Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Darwin

New Zealand has the most beautiful weeds you have ever seen:


 This is the only photos of weeds I have. 
My camera ran out of battery power, 
so asked Janice to take the photos for me. 
I'll post more when Janice sends them
to me so you can see what I mean.

New Zealand has extraordinary beauty and you have to see the gorgeous colours of all the vegetation growing on the grassy verges along the country roads.  Miles of different yellow flowered weeds, all perfectly blended across the yellow spectrum, only here and there spotted with white or purple flowering weeds all in exactly the right place.  Extraordinary! Spectacular!  Magnificent! Words fail me. Clearly, here Mother Nature is a humongous show-off.

Have got very interested in what Sir Joseph Banks made of this strange and otherworldly vegetation ...


 Weird, huh!

 ... but so far have only discovered Charles Darwin's assessment.

"Rather paultry" is his review of this beautiful pair of islands.  He got annoyed immediately, so he said, of the "endless miles of ferns" and he considered the New Zealanders he met as "the scum of the earth" and the Maori as "ugly, sullen and brutish savages".

Considering Beagle only visited one port in the entire nation, and that was a whaling station famous for its drinking and brothels, and that the visit took place in the months immediately leading up to the Maori wars, this is hardly surprising.  However, the real reason for this enmity was undoubtedly all those Chilean parasites that were by then gnawing their way through his innards. I'm sure it had to have been that which was making his disposition most snappy, sour and easily annoyed.

He got increasingly vile about all the countries he visited after NZ so let's be pleased at the mildness of his unpleasantness about this place, and he did end up liking it years after he left because he made good friends here who continued to correspond with him for the rest of his life, and some he even put up to become members of The Royal Society of Scientists back in London because he was so impressed with their studies in NZ botany; people like Hooker who wrote so eloquently about the strange ways NZ bees fertilise NZ orchids, or von Haus who came up with the theory of Tectonic Plates and Gondwanaland and Continental Drift and stuff like that, although the credit went to someone else.

Mind you, Darwin himself took the credit for lots of other peoples' stuff as well, particularly Wallace, who was actually out in the field so couldn't defend his copyright to his work, so these 19th century scientist folk weren't really an honest lot, were they? So why do we actually care about what they think about anything? What do they know anyway. Bah humbug!

Of course, apart from everything else, visiting a country immediately before the outbreak of war doesn't give a fair assessment of the real gestalt, does it, so let's just ignore all that Darwin had to say about the place and wait until we finally find the thoughts of Sir Joseph Banks.

Or, instead, why don't we just look at more of NZ's strange and beautiful vegetation:






Sunday, December 27, 2009

Northwards!

Currently up country in a winsy beachside town north of Auckland. Very pretty environment ... but what else do you ever say about NZ.

It's not possible to tell any stories without photographs so you'll just have to wait till I get back to HK for the bulk of what's happening.

Anything to talk about without photos?  Oh yeah!  Big story at the moment: a registered Maori company was buying up huge swathes of farmland around here spruiking it as "our traditional land" and the local Maori who - obviously - are actually from the area started going "say what?" and, because no one inter-tribal could vouch for them, began an investigation into who they really were and it turned out to be a clique of Arab businessmen from Dubai, so furious local Maori tribes took their lawyer, who set up the company, to Maori court and now he's going to jail for up to seven years.  Yayyy!

I guess that's the moral lesson here: don't call yourself "the traditional owner" of any land within a country that still has a strong and living tradition of tribal land ownership!

Friday, December 25, 2009

Manipulation!!!

New Zealand is a very pretty country.  It's also a very cold country and this poor little tropical soul cannot bear being in anything under 24 degrees centigrade. Mid-summer here and we're tooling around temperatures between 13 and 19 and where's the fun in that?

And if there's any other reason needed to dislike Kiwiland is that a large percentage of the population does a line in smug-and-superior-smirking that makes me want to give entire conga-lines of folk a rather sharp and needful slapping.

These things have suddenly become very important because Keith is now insisting that, when we leave HK, we move to NZ.  All I can say to that is NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!  And trust me, I've been saying it a lot.

