad view, lots of people. The train was absolutely packed.

I found a place called signal hill garden. Its a hill and a garden. Obviously I marched up the hill in the rain.

Here is the view, of rain. But concerningly, behind me there was a bunch of guys under the pagoda thing smoking dope. They looked like African war lords, complete with gold chains and berets. They were playing dominoes. I left quite quickly as I have seen this movie. It involves me getting arrested, assumed to be part of the group, and then executed in Hong Kong for a crime I did not commit. Also, apparently 'concerningly' is not a real word. I BEG TO DIFFER.

The Peninsula Hotel. It has a fountain and a neon anti suicide net.

I forget what this place is called, I tried to photograph the people taking the photographs so it would look less like I was taking photographs of things everyone photographs. I missed the best chance while I was still getting into position where women all dressed up were suffering an existential crisis, pose for the photo in the rain, or stay under the umbrella. I dont know if that properly defines an existential crisis, but also I dont care.

Here is my dinner. I ate healthy all day, but too much. This is vegetarian and delicious. It is tomato soup, with fusili pasta, every kind of mushroom, and scrambled eggs. It seemed to be a popular Hong Kong fusion dish at the local food court with orange plastic tables. Food tastes better when the tables are orange and plastic, and the chairs are mounted on a metal pole bolted to the floor. Also... $5!

You have heard of food trucks, the new hot thing is mobile mobile phone plan selling trucks. Yes, you can go into a truck and sign a deal for a sim card!

The horror! The horror! Polystyrene boxes. You might remember breaking them up as a child and how they return to their natural state of tiny marbles of bean bag fill? That is what these boxes will turn into shortly, and blow into the ocean. Many countries have banned these boxes for that reason, but not Australia! My apartment has a HUGE PILE of these boxes from the companies like lite n easy who deliver meals to fat people who cant leave their couch.

I then found an arcade full of old camera lenses. One good thing about my camera is that you can fit any lense ever made onto it as long as you can find the right adapter (which you can, for about $10). The Sony focal plain flange length is shorter than any other camera, which is important for some reason. It is all MOOT though, no matter the camera or the lense, my photos all look horrifically bad. The next few shots will prove this point, over and over and over and over and over again.

I think these shops are called Park Avenue, but they are on Nathan Road. These are useless to me as its all designer stuff and I only buy cheap camo shorts from kmart during boxing day sales. However Park Avenue did provide a very nice long roof to avoid the rain, so I took a photo of it.

Now we have entered spicy crab world. I like the lighting here, this area had what appeared to me to be genuine old neon buzzing signs. Maybe they are fake retro.

More spicy crab. It made for good photos but I dont really understand how or why you would want to eat it. So messy.

Cool lighting on this street. The rainy low clouds help.

Last one for tonight on a particularly bright street. Will it be raining tomorrow? Probably. Then what? No idea.