So, here’s a Hong Kong Nature 101 lesson and a Hong Kong Capitalism 101 lesson.
I’ll start of with HK Nature 101.
Saw the HKTrampers website this morning and remembered that they were going to my favorite part of Hong Kong (well, favorite after Sharp Peak and Plover Cove). So, make that 3rd favorite part of Hong Kong – Wong Lung Hang waterfalls. So, carried my camera for a change and decided to take it easy (at least for the first half).
Getting to Wong Lung Hang is easy. It’s walkable from Tung Chung station and takes about 15 minutes from there to get to the starting point (you can see the Garmin page for the map – link below). From there, there’s a lot of hopping over boulders and you eventually get to a beautiful waterfall.
Ready for action
The group
Waterfalls
There was too much demand for real estate by the main waterfalls so decided to go up a bit and found a private pool to occupy. After chilling for a while in the pools, it was time to undo all the “take it easy” stuff and so decided to go full throttle to Mui Wo. Enthusiasm was great but as usual sense of direction was not. Could not find the trail up to Lin Fa Shaan but after going in some random direction and heading back, the trail suddenly appeared in front of my eyes! Wasn’t too easy going up to 715m from 250m but wasn’t that incredibly tough either.
View from Lin Fa Shaan – Lamma, Cheung Chau and anything else you want to imagine is visible!
From there a straight run down to Mui Wo in about 30 minutes or so concluded the hike. (Dejavu from yesterday). Took a total of 1 hour 30 minutes from the waterfalls to get to Mui Wo ferry pier.
Now, for HK Capitalism 101.
ICC, The Arch, The Cullinan and co.
They say success leaves clues and the clues these beautiful buildings have left is that one owner has built all the 3 of them. Sun Hung Kai Properties. ICC is already attracted all the big financial giants (Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and co.) This area will probably become like Central in the next couple of years.
Masterpiece and First Ferry
New World Development has built the Masterpiece (nice name) and they also own the First Ferry brand. They keep advertising First Ferry services on the ferry’s TVs YET have a monopoly on that route!
And finally, here’s Ocean Terminal in TST.
Ocean Terminal
This place is special because if you bring the word’s top 100 dirtiest, fattest pigs and have them all fart in Ocean Terminal, the interior of the building WILL STILL smell nice! That’s because this place hosts all the high end perfume/make up brands that HK has to offer.
So, after a nice long hike, I don’t have to worry about how much I stink as I am walking home through Ocean Terminal…
Pictures are here.
Garmin link is here.
Tags:
Hiking in Hong Kong,
Lantau,
Wong Lung Hang
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Tags: Lantau, Wong Lung Hang
I had to be at the airport at 1130HKT to pick up a passenger (my mom) but I wanted a novel way of getting to the airport. So, decided on one of my usual precision hikes this Saturday morning.
Mission was to get up at 0545, get a ferry to Central Star Ferry at 0630, take the 0650 ferry from Central to Mui Wo. Do, Sunset Peak, Lantau peak and reach Ngong Ping in 2.5hrs (1010), take a bus to Tung Chung (1040) and take another bus to the airport (1115). The 15 mins buffer was for wait time, photo time, etc.
Execution was as per plan, precise to the minute until near the top of Sunset Peak. Then I received some important intelligence from the Command Center (i.e. SMS from my dad) letting me know that the flight was about an hour earlier than originally thought. (Is THIS much punctuality necessary?!)
I then had to make an executive decision – continue on course and make the passenger (my mom) wait another hour at the airport or somehow do a curtailed hike that would end at the airport. After a fierce internal debate that lasted a good 5 minutes, I decided to go pick up my mom on time! Took a right cut from near Sunset – a beautiful trail that leads to Wong Lung Hang.
I was the only soul to be seen. It was misty, visibility was bad and the strong wind produced a ghostly noise! It was quite spectacular yet very spooky!
I slowed down just to be extra safe, didn’t want to fall anywhere and only be noticed the next day when more people would hike that trail! Also, reports said that illegal immigrant activity in that area would increase as we get close to the Chinese New Year. I wanted some extra energy to burn in order to outrun any II I would meet!
