Ng Tung Chai Waterfalls Hike!

Okay I have to reach really far back for this one.  It took place last Saturday, April 16th, just before the Beijing trip.  Well it began with me, on the morning of, Stumblin' while I should have been figuring out the directions.  The meeting time was at 11am, so at 11am I started to look up directions on travel blogs and stuff and I finally composed something that looked legit.  I packed, got ready, and headed on downstairs to find nobody waiting for me, so I just sat.  It was only a group of four of us, but everyone of them needed to eat something or get money out of the ATM. Luckily I'm patient, but we all had stuff to do the same day, so we finally got to moving.  The route we took is:

• East Rail Line towards Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau.
• Get off at the Tai Po market station
• Take bus 64K to Pak Ngau Skek
• Then start walking up the road, towards the next stop. You should see a sign that points you towards the falls.

We started out on a paved road which was nice, although some of us were huffin' and puffin' a bit. Once we started on the actual trail we found that the steps were a lot more "rugged" than the blogs implied.  These were rocks stacked on top of each other to form something resembling stairs.  Many times they seemed to go straight up.  But you have to go up to see any water falls.

The falls are divided into 4 different and separate waterfalls.  The first three are: bottom, middle, and main, aptly named.  The last was Scatter falls, which was inaccessible due to a semi recent landslide.  No worries though, it hadn't rained for a while.  We actually skipped the bottom fall on the way up since it seemed like a lot of people were down there, and because we didn't think it was going to be that great.  During our hike towards the middle fall, the reality of packing too light began to set in.  We had no idea it was going to be this rough, we each had one water bottle and no snacks or anything to eat.  By the time we got to the middle falls, everybody was sharing from my water bottle which boasts a 1000ml volume. OH YEAH. The middle falls are probably my favorite.  There is some really interesting moss growing next to it with water trickling down it.  The waterfall itself wasn't very impressive, however, it was very serene, and with a little bit of rain, it could ha

Beware of Flash Floods

ve been much more powerful.  Also, in the water, there was a bunch of crayfish looking things with very long, skinny pinchers.  I tried to catch a few but they are a lot faster than the ones back home.  We rested here for a while and enjoyed the scenery.  After about twenty minutes it was on to the main fall.

We were determined to make it, even on minimal supplies.  This whole hike was basically a trek through jungle, it didn't look anything like Hong Kong, or anything I'd ever seen for that matter.  It was really interesting to see all the



 different animals and wildlife in Hong Kong. We're still not even halfway there when we happen upon a clearing.  Usually it is nice to find a place to rest, but this area offered a great view of the main fall, the bad part was how far away it still seemed.  We stayed here for a while, bitter, sad, and tired.  The whole hike was virtually a never ending staircase.  Once we composed ourselves, and prepared for the worse   we set out to finish what we started.



The main fall was really tall, and don't worry, we actually made it there a lot faster than I thought.  The fall was maybe 15 stories high.  There was a pond at the bottom but it wasn't deep enough to swim, usually people do swim here but there hadn't been much rain lately.  There was plenty of boulders to jump on and further explore downstream.  This worked for a while until I came to a huge drop, I already had a few slips, since my pumas aren't exactly hiking shoes, so I ended up turning back before long.  We took plenty of pictures of the falls and what not. We didn't realize that we would also have to walk back, which lead us to leaving a bit early to get back. 



I'm about out of water now and we are all dragging behind big time.  But, fortunately for us, it was mostly downhill.  The hike back was easier so we stopped at the bottom fall, which ended up being better than expected.  It seemed more likelier that people could swim at this one, than any others, which I would have, but we had to go.  We sat at the bus stop for 10 minutes with people we met on the trail and chatted them up for a bit 'till the bus arrived.  We all fell asleep on the bus and basically, didn't speak the whole time.







Good times.