He wants to take me to Waihiki Island in the next few days, and, because this island has a tropical micro-climate and a large colony of artists, I feel his reason is Machiavellian and manipulative, and I'm supposed to finally fall in love with the place.

Open my mind, yes?  Get rid of this simple-minded prejudice.

Mind you, he showed me a photograph in a land-sales pamphlet of the most stunning 6 acre property with the most exquisite manor house that was right in the hinterland of the North Island and then revealed the price.  We could do it easily.  I told him "Get me this house and I'll move here.  If not ... honey, it was a long and mostly successful marriage but ... TA-TA!"

I have consented, by the way, to travel around this country in two years time, in a campervan; something Keith has always wanted to do.  But more than that?

But if it weren't for the prospect of the rest of my life spent in this very green and pleasant land, I'd be enjoying it all immensely.  As it is, all I can see is faults and reasons NOT to like it ... which doesn't augur well for the traveling-pleasure-spirit, does it.

But Kia Ora and I hope you are all a lot warmer than I currently am.  Merry Christmas.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

What Kills Us This Week. New Zealand.

Since I'm in Auckland, NZ - and loving it, by the way - this week, I've been looking around this country for "reason to panic".

Actually finding it really quite freaky the number of ads there are for bug killers and germ killers.  I thought NZ would have given that sort of thing up in their quest for GREEN, but they appear not to.

Nonetheless, I can't see them being at all biophobic.  The media seems all gleeful and excited that this year's Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race is going to meet the tail-end of Cyclone Laurence. As you know, this big-deal race usually reports the results a minute or so after they issue the death toll, and the Kiwis like this insousiance enormously and enter it in numbers.

And there was a very encouraging item on the news last night where some little town raised the height of the local bridge or something like that, so the kiddies weren't jumping off it any more therefore all these adults were showing them it was still "easy as" (that's a term they use over here a great deal) by jumping off it themselves. "Five generations have jumped off this bridge" the local adults were saying "And we can't let this tradition die off now."

So that's my choice for this week.

THERE'S NO REAL THREATDOWN WHEN ADULTS RETAIN THEIR SANITY!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Kia Ora

Kia Ora. Hello from New Zealand.

Too busy to post but "where I go, you go" so I'll tell you all about it later.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Molly Moment #5

As I explained earlier, a Molly Moment is something you witness happening among strangers that makes you feel how good it is to be alive:

Yesterday, at Pacific Place, Christmas carols were blasting away on the loud speaker system as per usual for this time of year.

And I noticed a gaggle of Muslim women stalking through the place, all wearing the most savage burkha, all black from head to toe with only the tiniest slit that showed only their eyes.

Behind them streamed a gaggle of little Arab kiddies ... and all of them were singing along with the carols at the top of their lungs "You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout. I'm telling you why.  Santa Claus is coming to town."

Love?

Saturday, December 19, 2009

A Confession!

Our Margaret snapped  "Yeah, you talk about me all the time, but I bet you never post that you stole an umbrella!"

I'm up for that bet.

Yes, folks, I stole an umbrella.  

However, it was all Margaret's fault.

What happened was that we were shopping around Kowloon Bay when she peremptorily handed me her umbrella saying "Carry this!"  Me, the Timorous Wee Mouse that I am, five nervous paces behind her, indeed did so.

But then we stopped for coffee, however there were no seats, so this kindly Mainland Chinese lady signalled that we could share her booth, so that's what we did.

Then, as we were leaving later, me again trailing five nervous paces behind Margaret, I had that "I was carrying more" feeling, stopped dead, thought about it, and realising I was no longer carrying an umbrella, raced back to the booth, grabbed the umbrella lying under the table and left, racing to catch up with Margaret.

It wasn't until we were in the MTR, when Margaret said "When did you buy that umbrella?" I realised that Margaret was now carrying her own ... and that I'd stolen the one owned by Kindly Mainland Lady.

Oops!

So you can see how it was all Margaret's fault, can't you? 

And so, Margaret, you lost this bet, and I have a nice red Dior umbrella that I will willingly return to Kindly Mainland Lady if she asks for it.

