Hong Kong Twins - the experience

Introduction

So this is not what you would expect from the title. The Hong Kong twins are not some explicit fantasy that the title may suggest in your mind. Although you could question my mind for thinking it up. The Hong Kong Twins refer to the trail between Parkview over the mountains to Stanley. This is in fact the reverse of Stage 1 of the Wilson's trail.

On a normal day this is a gruesome trail with a straight 1000 step climb up the mountain from close to sea level to the top of the first twin. The trail for most part is either ascending or descending so particularly heavy on the leg muscles. For anyone attempting this who's not particularly fit - take it slowly and preserve your energy.

To add some excitement we did the trail at night and here are some of the picture I took along the way to give you an idea of what the night hike across the twins entails.

Twins - the explicit photos

As a plug the best head torch to use is the diamond black - they are like a proper light beam illuminating everything around you. You can do this with your phone light. The trail is excellent for insects, in the night the trail is littered with spider webs and the occasional snake. Thankfully any snakes you spot on the trail will be small and usually the bright green sort, so easy to spot.

All in all a must do for anyone fit and up for an adventure. For me my Hong Kong business trip was a trip down memory lane as the trail was something we did over the winter months in Hong Kong. You usually see a mass of walkers and runners on the trail primarily people training for the moonwalker or Maclehouse trail races. Suggest you attempt to finish before 10pm

This is a picture of the terrain of the trail.

I obviously took my time, but the fastest time i've encountered is 45 minutes in the night running across the entire trail. Be careful you all, but above all enjoy it the views are magnificent especially on cool winter evenings. Good company and exercise makes it a fantastic evening. We usually finish with a big communal dinner we do not want to lose any valuable calories.

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Moving countries: HK to UK

Although our decision as a family move back to the UK from Hong Kong was made in April 2013. And that in the most unlikely of places of Myanmar. It's not been until December that the move became reality for me.

While HK was cold the move back to the UK was a 2 week freezing rain wake up call trapped in your home and car for extended period of time was frustrating but the clear January skies have generally been open and blue.

Have given the family do some of the things great about London. Were lucky to live close to the open countryside near Epsom. Morning walks on the Epsom downs have been excellent on the weekends. Here are some of the pictures from the area.

Lone Tree standing on the Downs

View looking across West London and the City

Looking across the race course to Racecourse Grandstand 

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HK Night Photography Trip

Hong Kong Night Photography

Hong Kong is definitely a city that lights up at night. One of the most interesting things you can do is to take pictures of the city at night using a variety of exposures around key landmarks and building. See below a selections of my pictures taken recently.

Photographs

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Lantau Peak Hike

You'll know there are some spectacular and challenging walks in Hong Kong. This is something you would not expect when you're presented with the bright lights of Hong Kong Island or the neon of Nathan Road, Kowloon.

This post covers the Lantau Peak hike I did. The drive behind doing was that it is the second biggest peak in Hong Kong and presented a challenge that my body was looking for on a weekend. I think anyone reasonably fit can do the walk.

Getting there

When living on Hong Kong Island the key challenge is getting there or anywhere on Lantau apart from the airport. I took the train to Tung Chung and then a bus (M3) to Pak Kung Au. The stop is not easy for the first timer to pick out but the bus ascends over a hill about half way up there is a stop and that where you get off. Follow it on some mapping software if you're unsure.

The Pak Kung Au stop spoils you for choice you can take Lantau Trail Stage 3 : Pak Kung Au over Lantau Peak to Ngong Ping or you can take Trail 2 going backwards up Sunset peak. I went on a clear day and the views would be spectacular from both.

Ascent to Lantau Peak

There is a clear sign telling you which way to go. The signs on this route are easy to follow and you're basically walking from marker 18 on the Lantau Trail up to Marker 26. You can pick out the trail see below. It was being guarded by some fairly fierce looking animals. I had to be careful.