Sai Kung Penninsula Camping Trip



Last weekend, a group of us took to the wilderness of Hong Kong and explored an area known as the Sai Kung Penninsula.  We went as far as the taxi could take us and from then on out it was hiking through tiny villages and abandoned buildings.  It was actually a concrete trail so it wasn't terrible, although the path was virtually vertical and it was hot and sunny.  After about three hours of hiking and taking breaks, we came to level ground and meadows.  About five minutes later I could feel the breeze and the old familiar sound of waves.  The landscape was amazing, something you see in a magazine.  What was even more amazing was the amount of people on the beach.  Including us there was about twelve people on the beach, we were a group of 10 or so.  It was our own secluded paradise.  Thinking ahead I had dressed with my swimming trunks underneath my shorts, so I could immediately strip and jump in the water.  However, it was more tiptoeing than jumping since the water was still rather cold.  But you got used to it and the view from the water towards the land is even better.  After the initial shock of being here, reality set in and we realized we needed some tents, sleeping bags, and in my case, food.  We headed over to a restaurant that rented out everything we needed and had food, which was ridiculously over priced but I was starving and hardly brought anything. 

Pitchin' Some Tents

We went back, made camp and decided to rent a surfboard as well.  They were pretty low grade and really heavy.  We rented them for 2 hours but they only got about 40 minutes of use, out of exhaustion and dropping temperatures.  It was getting late and the sun was dissappearing behind a mountain.  It was campfire time.  On the way in we had gathered some firewood and stocked up on plenty.  A lot of people brought some food to cook over the fire like hot dogs and what not.  It was a very great experience me and Frank had a beer on the beach which basically completed the night.



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Ham Tin Wan Beach



Sleeping was rough, which made the hike back even rougher.  This time around it took us much longer since we were all very tired still so we took a lot of breaks.  We stopped at this nice little restaurant and we all had some ice cream and took notice of the extrememly luxurious yachts anchored out in the water.  City dwellers usually come here during the weekend to relax and be away from all the madness of Hong Kong.  We eventually found our way to the bus stop which is actually closer to us than where we were dropped off at. I liked this.  We happily boarded and I hardly remember the rest of the trip because I was so tired, everything was on auto-pilot to get Clayton back, showered, and in bed.

We did, however, miss BK Sunday. But it was worth it.









Noah's Ark!

. . . was amazing.  Me and Senny had this brilliant idea to go to Noah's Ark over the weekend.  This place was magical, they had animal sculptures, a tree of life, pieces of Noah's Ark, a meteorite, petrified wood, soooo much stuff.  But we couldn' keep this trip to ourselves so we dragged Austin and Greg along with us. 



The Ark, underneath the Tsing Ma Bridge



To begin we had to take the MTR to central and then hop on a ferry to Ma Wan Park where we first saw the Tsing Ma Bridge, which is the longest suspension bridge in the world. Then, right underneath that was Noah's Ark.  It was a strange juxtaposition but I enjoyed it.  We of course bought the ticket which allowed us free reign around the park.  First stop was the Art Expo which housed animals, stuffed mutant giraffes, an earthquake simulator, and a strange sculpture of a bunch of extinct animals smashed up into one.  It was also a learning experience though.  We learned that Noah's Ark has the perfect ratio that allows for the most stable ride, I guess so all the animals don't get sick.  Interestingly some areas seemed like a spacecraft, which was bizarre for a place called Noah's Ark.

The Ark Garden

Then the Ark Garden, here grew the Tree of Life.  It stood at an impressive 20 feet and was no more bigger than a purple maple back home.  Outside now, we had a very good view of the Tsing Ma bridge which seemed to go for miles in both directions.  More animal statues were out here as well, and some of them were very well done and looked somewhat life like. I was impressed.  Soon we started to get tired hungry, and cranky so we looked for a little snack station but not before we were almost trampled by a stampede of children, probably taking a nice field trip.  We survived and went on to the next stop.

Mash-Up Scuplture of Animals



We Caught One!



Which was the Nature Garden.  Placed on top of a hill which held a large bird sculpture and another great view of the  bridge and the surrounding areas.  The journey there was better than the destination.  We made friends with giant ladybugs, or ladybirds, as they call them I guess, and a giant menacing leaf.  And hidden from all the commotion were these tiny little critters that looked like potatoes which I have figured them to be the Keepers of the Ark.  Seriously the were everywhere, and I made it my mission to find all of them.  I think I got most of them.  Along the way we also passed different types of renewable energy, such as hydro, bio-gas, and wind.  The bio-gas chamber was hilarious, one of the Keepers caught a bunch of little organic fellas and put them in a jar to light them on fire, it was very violent.  After the Nature Garden it was time to get going. 





Top of the Nature Garden



The Keepers of the Ark, Scheming



In all it was definitely a novelty trip and a ton of fun.