June 17 2006 - Hiking in the New Territories

I got up early this morning, anxious to not be late in meeting the group from the YWCA for my hike in the New Territories. The New Territories is the more rural part of Hong Kong, up by the China border. I’ve seen pictures of it, and knew there were supposed to be nice trails and beaches, but didn’t think it was a good idea to go traipsing off there without a guide.

I took the MTR to the proscribed station and found the group without any trouble (the group of non-Asians standing by the bake-shop at the exit was a dead-giveaway!). We were our leader, Michael, a Dane that has his own business leading hikes all over Hong Kong and has been written up in the New York Times, a couple from Australia, that looked old and out of shape, but turned out to be the best hikers in the bunch, a skinny kid from India named Roy with a friendly manner and an impressive appetite, a former boy scout leader and engineer named Marty, whose wife is off to the states for the summer so he was looking for ways to kill time, a man and his son (that turned out to be Jewish) that had lived in Hong Kong for over 20 years, and a woman named Peggy…more about Peggy later…and me.

We hopped on a bus and rode it to the top of a mountain in Tai Lam Country Park, and then set off on our hike. There were some inclines at the beginning, but for anyone that has lived in Hong Kong for any amount of time they were no big deal. As I’ve described in these pages before, Hong Kong is a vertical city; you just can’t go anywhere here with out going up a hill at some point.

The views quickly got prettier and prettier, but we also quickly got soaked from the heat and humidity. Water bottles were consumed rapidly. I had brought 3 bottles with me; and I’m glad I did; I needed them all by the end of the hike. Peggy soon began to fall behind. We quickly found out that she was not really in good enough shape to be on this hike. She had told Michael that she wasn’t in very good shape, but he encouraged her to try it anyway. I think people that are inveterate hikers sometimes forget what can be very difficult for people that aren’t used to walking long distances. We would stop, take pictures, drink water, but Peggy was falling further and further behind.

We got to a small abandoned village school (there are a lot of abandoned villages apparently in the New Territories, that people left in the 50’s when they could no longer make a decent living farming). The school had a very odd-looking concrete slide. Roy tried it out, but it definitely needed some wax paper!

Right after the school we took a little detour up a small mountain to take in the view. Peggy caught up with us, but she waited at the crossroads to catch her breath while the rest of us climbed up the slope. We wound our way past grave-sites, butterflies, loose cattle,  and bright green bushes covered in little purple flowers, and came out on a breath-taking view. Off in the distance was Hong Kong Island. There was Lantau Island, Lamma Island, and all the little bitty islands too. There’s this magnificent suspension bridge; I ought to look up its name, connecting the New Territories to one of the other islands (I don’t have my geography straight here yet, so please forgive me my confusion). We took pictures like crazy, including pictures of each other, to prove we really had made it to this magnificent place.

Then we continued onward. Finally Michael and Roy stayed behind with Peggy, because she just could not keep up. He told the rest of us the way to go to get to our “watering hole”, which turned out to be the remnants of one of the little villages, where an old man, with an even older refrigerator, sold us coke, water, and beer. Here’s the coolest thing about this. The old man knew not a word of English. He said the prices in Cantonese. Marty, the engineer/boy scout knew a little Cantonese and so did the man and son that had lived here forever, and then there was me. I could understand the old man’s prices, mostly!!! I knew when he said “man” that it meant dollars! I knew the numbers, even the ones over 10! I was thrilled. I didn’t know the word for straw, however; you should have seen me pantomiming that!

Finally, Michael appeared at the little shop, minus Roy and Peggy. You could tell he just really wasn’t sure what to do. He was going to tell the rest of us the way down to the restaurant where we were supposed to eat lunch and he said he and Roy and Peggy would show up eventually. To kill a little time we walked around the abandoned village a bit. Lo and behold, what should we see, but a young guy, helping a friend repair another refrigerator (those fridges needed help in the cooling department, believe me!) Guess what this young guy had – a motor bike! Michael asked him if we could pay for the petrol to go get Peggy and bring her down as far as the little shop. The guy was happy to oblige and sped right off. Several minutes later, here comes Peggy on the back of the motor bike, looking tired but relieved. Roy showed up too several minutes after that.

From there to the restaurant and the end of the hike wasn’t that much farther. One of the most interesting things was toward the end where we walked through a squatter’s village. I took a bunch of pictures; I felt like I was suddenly in another world – from mountain peaks and forest water falls, to corrugated shacks, laundry, chickens, and those ubiquitous red and gold flags…

We ate at a hole in the wall “roast goose” restaurant. I can live without goose, but the Singapore spicy noodles were great, and that beer was the best I’ve ever tasted!! We patted ourselves on the back for a successful journey, praised Peggy mightily for not giving up and continuing to plod onward (well she didn’t have much choice I guess), stared in awe at the amount of noodles that skinny Roy could consume, and watched Hong Kong horse-racing in Cantonese on TV!

The hike was 11 kilometers, so it was just a little over 6 miles. I feel fine (especially after ripping off my sweaty clothes and taking a shower). I’m eager to go on another one of Michael’s hikes, maybe when Sarah is here, or maybe later on this year if we decide it’s just too hot.

I’ll post some pictures later; right now I think I’ll see which restaurant would like to deliver me some carry-out tonight! Lee is on his way back to Hong Kong from LA right now; he’ll be back just in time for father’s day.