Guardians of the Lantau Trail

Spoit for choice : Sunset peak or Lantau Peak. Lantau Peak today

The ascent starts straight away and its thankless stair climbing exercise for the next 90 minutes. The stairs are big (some knee high) so pace yourself as its like this for most of the way to the top.

Stair at the start of the ascent, its list this all the way

Thankfully alongside the constant steps that you're negotiating you will see some spectacular scenery. So stop and take your time to admire the beauty.

This is the target : Lantau Peak from the bottom

Looking back at Sunset Peak

The view down to Tung Cheung on the right

As you go higher the vistas open up even further and you can see towards Pui O and the villages below. And further out are islands floating in the South China Sea.

Vista looking back at Sunset Peak and out to the South China Sea

Some of the vegetation along the way

Its a long haul to the top, it never gets close enough

Keep going and at the top you'll be rewarded with this.

Looking down from Lantau Peak, towards Shui Hau Village

Looking down to Shek Pik Reservoir from the top.

Then once over Lantau Peak the Buddha comes into view and its an interesting climb down with some really steep steps.

Zoomed in view of the Buddha and Ngong Ping Village

The trail winds it way down and ends at the wisdom path in Ngong Ping Village. Here are some shots of the the wisdom path.

Wisdom Path Ngong Ping Village

What better way then to have some vegetarian food at the Giant Buddha restaurant. The entire walk should take about 2.5 hours. I took about 3.5 as I was taking a lot of pictures as it was a great day.

Information on the trail 

I found the link below quite useful Lantau Trail Map. There is a lot of information out there on google. Most a lot better than mine.

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When in Hong Kong : Dragon Boat and Stanley

Stanley

A common stop among the tourist trail in Hong Kong is Stanley. Know for its markets of cheap souvenirs an things that entice the average tourist. Why not spare an hour or few when in Stanley to try and do some water sport.

Along Stanley beach you will find the HK Aquabound water sport centre where you can kayak, stand up paddle board, wind surf or wake board. if you're visiting in winter (after November) do the things that will keep you out of the water. In the summer all the options are great.

Hire is fairly cheap and generally easy. The centre provides life jackets and all your needs. A few hours on the water is a great way to break up that shopping trip and a way for you to admire the beauty of Stanley Bay.

Look at the buildings around Stanley Bay

HK Aquabound Centre

The view out from the beach towards Redhill

Dragon Boating

Today, I went Dragon boating with my work buddies, a mix of fitness freaks, serious dragon boater and a few "give it a go" junkies like me. Must say it was great fun, the rowing was gruelling, having to get yourself into a strange shape to paddle and then using your core muscles to pull back the paddle. Looks easy but about the only things that's moving on my body, as I type this, are my fingers.

Dragon boating practice took the shape of technique enforcement for all us newbies which meant twisting round reaching the paddle far out in front to you. With the leading hand holding the paddle at the bottom and submerged in the water. Then using your core muscles you twist round pulling the paddle back with the twisting movement. OK, so you got the hang of it.

Then come the training part and the drills.

Drill 1 : Fifty paddles, feeling pretty strong and 30 seconds break
Drill 2 : Same as Drill 1, is this all there is to it ?
Drill 3 : Same as Drill 1, getting a little bored
Drill 4 : Paddle in 2's, each row one at a time and everyone else critiques your technique. Ok so for a newbie like me it embarrassing but fun!
Drill 4: Aerobic training. Front half of the boat paddles 30 strokes, whole boat paddles 10 strokes and the last half of the boat paddles 30 strokes. For a total of 15 mins. By now the body is telling you to get back to shore for a nice lime soda
Drill 5: Straight arm paddling. Basically the idea being you can't use your arms to pull. You can only use your core. This was quite different
Drill 6: Same as drill 5, but now you core is starting to burn
Drill 7: Same as drill 5, and now the your core and back muscles are red hot
Drill 8: Power - row as hard as you can for 30 strokes. This is how races start
Drill 9: Same as drill 8, but now you really want to go back as you are knackered (exhausted)
Drill 10: 100 strokes. Lift the boat the call goes out as you start of with power and then settle into a rhythm.  At a 100 strokes you are dead. Apparently the protocol is that if you get off the boat and are so exhausted that you puke you've not worked hard enough. The race the team enter is 115 strokes or roughly 250 meter. The 250 meter of pain.
Drill 11 : 50's to shore. And at 2 hours of paddling hard you want a nice warm shower and some seriously fat (sorry carbohydrate) laden food.

