From Summit to Surf

Hong Kong's hiking trails reward those who climb with beautiful sweeping views

Hong Kong's extensive hiking trails are well marked and maintained

My stepdaughter Lindsey visited us for a week in October.  She and her husband Sean enjoy being outdoors and hiking with their dogs near their northern California home.  When Lindsey arrived in Hong Kong, she had done her research and knew where she wanted to go and the sites she wanted to see.  Not surprisingly, her top priority was exploring Hong Kong's hiking trails.

Colleagues from my office invited us to hike the Dragon's Back trail

Hong Kong normally evokes images of a densely-populated concrete jungle, dominated by towering skyscrapers.  But this depiction, while accurate, ignores the large areas of green space across the Hong Kong territory.  Indeed, nearly three-fourths of Hong Kong's 426 square miles is countryside, and over 171 square miles of space has been designated as country parks for outdoor recreation or special areas for conservation.  The country parks have extensive trails for hiking that are marked and well-maintained.  Hong Kong's topographical features are a natural fit for hiking. Wooded hillsides provide trails of varying difficulty, rewarding those who climb with sweeping views of the rocky coastline, the South China Sea and many of the 200 plus islands that make up Hong Kong.  The government maintains a website called "Enjoy Hiking" that lists over 60 different trails, and there are a number of other sites and blogs maintained by enthusiasts providing tips about different trails.

The Dragon's Back trail gets its name from the up-and-down
path that links the Wan Cham Shan ridge and the Shek O Peak

The Dragon's Back trail, on the southeastern corner of of Hong Kong Island, is well-known among hiking enthusiasts both in and outside of Hong Kong, and it was one of the items on Lindsey's list of places to see when she arrived for her visit.  Dragon's Back is a five mile section of the Hong Kong trail, which stretches over thirty miles in length.  It gets its name from the up-and-down path the trail takes connecting the Wan Cham Shan ridge and Shek O Peak, which are 740 and 930 feet high, respectively.

Shek O Peak is the top of Dragon's Back trail

Although we weren't able to accompany Lindsey when she trekked the Dragon's Back on a work day, the following weekend, some colleagues from my office organized an outing to hike the same trail.  We signed up eagerly, ready to take on the challenge in the company of friends.  The first section of the hike was the most challenging as it involved a lot of climbing to get to the ridge, but the amazing views at the top were worth the effort, and the rest of the hike was fairly easy.  As we descended, we encountered a Bamboo snake coiled up on the trail.  Our group responded in fear, as one would imagine a bunch of PC-bound office workers would, and we tried throwing rocks at it to encourage it to move along.  The snake did not appreciate our efforts, refusing to move and ultimately requiring Jeff's intervention with a large, sharp-edged rock.  The rest of the hikers were grateful to Jeff to enabling our hike to continue.  We found out later that Bamboo snakes are venomous, with a "painful bite that rarely causes death in healthy people."

Lindsey spent an afternoon surfing at Big Wave Bay

Our hike concluded at Big Wave Bay, home to a prehistoric rock carving that was discovered by a police officer in 1970.  It is also one of the most pristine beaches in Hong Kong, popular among surfers and windsurfers.  The village is truly a beach town, scattered with shops that cater to tourists by offering lessons and rental gear for surfing and windsurfing.  On the last day of her visit, Jeff accompanied Lindsey when she took advantage of the nice weather and spent an afternoon riding the waves on a surfboard rented from one of the local shops.

Lindsey's pre-trip research taught Jeff and me how much Hong Kong has to offer in outdoor activities, and we're now inspired to make the most of those opportunities.

I confess to having checked my email while hiking!

Trying out Thailand

A lack of time, rather than a lack material, is the reason there hasn't been a new post in over a month.  Work commitments and travel seem to have controlled our lives recently, but with some newfound time on our hands, we are going to try to get caught up.  As of the end of October, and although reduced in numbers, the pro-democracy protesters carry on their efforts.  Some of the roads in Central Hong Kong have reopened but at least a couple of major thoroughfares remain closed, leaving traffic snarled and Hongkongers losing their patience.

The Phi Phi Islands lie off the west coast of the Thai-Malaysia peninsula

Jeff and I are proud of the fact that we managed to survive a hot and steamy Hong Kong summer. But we were ready for a break from our jobs and the bustling city.  Fortunately, our friends, Glenda and Tom Kleinkauf, had planned a visit to Hong Kong and agreed to join us on our first trip to Thailand for a little time on the beach and some SCUBA diving.

"Long tail" boats are the primary means of transportation and an
effective means of navigating the extreme tides around the island

Our week away was on Ko Phi Phi Don Island off the coast of Phuket (pronounced "Poo-ket") Thailand.  Thailand is a long, skinny country, bordering Myanmar and Laos to the north and extending over 1,000 miles south to the Malaysian border.  Even measured at its widest point, the width of Thailand is still less than half its length.  Phi Phi (pronounced "P-P") Island is the largest in a chain of six islands situated in the Andaman Sea, just off the west coast of the peninsula connecting Thailand and Malaysia.

High tide and low tide on Phi Phi Island

The area is a popular vacation destination, known for its beaches and unspoiled reefs. The Phi Phi Islands are also very near the epicenter of the Indian Ocean tsunami which struck in late December 2004.  Of the nearly 9,000 people either confirmed dead or missing in Thailand following the disaster, about 2,000 of the victims were in the Phi Phi Islands.  The tsunami also destroyed most of the infrastructure on the islands.  Almost ten years later, much, though not all, has been rebuilt, along with a small memorial to those lost to the tsunami.  On a bicycle ride one afternoon, we were still able to see large piles of trees and brush log-jammed along a path where the surge of water came through.

Jeff cycling across a bridge on a tsunami evacuation path

SCUBA diving around the Phi Phi Islands was a real treat due to the beautiful scenery and warm water (a steady 83 to 84 degrees).  The tides are fairly extreme, which resulted in significant swings in visibility and currents over short distances throughout most of our one-hour dives.  But the reefs were healthy and we saw many of our favorite creatures such as turtles, starfish, eels, cuttlefish, clownfish in colorful pumpkin anenomes and and large numbers of schooling fish.

A curious pufferfish stares at us from a man-made reef of concrete block

Unfortunately, I managed to flood my dive camera on the very first dive of the trip, so I had to rely on my dive buddies, Glenda and Tom for photos of this trip.  The highlight of the trip was at a dive site called Hin Klai where we encountered several Leopard Sharks. Normally very shy, Leopard Sharks feed primarily on small invertebrates and are not aggressive towards humans.  We had the privilege of watching these sharks, which we estimated to be around five feet in length, feed and swim around us for several minutes.

My dive buddies, Tom and Glenda

Normally, Jeff spends his vacation time on his radio, racking up contacts around the world.  However, on this trip, he ran into a bureaucratic brick wall when he tried to get a reciprocal license to enable him to operate in Thailand.  Among other things, the Thai government requires a ham to apply for a license in person in Bangkok, which is 400 miles north of Phi Phi Island and was not on the itinerary for this trip.  So he spent his time bicycling the island, reading and making a bunch of new friends.

Jeff, Tom and Glenda enjoying lunch in Phi Phi Island village

It was a relaxing and  memorable week away from busy Hong Kong, and we are grateful to our friends Glenda and Tom for making the long journey from the states and trying out a week in Thailand with us.