Friday, December 28, 2007

Aug -Sept 07, Out & About in HK

OK so I have got a bit behind with these but all for a good reason – been really busy (yay!). I got back to Hong Kong and a not-entirely-happy Pete. A daft ruling by the government after a small shark was spotted off Hong Kong had meant ALL sailing & watersports were cancelled. Paranoia – no-one has been bitten or killed for years. And anyway how long would a shark last in local waters before someone caught it and whipped off the poor things fins for soup?


I must admit until the middle of October it was not pleasant at night onboard the catamaran – both of us lying there in 100% humidity and at least 36 degrees, gasping and waiting for daylight so we could go to his office, the library or anywhere else with air conditioning. The poor wee fans were not coping and the cat chewed through both the fans in the loo hull. Pete wasn’t loving all the pollution/ office work at the posh HQ so much either.



To give an idea of the heat; Pete rang and asked me to bring him some chocolate back 1 night after I had a late booking. I got it from the chilled cabinet in a supermarket, jumped onto a bus with a/c thank god), did the 5 minute walk down the steps to the ferry and was on the boat within about 20 mins of buying it. He unwrapped it but had to eat it with a fork!


And with most days flat–calm, no wind, there was no relief! The water has been very clear apart from after downpours though– even had a ‘smack’ (recalling my Natural History museum research into collective names for creatures) of odd jellyfish that looked like blue metal bottle tops…..



It also rained a LOT. OK I suppose except the cat litter kept getting soaked (the old-litter-island poking out with a cat-poo palm tree on it). And the hatch above our bed leaked in heavy rain, so we got woken up being dripped on and had fairly damp bedding/ foam matress bits for a while!


One day I had a party in the next bay (sadly no coast path to it so I had to do the usual walk from the ferry steps to get a taxi from Deep Water Bay and back). It had been monsooning all morning, and just after lunch stopped - and I could see clear across to the bay I would be working in, so decided to risk an early dash in the dry. Of course the rain hit again before I was half way to the taxi bay. Despite a brollie and mac on me and 2 bin-bags and a rain mac over my kit, I was sodden…..when it got too heavy to see I gave up the non-existant shelter under the trees and dashed for a taxi. As I reached the steps up to the road a torrent of cool (but fairly clean!) water was roaring off the road, launching off the top steps and basically hit me at chest height. But there was no other way up to the road so I had to wade through it. To find a puddle over knee deep but a taxi waiting over the other side of the road from it.
I had already tucked my skirt into my knickers (not that it was remotely dry) and waded though, dragging my kit trolley. I dumped it beside the taxi and went back to retrieve one of my sandals which had been washed off me. Luckily all the taxis here have those leathery seats so I was dripping onto that while being handed loads of tissues to mop my face until I could actually see/ speak enough to tell the driver where I wanted to go! I realised how hard the rain was as I’d painted my face before leaving the boat but the tissues mopping me up had no trace of paint left on them……
Anyway I spent an hour before the party in their loo trying to dry off! And very carefully only sat on my own chairs as my skirt had dyed my underwear blue and I was terrified of leaving bum-prints everywhere….Still, I picked up another booking from her neighbour!



We actually went out one night (sort of) to a fundraiser for Petes predecessor who is hoping to sail in the Olympics. It was held in the home of Sam Chan, a Chinese business man who often hosts events.
Apparantly the house has been filmed a lot as the ‘ultimate bachelor pad’. Shoes off at the door, and up stairs into the open plan building. The lL-shaped pool and garden had a fab view over HK to Kowloon. You could climb huge seating ‘teps’ at the back of the pool and walk around on the ‘roof’ which was also a bridge to the upper house. We left fairly early – I won 2 prizes in the raffle and Pete sulked as I graciously waved the second one to be drawn again – and it was a pair of sailing bootees he would have wanted!



Another day we went up to the New Territories (mainland) and finally managed to find the Kadoorie Botanic Gardens. It was a pretty awful trip - we tried a route avoiding central which meant trekking through teeming bits in the North of HK. Definitely a novelty for the locals!
Then we stopped where we were about to get on a final bus, starving, and finally found somewhere to eat - a KFC....still, the signs in it made us laugh!

New Territories KFC sign. Um.
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.


Still it was a relief to get on the bus and start seeing some 'country'. We passed the place that ancient tree is that people used to chuck orange with wish-banners (all red and gold) into - I think thats been banned as a heath risk now!

The garden site was impressive, a steep terraced bowl going up the moutainside with assorted aviaries and animals at the lowest region.
As we arrived Pete either stood on or was attacked by a large lizard. There were some amazing plants (finally I can ID some as they had labels!) and we took a free bus up the hairpin bends to the top of the mountain.
It was slightly cooler on top of the peak sheltering the gardens, but not much!



It came down with short stops to see the ‘Hot Pots’ on another peak, which turned out to be some sort of natral vents that steam in cooler weather, and other points of interest.
It had bits trying to educate people on sustainable living/ gardening which is a first for me to see over here.


And some lovely jungle/ water garden bits.

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