The spaghetti lunch on Stanley beach with fellow exhausted dragon boater was worth the effort.

If you live in HK and get the chance to be part of a dragon boat team give it a shot it looks fun although it seems like a lot of hard work weekend after weekend.

Dragon Boats all lined up in Stanley

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How not to walk the Hong Kong Trail in a day

The "Why" of walking the HK Trail

I've always been of the opinion that as a human being you should be able to wake up and say "I want to walk 50Km" or "I want to run a marathon" or whatever. Our bodies are pretty strong and so once in a while its always interesting to push yourself to see what's possible and what's not.

So with that introduction, my fad has always been walking the Hong Kong (HK) Trail in one shot. The HK Trail is a 50km trail that runs from he Peak to Big Wave Bay crossing the entire island. This blog post covers how I did it and it's a great template of to how not to do it. The story start on Sunday where feeling pretty great I packed 5 bottles of Pocari Sweat (for those not in Hong Kong, its not someone's sweat but its water with glucose and ion supplements), 3 bottles of plain water, 5 bananas, bag of walnut and almonds and the relevant maps to go with it.

How not to plan walking the trail

I thought I would be a clever boy and walk the HK trail in reverse from Big Wave Bay to the Peak. I though it would be quicker to get home. Silly me, I wouldn't do this as you're ending with an astonishing climb. Walk from marker 1 (The Peak) to marker 100 (Big Wave Bay)- it done that way for a reason!

How not to start

Catch the bus that takes you to the right destination. I caught the bus to Shek O beach allegedly via Big Wave Bay. Only the bus didn't go to Big Wave bay my starting point and I walked the 1km from Shek O Road to Big Wave Bay.

So in addition to starting the walk with a non contributory kilometre. I ended up at Big Wave Bay beach and what a wonderful day. See some of the pictures below. I asked the local shop keeper the way to the HK trail and he pointed me to the steps at the corner of the beach. Don't go there this is not where the trail starts. To my naivety I thought the step would lead to the HK trail only to realise 1300 steps later I was on the wrong trail. So now with probably 3kms wasted and the energy of a 1300 step ascent and decent back to the beach I was about to give up. But eventually I found the trail.

Climb to the top of the 1300 step at Big Wave Bay and this is what you will see - worth it if you're not about to walk 50kms

Path showing the steps - you know you are not doing the HK trail if you see this

In summary - get to the right starting point !

Section 8 - Big Wave Bay to Shek O Road

Eventually things did start to go my way and I began my walk from marker 100 counting down.

So I started walking at about 9.30am from Big Wave bay after the first our learning how not to do it. Started briskly progressing well all the way up to dragon's back following the markers as I went along

From the Dragon's Back - looking at Big Wave Bay

Front Dragon's Back - looking at Shek O 

At this stage you are doing Section 8 of the HK Trail. This is probably the best part of the trail, a thorough joy to walk this section, as the views on a clear day are unbelievable. Note, Section 8 of the HK Trail has been voted one of the best hikes in Asia. If sheer pleasure is all you are go from Cape Collinson to Shek O Road or vice-versa the rest of the section has nothing worth seeing especially if you're short of time.

Section 7 - Shek O Road to Tai Tam Reservoir

With Section 8 over in a swift couple of hours I began section 7. Descending about a 1000 steps to Stanley Bay to what is a relatively straight and easy section. This section goes from Shek O Road all the way to Tai Tam Reservoir.

