Hong Kong's Brighter Side of Life

I am, on the whole, a person who likes to make the most of whatever comes my way. The last weekend was full of opportunity and surprises and now I am basking in that blissful state that is enjoyed after everything has gone well and every minute has been packed with fresh and exciting things that will be looked back on with fond memories. Except Monday was a pig of day back in the office. However..........

The only disappointment was the weather and whilst it didn't rain, it was cloudy, humid and warm. But I had to bear in mind what the weather was doing and what it might do, and plan accordingly. Throughout the previous week I was looking forward to walking high in the hills, but sadly as the day dawned on Saturday morning the cloud was shrouding everything above fifty metres and it was pointless spending effort plodding upwards and seeing nothing except the droplets of sweat dripping from the end of my nose. So I decided to visit the town of Stanley and hope, rather than presume, that the weather would be different on Sunday. Well of course it wasn't but that gave me the opportunity to walk around the island of Cheung Chau.

Stanley by the sea

Stanley is odd name for a town and it evokes memories of explorers in Africa, footballers in Newcastle, Blackpool and Accrington and a comedian called Stanley Unwin once famous for mangling English pronunciation (Goldiloopers and the Three Bearloaders), deep joy, oh yes! Hong Kong's version is a sea side town which, in my opinion is a little trumped up. I wasn't sure whether it was promoting its market, its closeness to the sea, its many restaurants, or just a good place to go enjoy all of these things and be seen by everybody else as you do. On the whole it didn't do a great deal for me except satify my curiosity, and I was grateful for a grey Saturday afternoon in which to do it. Maybe it was because Saturday was Valentine's Day and whilst Khamma and I had spoken first thing in the morning to exchange our love for each other (OK, I'll spare the gush), the place was swarming with 'Love's young things' publicly expressing what they probably do all year in private anyway, or, maybe at last they had found the romantic excuse to really say what had been burning in their hearts for so long, but couldn't just find the courage, or the moment, to come out and say it before.

'Love.....is the principle means of escape from the loneliness which afflicts most men and women throughout the gretaer parts of their lives' Bertrand Russell

Sunday's weather promised as much as Saturday's did, so I decided on a low level stroll on Cheung Chau island which is about a 45 minute ferry ride from Central Hong Kong. The boats can carry up to about 500 people and they sail every half hour, and amazingly they are always full. Well at $16 each way it is a rare bargain in this town. The city buildings quickly disappeared in the mist on a day when the sky came to earth.

Hong Kong's misty shore

A huge spider like creature surfaced silently from the depths of the South China Sea

The ferry was announcing its arrival with solemn, long, dull drawn out drones from its fog horn and fishing boats appeared like giant spiders on the calm flat sea as we entered Cheung Chau Wan. Onshore we were greeted by a colourful dragon dance display accompanied by raspingly out of tune symbols and drums being enthusiasically bashed in no particular rythmn by a band of young men still celebrating the Chinese New Year. The town was busy with an array of restaurants intermingled with cheap souvenir shops, super markets and everything else the shopkeepers tell you you need but somehow, you have a spent your lifetime so far surviving perfectly well without it.

Dragon Dance

I walked to the south and before long was free of the town centre and the crowds and entered a car less, couldn't careless world which was so laid back it was almost flat on the floor. Every few yards or so there was something new; the group of laughing and giggling Filipino domestic helpers packing under sized boxes with over sized goodies for their families back home. The long boats used to race across the harbour, the temples, the sampans, the wobbly bikes with their equally wobbly riders.

The concrete ribbon hugging the shore

The sign posts pointed to Cheung Po Tsai cave but it was disappointing as caves go. The concrete path stretched out like a grey ribbon hugging the coastline with occasional steps carefully inlaid where it was too steep. By magic the sun appeared as if it knew I wanted to meet and greet it. Passing by Reclining Rock I found the picturesque Pak Tso Wan beach deserted except for a group of boisterous youths enjoying a swim and having a BBQ. Onwards and pass by the cemetery where briefly the mist rolled in from the sea making it difficult to define where the graves ended and the sea began.

The dead centre of Cheung Chau

Further pass the squatter houses, the religious retreats for the Catholics, the Buddhists, the Luthereans, the Bible Society, the Salesians, the Salvation Army, the Alliance Bible Society and the Xaverians and the Jockey Club of Hong Kong. Not to mention the temples, the shelters and sitting out areas and even the Round Table. If that isn't enough to guide or rejuvenate your spirit and belief there is the Self Help CARE village presumably extending a warm welcome to come inside and join in and well, help yourself!

Nam Tam Wan

I had lunch at Nam Tam Wan where there is a temple that keeps turtles in a strange concrete structure that may once have been a water butt. The bay is perfect and I watched a young man painting a sheet of corrugated iron with gloss paint and then reattach it to the roof to make a metal patchwork quilt. The path changed into a endless track of carefully laid cobbles which was affectionately called the Mini Chinese wall. I can image it will still be there in a thousand years time like its big brother in the north. Back along the beach to the north of the island where there is steep climb followed by steep drop to the isolated Tung Wan Tsai which is littered with plastic bottles and polystyrene foam blocks washed up from the sea and displayed on the beach as cheap trophies won by human mankind in the race for materialism , by you and me actually, the guardians of the planet. This eyesore was in stark contrast to the contribution made by nature and the beautiful dense bamboo trees spilling down the headland in a tropical garden overflowing with bird life. Nature's full force defiant to the ribbons of smelly rubbish washed up and dumped on the beach.

The Mini Wall of China

Looking to the south

Taken from the same spot looking to the west

Back on the trail and over the hill to the west coast and back to town passing the ice factory, the ship yard, the rickshaws and the endless restaurants and more shops selling more stuff. The ferry goes back every thirty minutes so the only decision is when to leave this part of Hong Kong where the brighter side of life shines through whilst the rest of Hong Kong was in its shroud of mist.