Friday, December 18, 2009

What Kills Us This Week!

I'll have to read the papers to be sure, but I think yesterday Our Margaret and I may have very narrowly escaped an acid attack. Seriously!  Like, we were right there! Gosh, Starbucks may again have saved my life; OK, maybe not my life this time, but certainly my clothes, and maybe even my skin.

What happened is that Margaret and I were stomping around Mong Kok, doing the shopping we had planned to do up in China except Margaret didn't get a visa, when Margaret insisted we stop off for a coffee.  Brand new Starbucks right there so I said blah blah blah ... then Margaret said something about not wanting to support American multinationals blah, blah, blah ... and I said that twice now a Starbucks had literally saved my life - once when their waiters rescued me when that angry crazy man tried to strangle me and then when they took care of me after I was robbed in Guangzhou - so they were totally in my good books ... so she agreed to come in and grab a cuppa but only one-to-go.

The place was packed, but just as we got our order two people left and this lovely young waiter grabbed the seats and signaled to us to come sit down. He looked so proud of himself it seemed churlish not to accept, so we took the seats and remained in Starbucks for about twenty minutes.

But when we walked out, the entire street was full of ambulances and police-cars and folks madly rushing around and all-go-go-go-surveillance-action and it was all so creepy, even vaguely apocalyptic, Margaret was going "What happened? What happened?"

To me it seemed like we'd just missed another acid attack. And one that happened right there, in the street we were in, immediately around Starbucks, probably only minutes after we went inside, and most probably just as we would have been coming out if that so-lovely young waiter hadn't stopped us leaving.

I think we have an angel! Yes?

Do you know about these HK acid attacks?  That, for the past three years, someone has been throwing acid-bombs onto shoppers?  The attacks used to happen only in Mong Kok but the latest two have been in Sogo in Causeway Bay; both Mong Kok and Sogo being statistically the busiest shopping areas in the world.  He's bombed 219 people so far, with a significant proportion having to be hospitalised, and it's becoming increasingly a major public concern, with the reward for his capture now up to nearly HK$1 million.

Only two days ago,  HK police published the Profiler's Report which said it was most likely being done by a 28 year old anti-social computer nerd type (which was what I thought too when thinking about the type of person who'd do something like this) and that these attacks were no longer about vengefully hurting people and had become, because he was consistently getting away with it, about taunting the police. It also said that the attacks were about to escalate.

When I read the account I did actually think "He's going to attack again immediately in revenge for this report." but, because the latest attacks had moved to Sogo, I thought that we'd be fine shopping in Mong Kok.

And we were.  Yes, thanks to that very sweet and charming young waiter grabbing and holding two seats for us, we were just fine.

So that's definitely my choice for this week:

THREATDOWN
Angry computer nerds taking offence
at what a Profiler has to say about them.

Or ...
a police excuse to raise HK's
surveillance levels to seriously invasive
without the public objecting.


Later:
There was an acid attack yesterday but it took place in Tuen Mun and not in Mong Kok, so it looks as though yesterday's "strange incident in Mong Kok" was just something triad-esque and normal.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Our Margaret!

Our Margaret says I'm forbidden to talk about her in here if I continue to refer to her as "Grumpy Old Margaret" and "Frankly Frightening Margaret" and to use words such as "Formidable" in connection with her.

I'm also forbidden from using words like appalling, daunting, dire, dismaying, fierce, imposing, impregnable, intimidating, redoubtable and terrifying. And neither can I call her words like all-powerful, ballbusting, challenging, colossal, dismaying, effortful, indomitable, intimidating,  onerous, overpowering, powerful, puissant, rough go, staggering, strenuous, tall order, toilsome, tough proposition nor anything else that includes the word tough.

I guess bossy-boots is out too.

To be honest, I think Margaret is one of the best people I've ever known and I've known her a long time.  Twenty-two years, I've just worked out.

Back when I first met her, she was my boss, and I found her so "puissant"  I immediately started a comic strip called "The Torments of Grendal" wherein she featured as a large cave-residing monster atop a pile of bones, devouring everyone around her and spitting out the bones with an insouciant burp. I too featured as a character known as Timorous Wee Mouse. And the stories in the strip were always simple retellings of stuff around us that actually happened.

