inspiring

The weather forecast wasn’t inspiring yesterday. The chance of rain, according to the Hong Kong Observatory website, was ‘medium’, which pretty much guarantees rain at some point. Paula said that she didn’t want to do any walks in our neighbourhood—we’ve exhausted all the possibilities here—and she suggested that we travel into town and climb Victoria Peak (‘the Peak’) from Central, which is effectively from sea level. Accordingly, we walked into Luen Wo Hui to have breakfast at the Fairwood branch there, after which we could take a minibus to Fanling station and thence a train to Central.

However, just as we were finishing our breakfast, it started to rain. Heavily.

“Change of plan,” said Paula. “Let’s take a bus to Tsing Yi.”

Tsing Yi is an island northwest of Kowloon. It used to be an industrial centre, but nowadays it’s an important residential area with a forest of low-end, high-rise apartment blocks. And we wouldn’t even get wet going to the bus station, which is located directly underneath the Regentville housing estate (Fairwood is located in the shopping mall that forms the bottom two storeys of this estate).

Naturally, I concurred, especially as we would have a grandstand view of everywhere we passed through en route, unlike travelling by train, from which you can see almost nothing. I was actually wondering about the route the bus would take, and to my delight it took a round-the-houses route through the eastern part of Fanling and Sheung Shui before hitting the expressway. I was delighted because although I’m completely familiar with all of Fanling east of the main railway (the East Rail line), I’ve rarely ventured west of the railway, mainly because there doesn’t appear to be much to see, apart from Fung Ying Seen Koon, a Taoist monastery that I have visited; Kun Chung Temple, which I’ve also visited; and North District Hospital, where I’ve been a patient on more than one occasion.

I’d been wondering which route the bus would take, but I was taken aback when the bus hit the expressway, heading north! I shouldn’t have been surprised though, because shortly after passing through Sheung Shui, the expressway bends westwards and is thus the most direct route to Tsing Yi.

Another surprise as the bus cruised westwards along the expressway: the skies were slowly clearing, and it began to look as though we’d seen the last of the rain. So we eventually arrived at Tsing Yi station, but there didn’t appear to be much of interest in the immediate vicinity.

“Let’s take the train to Disneyland,” suggested Paula.

“I’m not going to Disneyland!” was my peremptory reply.

However, Paula didn’t have an actual visit to Disneyland in mind either. Apparently, there is a scenic park close to Disneyland that we could walk around (Paula had been before). So that’s what we did. Unfortunately, Paula couldn’t remember the exact location of the park, and we ended up walking all the way around the outside of Disneyland. This unplanned diversion, along roads named Magic Road and Fantasy Road, took us past the entrances to several hotels, and I couldn’t help but wonder why anyone would want to stay here. Yes, the location is convenient for visiting Disneyland, but it’s far from ideal if you want to go to almost anywhere else in Hong Kong. Anyway, we eventually reached the park, and almost immediately I noticed that it contained quite a large lake:

I was amused to discover that this is named Inspiration Lake!

The plan was to walk around the lake in a clockwise direction, and as we did so we encountered very few people. I took photos of the lake at various points along our walk.

I couldn’t help but notice the large number of loose boulders along the shoreline, which led me to conjecture that this is an artificial lake.

This photo was taken looking back the way we’d just come. It shows just how well the path that we followed is paved:

The next photo provides more evidence of the artificiality of the lake:

What is shown here is not a natural feature.

We stopped briefly at some convenient benches to enjoy the view:

The lake contains an island, which you can see in the previous two photos, although it was not until we reached this point that I realized that there was an island here:

Continuing on:

What appears to be some kind of jetty in the next picture is actually the second such structure on the edge of the lake:

Although we didn’t actually stop here, I couldn’t resist taking a photo of this rather quaint gazebo:

And this is the last photo I took in the park:

I just liked the tree.

Almost immediately after we left the park, we needed to cross a road, but there was a convenient pedestrian underpass:

…and this is a view of the exit from that underpass:

We still had some distance to walk, but we eventually reached Disneyland station. While we were waiting for the next train, I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the platform:

I just liked the ironwork, which makes this station unlike any other on the MTR network.

When we boarded the train to Disneyland, which is on a branch line with no other stations, I couldn’t help but notice the Mickey Mouse windows and the upholstered seating, which is not like the hard stainless steel seats on other MTR trains. There were too many people in the train on the outward journey, but I took this photo as we waited to depart on our way back to the real world:

I suspect that Disney had a say in the design of the trains here. They may even have paid for them outright.

We did consider taking an alternative route back to Fanling, but in the end we opted to take the same bus. So did we find the day inspiring? Not really, but we did enjoy it.

on the trail #1

After the first two hectic days of our trip to Toronto, we were left to our own devices on the third day. Why not explore the neighbourhood where we were staying? So that’s what we did. A quick survey of Google Maps showed that the Moccasin Trail Park was nearby. As you can see from my first photo, it appeared to be a typical park:

However, as you can also see from the photo, the path divides a short distance ahead. We decided to turn right and soon found ourselves on a road that descended a steep hill through a thickly forested area:

At the time, I had no idea what Paula was attempting to photograph, but I soon discovered the reason:

Black squirrels like this one turned out to be extremely common, and we did see quite a few during the remainder of our stay in this remarkable city, including several in the residential neighbourhood where we were staying. I even saw one as I sat in the window of our room!

