Holiday Excursions...

This week, before Katherine and I finish our holidays and return to full-time work, we decided to take a few afternoon trips to various locations around Hong Kong...

Excursion #1: Walking to Victoria Peak

On Monday, we decided (on an impulse) to walk from our place up to Victoria Peak. It happens that we are very close to an entry point for a large series of hiking trails which all culminate at the Peak, so we decided to take advantage of that for the first time...

Scaling steps leading to the trail head

About a third of the way up, looking north toward Victoria Harbour

Perhaps 100 meters from the Peak, looking down on the Ap Lei Chau and Lamma islands

All-in-all the walk took us about an hour and fifteen minutes - quite reasonable. Once we did make it up, we enjoyed a pleasant dinner and then took a taxi back home (which we thought would be faster, but probably ended up taking longer than the other method we considered: Peak Tram + bus).

Excursion #2: Aberdeen

Tuesday we hopped on a bus heading south along the Hong Kong island coast and chose to alight (a term widely used in the Hong Kong transportation industry) at Aberdeen...

Strolling along the Aberdeen Harbour (you can see Ap Lei Chau on the other side)

Digging into Aberdeen's famous fishball noodles!

Here we have a bowl of fish broth with fish noodles (fish meat, flour, and seasonings squeezed into noodle form) with pan-fried fishball slices, pork dumplings wrapped with a skin made of fish meat, and a few veggies in an attempt to provide some balance. It was absolutely delicious, but if you don't like fish, I suppose you might not enjoy it. ;>

Excursion #3: Hong Kong Wetland Park and Yuen Long

Wednesday we decided to head to the Hong Kong Wetland Park (a place that Carson and I had visited together in May, but Katherine had still yet to see)...

The day started out quite misty, as you can see in this picture of Tsing Ma bridge taken during our bus ride (while driving on Ting Kau bridge).

Before heading outside to the bulk of the Wetland Park, we spent some time in their aquarium / zoo area. It may be hard to make out, but coiled above me on a piece of safety glass is a seriously giant snake (we didn't see a label for it - perhaps an anaconda?) that appeared to be digesting something (a section of its abdomen was much wider than the rest of it).


Once we got outside, we actually ran into another snake - but this one was much smaller and hiding in the dirt on a path we chose to walk along. It completely startled us when it quickly slithered off before we accidentally stepped on it! Needless to say, it all happened very quickly, so I didn't get a change to snap a photo.

The park has a vast array of life on display, including gorgeous lily ponds like this one.

Here I'm about to snack on a baby mangrove tree (the small bean-like object in my hand).

This is one of the best places in Hong Kong for convenient bird watching. On this particular day, we were very, very fortunate to see (alongside a breathtaking array of ducks, herons, egrets, cormorants, etc) a gathering of Black-Faced Spoonbills...

(This picture is a little odd because we used one of the provided telescopes to capture it.) The Black-Faced Spoonbill is endangered, with an estimated 2000 alive worldwide. A portion of their population like to winter in Hong Kong, it seems, and we saw the proof.


The park is adjacent to the Tin Shui Wai district, and you can see its highrise apartments looming if you look over your shoulder.

After exiting the park (just as they were closing), we took the MTR Light Rail (yet another cool form of mass transit, this one specific to the New Territories) to nearby Yuen Long for dinner...

Dumplings!

Lai mien (hand-pulled) noodles with beef!

Hand-shaved noodles (a first for me) with Taiwanese fishballs stuffed with beef!

A soda made from grapefruit and honey!

After dinner, we meandered around Yuen Long a bit, picking up a few items...

Salak (or "snakeskin fruit", as it is called in Cantonese)! I'd never seen this before and it was pretty tasty. The skin was much more like a shell - a bit brittle and very easy to peel.

Wintermelon "wife" cakes! The most famous bakery for these is in Yuen Long, so we had to get a fresh box.

A fun series of trips, to be sure!