But it was only six weeks later when I realised in a sudden flash that I totally got her and that I really, really liked her.  As well as being Frankly Frightening and Formidable, she was straight-talking and true, clever, erudite, interesting, had a terrific sense of humour and was great fun, and that there was no bullying nor an ego-stroking-agenda behind her Frankly Frightening Puissant Indomitability!

Given who I realised she was, I wasn't at all surprised to later find out that she was the niece of a Legendary Outback Figure, the Boss Drover Edna Jessup,  (if you don't get that reference think of a highly respectable "Annie Oakley" and you're in the ballpark).

Edna Jessup was the mighty lady who for decades lead the annual "Outback Drove" - taking the cattle and cattlemen across the Australian Outback to the markets on the coast.  (Trying to find a reference to her on-line and there isn't one.  The closest I could get was the 1946 film The Overlanders.)

Or maybe Nicole Kidman was meant to be playing her in the film "Australia":



But since I've never seen the film and have no desire to, I don't know.

Since there's nothing there - and I guess Outback types don't contribute much to Wikipedia - I'll have to tell you that there were only ever three folk who were given the term "Boss Drover", meaning the Cattle Drove Boss you respected and trusted so much you'd follow them to the ends of the earth.

Only three head drovers ever earned the title Boss Drover and they were R.M. Williams, Pic Willet, and Edna Jessup.



Everyone always said that Our Margaret was the very image of her Aunty Edna and also that she took after her in personality too.  And yes, I agree.  Our Margaret is ... yes, overwhelming in her Formidability and Indomitability but still someone who earns nothing but your total respect and trust and so who you'd willingly follow to the ends of the earth.

All in all, the very best type of person this planet produces.

(I only ended on that note because I don't want Margaret to devour me alive and spit out my bones with an insouciant burp. I really wanted to end it with "Go Grendal!")

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Excuse the Absence

My old friend Margaret is in town and so I may be very busy between now and leaving for New Zealand. Thus please forgive if I don't post often ... although I will try to keep up the challenge and write something every day.

I'm also starting another blog called "An Angel a Day", where, every day, hopefully, I intend to post a photo of an angel I've seen somewhere in my travels.

It's a silly thing I know, but nonetheless a challenge that Talei set me and interesting and gives me a reason for an adventure every single day for 100 days. I highly recommend it.

OK, you may think I couldn't do it - 100 Angels in 100 days - but I already have successfully completed it, with only minor bits of cheating. This new blog is really just something to do with all my angel photos.

So do have a look sometime.  Mind you, I'm not sure if I know how to find it again myself.

OK, I found it, and have placed in a link to it, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get into it to post another angel.  Man, is it frustrating.

Later:

Given up. This is a "Wait til Keith gets home!" level problem ... and I'm meeting Margaret shortly in Kowloon Tong and we're off shopping.  Yayyy!

And here's the picture of the angel I would have downloaded today if I'd have been able to get in.

See, it my not be precisely keeping the promise I made in the other blog, but nonetheless, according to the letter of the law, I have honoured my commitment.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Update from Luang Prabang Orphanage.

Just heard from Luang Prabang Orphanage and the news isn't good.


The Entrance to the Orphanage.
And it's in Laos, by the way;
one of the poorest countries on earth.


The economic downturn has meant that fewer tourists are traveling to Laos and thus fewer people are using Ruth's book exchange and therefore there's a significant reduction in the money going to support the children at the orphanage.


One of the Orphans.
Such a little sweetie, isn't she?


It was barely enough even in the good times, and it's not anywhere near enough now.

If you read my post "Luang Prabang Orphanage For Michael" from January 5th this year, you'll know all about this set up - because our good friend German Michael asked that we check it out for him so he knew it was genuine so he could recommend it to various friends in Hong Kong, who were then looking for some project to fund-raise for, which turned out to be four new roofs for this orphanage - and that I shared the report with all of you who read my blog.