At the bottom of the hill, we found the start of a trail into the forest:

It isn’t obvious from the photo, but you can just see a small lake through the trees on the right. This lake doesn’t appear to have any amenities, but it’s certainly scenic:

The trail quickly contracted to a mere footpath:

I took several photos of wildflowers as we followed the path:

I’m still trying to see whether I can identify any of these flowers, although the white flowers in the first two photos do resemble cow parsley. And the yellow flowers alongside the path in the next photo look like golden rod:

Shortly after I took the last photo, Paula said that she wasn’t feeling well, so we turned back. But we did see another squirrel before leaving the area:

This was our first experience of a forest trail in Toronto, but we walked two more during our visit, which I will be describing in due course.

falls guide

On the second day of our recent trip to Toronto, we travelled to Niagara Falls, which was a breathtaking experience! We were driven there by Paula’s nephew Eugene, who grew up in Hong Kong but who now lives in Canada. And we were accompanied by Eugene’s younger brother Eric and their mother Christina, Paula’s sister, who had also travelled to Toronto for the wedding. This was my first sight of the falls:

Niagara Falls is actually two separate waterfalls, and the previous photo is a view of the American Falls, separated by Goat Island from the Canadian Falls, also known as the Horseshoe Falls because of their distinctive curved shape:

In fact, if you look closely at the first photo above, you will notice a small separate waterfall on the right. This is the Bridal Veil Falls, separated from the American Falls by Luna Island. Both Goat Island and Luna Island are part of the US state of New York, so effectively the Horseshoe Falls straddles the international border between the USA and Canada.

There is a promenade along the top of the gorge on the Canadian side of the river, which we walked along and then returned to where we started. This is a different view of the American Falls that I took as we walked back:

You will probably have noticed boats in each of the last three photos, and that would be our next objective. As we made our way slowly down to the water level I spotted a notice that read “Ponchos will be distributed after ticket verification”. My initial thought was that I wouldn’t bother, because there would only be some spray, but in the end I’m glad I ignored my first reaction to the notice:

In fact, there wasn’t much spray as we passed the American Falls, but it certainly got a lot wetter as we approached the Horseshoe Falls:

After taking the previous photo, I decided to put my phone away, because we were no longer dealing with spray. It was like torrential rain as we ventured within 15 metres of the base of the waterfall.

After our boat ride, Eugene planned to cross to the US side of the river with his mother and brother and spend the night there, so Paula and I would catch a bus back to Toronto. But first, we would venture into the city of Niagara Falls to see whether there was anything interesting to see. We immediately found ourselves in ‘Strange Street’. To understand why I gave this thoroughfare such a name, check out the next two photos:

We turned left where I took the second photo and immediately found ourselves walking past a small park filled with life-size models of dinosaurs. I identified a brontosaurus and a stegosaurus, and this terrifying rendition of Tyrannosaurus rex:

After passing the park, we cut back down towards the river, because we’d been told that the bus terminus was located just upstream from the Horseshoe Falls. Of course, I took a few more photos, including this one of the American Falls:

The final four photos are all closer views of the Horseshoe Falls, although the third photo also shows the American Falls in the distance and therefore provides some measure of the relative positions of the two waterfalls:

The last photo is a view from the top of the waterfall.

And that was our visit to Niagara Falls. My next report will describe the first of three days walking forest trails.

tunnel vision

“Where are all the mountains?” I asked my son, who lives in Switzerland.

After all, the first thing you would think about if this country came up in conversation would be the mountains. However, where Siegfried lives the terrain is merely undulating.

So he suggested that we visit the Walensee, a large lake to the south of where he lives.

On the way there, the rain was so heavy that I could barely see the car in front. I almost suggested that we turn back, but I’m glad I didn’t.

There is a motorway running along the south side of the lake, and also a regular road, which we followed. The traffic on this road was quite heavy, and progress was slow, but we eventually reached the western end of the lake and turned onto an extremely narrow single-track road. There are no passing places on this road, and the traffic arrangement to compensate for this is something very unusual. At the start of the road, there is an open area where cars wait. They have a seven-minute window, starting on the hour and half hour, when they can proceed. Vehicles travelling in the opposite direction also have a seven-minute window to proceed, starting at quarter past and quarter to the hour.

When we reached the end of the road, we were able to get out and walk around, and I took these photos of the lake and the surrounding mountains:

…and also this quite spectacular narrow waterfall:

…while Paula took these photos of an obvious temperature inversion (the rain had stopped by this time):

On the way back along the narrow road, I shot this video to illustrate how tricky the narrow road is to drive along:

If you do watch this video, be sure to turn the volume up, because the car’s sensors were constantly being triggered by the proximity of the walls. Siegfried said that he’d walked along the road previously, which must have been quite harrowing, because there are no opportunities to avoid the tunnels on foot, although he’d never driven along it.

And that was yet another great day in Switzerland, a country that I’d not previously visited (I was pulled from a school trip to Interlaken at 24 hours notice back in 1964 because I’d led a canteen protest earlier).