As I was doing some serious, yet controlled downhill trail running, the mist started giving way to some sunshine and I eventually found myself on Wong Lung Hang road at 0900. I had to be at the airport at 1030 now and decided to run to the airport! I thought to myself – if the bus can do it, so can I!
That enthusiasm was great but the sense of direction was not! I paused at the end of Wong Lung Hang not knowing which way to turn. I gazed up. I saw a plane with landing gear down at about 2500m. Would that mean that it just took off or is going to be landing soon or what?! More importantly, what was that telling me about the direction of the airport? Less than a second later, I realized that such serious effort at deduction was for Sherlock Holmes or Dr. House, not me!! (I have been watching too much of Gregory House lately).
Looked straight ahead and saw the Ngong Ping cable car. Had to be that way. I started running. 10 minutes into the run I saw a bus heading in the opposite direction headed for the Airport. Doh! I crossed the road and ran in the opposite direction. I made numerous mistakes. Eventually, used my broken Cantonese to ask some jogging dude if he knew how to get to the airport running. He gave me a weird look but knew the way!
At about 1035 I made it to the airport, running all the way from Mui Wo! Trail was Mui Wo to Sunset to Wong Lung Hang to the Airport (20km). The number of wrong turns I made is just amazing! I was circling the Cathay Pacific building 2-3 times instead of heading towards the terminal!
Pics here.
Tags:
Airport,
Hiking in Hong Kong,
Sunset Peak,
Wong Lung Hang
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Tags: Airport, Sunset Peak, Wong Lung Hang
Hiking pictures here.
20-something Trampers showed up today for a day of waterfall exploration. There were several new faces too, including combat-ready Kevin from the UK, who had evidently paid utmost attention to the Tramper rucksack details listed on the website. He was wearing camouflage pants, had sturdy waterproof hiking boots on and several pouches containing life-saving equipments like a torch were attached to his belt.
We left at 10.45 AM to embark on a 20-minute walk that led to the base of the stream. As we approached the stream, the fragrant smell of fresh stream water hit our noses and the sound of the water hitting against the boulders intensified.
Shoes and socks came off and many of us immersed our bare feet in the purifying stream water. We were all like children in nature’s playground as we hopped from one boulder onto another in order to reach the Wong Lung Hang waterfalls. The water current was very strong because of the previous day rains and there were several challenging boulder hops on the course to the waterfalls. While the gentlemen offered their helping hands to those who needed, Francis seized on this opportunity to help a beautiful lady Tramper by giving her a Stream Hiking 101 lesson. In fact, we could hear the conversation. It went something like this:
Francis: Put your leg here, hand there and gently move forward. Be careful of this rock (blah, blah)
After 2 minutes, I could hear her say “But we should have gone THAT way!”
About one grueling hour later, we reached the mesmerizing waterfalls. Many of us simply couldn’t resist a dip in the enticing water. At this point Francis approached me with an unusual request. He wanted me to buy some very unique cloth made of jute from my upcoming trip to India. He came to me bringing a cigarette lighter and a piece of cloth. That conversation went something like this.
Francis: You see, this is a genuine cloth made of jute. Can you observe the natural color? Feel the cloth. (He then brings another cloth for comparison). Now, this is artificial. If I burn it, you’ll notice that the strands turn black and the feeling will be of burnt plastic. That’s why it is artificial.
Arianna, who was sitting 2 rocks away, came closer to me and confessed her curiosity. She felt the specimen cloth too.
“Is this guy in the fashion industry?” she asked in amazement.
As I burst into laughter, I asked her to look at his green shorts, his unusual hat and rethink her question. She then retorted “You know you can get a lot of strange guys in the fashion industry”.
A refreshing swim and a couple of group photos later, Dominic and I were off to high speed yet exhausting finish.
Tags:
Hiking in Hong Kong,
Wong Lung Hang
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Tags: Wong Lung Hang