This request for your support is all genuine, folks. No scam happening here. You know me, Denise-the-Idiot, and hopefully you trust me ... and think me too stupid to be involved in anything underhand and sneaky. And you know Aussie Christine ...


The One and Only
Aussie Christine.

... who frequently features in these posts, and, if you go back to the earliest posts for this year, you'll know all about Christine's friend Ruth living there in Luang Prabang, trying to raise the money needed for the kiddies at the impoverished orphanage in a country where the corrupt government takes all the international donations.

Truly, folks, that's the reason why the money is all handled here in HK, to keep it out of the hands of corrupt government officials. Not anywhere near a scam, so please don't be cynical about it.

These are only a few of the kiddies
we're talking about here.


But here's the report for 2009 from the Orphanage:

As at December 2009, the Luang Prabang Government Orphanage School has 517 resident children, ranging in age from about 5 years old and up. This is an increase in numbers of more than 50 children this year.

Our role is to raise money in order to provide the children with items such as warm clothes, medicines, personal health items and extra food.

There are no administrative costs in the work we do. All coordination, purchasing, delivery, distribution, plus any other required activities in Luang Prabang is done by Ruth and her family. The web page, PayPal account and Thank You Certificates are all handled by Chris who is based in Hong Kong. Every dollar / kip raised goes to providing for the children.

We never just give cash - we always spend time discussing with the Director the needs of the orphanage and the children - and we then purchase and deliver it. Often this involves organizing every child in the orphanage to individually receive his or her set of supplies… as you can imagine, it’s a time-consuming task! But we need to do this to ensure that every child receives what they require and that no one misses out for any reason.

Please note that this year the amount of provisions we have been able to give the children has been much less than previous years. Tourism has been down by almost 50 percent and people are watching their cash-flow more closely. So we haven’t had enough money to meet our goals every month. For example, our November delivery was only 1 cake of soap, 1 tin of fish, one packet of noodles, two school notebooks and one pencil per child. It came to $US800.

Please tell your friends and family about the orphanage and its web site… maybe they would like to donate instead of giving gifts to each other for Christmas?

See http://www.lao-kids.org/Newsletter.htm for more details.

To everyone who has helped our work with the orphanage this year.. a HUGE thank you. And many good wishes for a safe, peaceful and prosperous 2010.



The Water Buffalo of Lantau.

Decided this is now my favourite photo so I'll show it to you again LARGE:



With all the dust kicked up, it seems very impressive but it really isn't. It's just a buffalo out for a stroll. And it's one of a series I took because I missed every shot back during Ching Ming when the rampaging buffalo were terrorising the campers in order to steal their salads.

Gosh, I hate those delays they put on cameras these days. Apparently it's something to do with automatically adjusting to the light conditions or whatever, but it just drives me mad because whenever I try to take action shots I forever miss absolutely glorious moments.

But this is meant to be about Lantau's water buffalo, so back to them.

More normally the buffalo are like this:

Placidly chomping away
in their paddocks.


But they were built for work and since they no longer needed to plough the rice paddies - since no one's planting rice anymore - they're simply kept by the villagers out of habit and because, yes, they're still loved. However, because these beasts are very clever they need frequent entertainment and so they get up to mischief, and yesterday yet another one escaped, mainly, it would seem, to tease the dogs.

I came in late, so here's all I have of the escapee sequence, although I missed the shot of the dad there in the background getting the little girl to pat it:



The last one is me trying to stop it so I can get a shot of it next to the "Hazard" sign. You know, for the irony, etc. However, they are strong as an ox - duh! - and so, no matter how hard I pressed his head, I didn't stand a chance. It just kept moving relentlessly forward.

Gosh, I love these beasts, and it would seem the water buffalo of Lantau Island are very addictive and have a great many fans.

There's an Italian woman who has been photographing them for years. They are now out in a book:


It's full of wonderful shots like these ones:


And right on the dry stone wall that surrounds the Pui-O Buffalo Paddock, someone's made this rather fine clay statue: Nice huh? And I really love that wall too, which seems to defy gravity since it's only one layer thick and for render they've used only mud.

Aren't they amazing animals. I totally love 'em. Can understand why the Ham Tin villagers still keep them, even though they haven't planted rice since ... WWII?

Fiji Cyclone Mick News

From Fiji Times On-line:

Two people are missing and two are dead after Cyclone Mick ripped through the Fiji islands overnight.

The category two cyclone is moving away from the area after pounding it with winds reaching up to 156 kilometres an hour overnight.

Fijilive.com quotes the National Disaster Management Office as confirming that a student died when a tree fell on him in the Nadarivatu highlands in the north of Viti Levu and a man was swept away in strong river currents at Sigatoka.

Two people who went fishing have not returned home.

Flooding occurred in many areas including Suva overnight and evacuations took place in Navua and Lautoka. Further flooding is expected at high tide.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Hurricane Mick!

Have you heard?

Good luck, Fiji! My prayers are for you!

Tropical Cyclone MICK (04P)
Tropical Cyclone MICK Forecast Graphic
Tropical Cyclone MICK Forecast Track (Joint Typhoon Warning Center)
Tropical Cyclone MICK Storm-Centered Infrared
Tropical Cyclone MICK Storm-Centered Water Vapor
Tropical Cyclone MICK Storm-Centered Visible
Tropical Cyclone MICK Forecast/Advisory (JTWC)
Tropical Cyclone MICK JMV 3.0 Data (JTWC)

Satellite Imagery

Satellite Animations

A Pui-O Sunday!

I know I've already told you how to get to Pui-O Beach but this time I've got photographs so I'll tell you again:

Catch the ferry over to the small town of Mui Wu on Lantau Island.

The Lantau ferry.

Locals always talk about fast ferries and slow ferries - the difference being half an hour and an hour-long ride - however the trip is so pleasant and we're never in a hurry so it makes no difference to us. We just rock up at Central (Pier 6) whenever and get on the next one leaving (they leave every 50 minutes or so) and there's Uncle Russ's Coffee right there, run by the sweetest and most generous Nepali folk (Aussie Christine has a story, but I won't share it with you.) and a newspaper stand too so waiting is never a problem.

Bye bye city!

Once you reach Mui Wu, the bus stand is directly opposite the entrance to the ferry terminal. The buses are linked with the ferry timetable so you have to go immediately or wait and wander around town for 50 minutes until the next ferry arrives.

As for getting to Ham Tin Village, catch the Number 1 bus and ask for Pui O Village. And remember that it costs HK$5.00 to Pui O on a Sunday ($3.20 on other days), and if you don't pay that with a coin - say, if you use your Octopus Card as per usual - you have to fork out for the entire ride to the end of the line, so plan to have the money on you.

The only difficult bit of this venture is actually getting off at Pui O, because there's no sign or anything. Look out for a petrol station on your left, and get off the bus in the middle of the village you are just entering. The stop you need is opposite a shop called La Isla. You can also try asking the driver - and good luck with that because they all seem to be a passive-aggressive bunch - or just look out for a village which looks like this ...

... only in close-up.

... then, once off, wander around the village until you see this, probably about 50 metres from where you got off:


Go down those steps and, at the bottom, you can see the path crossing the swamp and buffalo paddocks:

The path!

Remember to ignore the buffalo because they'll ignore you.

Then go along the walkway till you see this:

... and that's when you know you've come to Pui-O Village:


Pui-O Village is officially
also part of Ham Tin Village
and thus actually shares that name,
but let's just ignore that fact.

And voila! Even before you're through the village, you've come to the entrance to the beach, which I've already shown you below so I won't show you again.

It's all so lovely and the moment you hit the village you feel yourself unwind so it's worth all the trouble of getting there.

Keith and I were trying to figure why our souls craves this place, because they do, and decided it's because we aren't natural city folk and thus need NATURE!

Nature!
Actually an Australian she-oak
which are Queensland pests/weeds
and hideously invasive
but so pretty let's not mention it.

And, at Ham Tin, it helps that they have dalo and beagan growing wild in the swamp ...

... so it's a little piece of Fiji and thus a lovely piece of nostalgia.

But mostly we need it as an antidote to the endless noise and movement of the city. Pui-O's clean and quiet and there are actually breezes and birdsong and buffaloes, which are just so gosh darn cute.

Tried to get a shot of a buffalo racing down the road next to a sign saying "Please use the opposite walkway" but the bloody animal simply wouldn't stop:

Felt very Paloma, by the way, running with the bulls. However, these buffaloes, all descended from the beasts who used to work on these villagers' rice paddies, are all very people-friendly. In fact, they're friendly-plus! I've already told you how they always come out of the paddocks whenever they smell barbecue, so they can scare away the campers and thus eat everything on the salad bar.

And, here at the beach, there's dirt and swamp and all kinds of natural stuff and you can get dirty so easily and both of us now realise we don't feel right always being so clean and dressed up, day after day after day.

And it seems we're not the only ones who feel this way. Yes, even in HK there are the odd people who want to camp so so the Government has set up Pui-O Camp Site (with toilets and showers etc,) and rent out the beach frontage to these campers, but, being Hong Kongers, they don't really grasp the concept of camping so it's all too well-organised and fussy, but still, for a city full of bio-phobes, this oxymoron is undoubtedly all they can handle.

Fenced-in camping!
There's a new concept for you!

And apropos nothing, there's a house for sale right there in the village:

Three floors and a roof garden!

And everyone has dogs ...

... serious big dogs,
not those fussy, dainty things
HKers usually have ...

... and they get to walk their dogs leachless on the beach at sunset ...

A Pui-O Sunset.

Dogs! Beach! Sunset! Three things god always intended to go together ... and it's what I grew up with so I know that nothing is more pleasant or makes life seem more perfect.

Anyway, the house above is over-priced for the market but no one's looking at it so I guess the price will tumble to 'reasonable' soon enough. Threw a longing glance with Keith but then he snapped "I work. I'm not prepared to deal with those ferries every day." so I guess it's not happening ... yet!

But still, until that day, there's always Sundays!

Another Secret Story!

Was told I couldn't tell you this story, but I'm just so envious I must talk, so ...

A long time ago, in a far away land, an old man died in a certain little village, leaving a small house on a valuable piece of real estate that his daughter-and-heir decided to sell.

However, first the house had to be knocked down, so the daughter decided to give away all the house contents before the demolition, and, to this end, told the local monastery to come around to help themselves to whatever they wanted.

However, although the monks dropped by, they only took the bar-fridge, so the daughter asked A Fairytale Princess to also drop by to help herself.

Our Fairytale Princess already had a collection of valuable Chinese antique furniture and thus knew the market ... and the instant she walked through that door she knew she'd hit paydirt: a little house full of the most amazingly beautiful Qing furniture, all exquisitely carved teak with interesting shapes and lines.

She instantly hired men to pick the stuff up on Wednesday.

But there's more: the old man had nearly two hundred huge and healthy potplants which were very stressed by the lack of attention they've been getting, so very absolutely they needed a continuance of the looking-after-and-loving the old man had so obviously given them, yes?

And so, since Our Fairytale Princess adored tending to pot-plants and had a courtyard and roof-garden to fill, those were also earmarked for collection. And the fact that all the pots were also old and exquisite? Quite beside the point! This was all about the plants!

You envious too? Boy, aren't fairytale characters lucky. However, our Fairytale Princess will have to throw out several of her existing antique pieces since she now has far better ones to replace them, so I guess I could put myself in line for those!

And we'll all live happily ever after.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Pui-O Beach

Off now for another jaunt to Pui-O village on Lantau Island. This seems to be becoming our big thing to do on Sundays.

Let's see if I can find other photos I haven't shown you before:

Pui-O Village.


Gate to the beach,
and "Ooh La La"

"Ooh La La"

The Kiosk.

The Seafood Restaurant.

The Lifesaver's Club.


The beach.

And we definitely shouldn't forget an essential part of the whole Pui-O experience:

The herd of village buffalo.
Up-close and personal.

That one right there, immediately after this photo was taken, appeared to charge straight for me ...

Massive things up close.

... but at the very last minute, turned aside to eat. Almost scary. And I reckon he knew exactly what he was doing too. I think these big guys are sentient beings with a huge sense of humour.