The pictures below shows what you are likely to see as you venture along section 7.

Section 7 - Looking across to Stanley / Chung Hom Kok

Section 7 - Looking towards Stanley

Section 7 - A lot of the path looks like this

The paths is relatively flat in about a couple of hours you end up at Tai Tam Reservoir. So the progress so far was good as I was approaching mid-day.

Section 6 - Tai Tam to Quarry Gap

This is a nice part of HK to walk. If you have young children that Tai Tam waterworks trail is excellent. Section 6 of the HK Trail overlaps with the Tai Tam Waterworks trail. For large section the trail skirts the Tai Tam reservoir and you generally have a very nice walking environment.

The road from Tai Tam Reservoir to Quarry Gap is steep long and a relatively arduous kilometre.

Section 6 - Tai Tam Reservoir

Section 6 - Looking back at Stanley from road up to Quarry Gap

Section 5 - Quarry Gap to Wong Nai Chung Gap (The silent killer)

I lost most of my energy on this stage. After taking a break at the Quarry Gap picnic site. I started climbing the steps to Jacob's Ladder - there must be 800 to 1000 steps to the top of Mount Butler. 

Section Mount Butler - this is what you will be climbing

But you will be rewarded with some spectacular sights of the harbour. Mount Butler and Park view in my view represent the centre of HK island with view over the skyscrapers of central and the serenity of Stanley. This is something I had not appreciated despite living here in HK for a number of years.

A panorama of the view across the harbour from Mount Butler

Section 5 - Looking across the harbour to the old airport Kai Tak

Section 6 - Similar to the above but slightly different angle. You cant get enough

Form Mount Butler you go up and down relentless hills on your way to Park View. Unfortunately it takes a long time and be careful if you ever want to do this section with kids. Its a long walk and they will get tired. In my view this section drained the most energy out of me.

Section 5 - Parkview - come here

At Park view take the time to stock up on supplies - I restocked bottles of water and food. You will have no other chances. Once you're ready, follow the road down to Wong Nai Chung Gap. 

Section 5/4 - The divider

Section 4 - Wong Nai Chung to Wanchai Gap

Here I got a bit lost looking for Blacks Link but walk straight down toward Wong Nai Chung Gap and straight across the road to the bus stop and then walk toward the circle (not toward Wanchai / Causeway Bay). One of the exits to the circle is the Blacks Link. Blacks link will take you from Wong Nai Chung to Middle Road. 

A very boring and flat part of the trail unfortunately at this stage I realised that I was not going to be able to complete the whole trail during day light. So I stopped went home got my head lamp and ploughed on from middle gap.

Section 3 - Wanchai Gap to Peel Rise

Another flat and boring section of the trail - there are some nice pools of water and mini water fall of interest but a largely a trail through the woods. As night feel you would get the occasional glimpse of the Aberdeen Village through trees. At this point I was totally on my headlamp and light. Hoping the batteries would hold out on me. As without the batteries I would have to rely on my not so reliable phone. If you ever buy a headlamp make sure it Black Diamond - they are amazing and give you great range of light.

Section 2 - Peel Rise to Pokfulam Reservoir

A nice section to do at night for quite a period of this route you are looking down towards the light of Aberdeen and Pokfulam.  You're walking along the catch water similar to section 7 above. Look and admire the lights of Aberdeen and Pokfulam down below.

Section 2 - Lights of mass housing in Aberdeen

Section 2 - Looking towards Aberdeen harbour

Section 2 - Looking towards Cyberport

  

Section 1 - Pokfulam Reservoir to the Peak

As you approach the junction of section 1 and section 2 there is the temptation to go straight up to the Peak shaving a cool one hour of your trekking time. But be aware that is not the HK trail - its the cheating trail. So watch out for the small path veering off to the left. Although not the way you would want to walk during the middle of the night it's the real HK Trail. Taking you across Pokfulam and towards Harlech Road.

A very straight trail and you will be walking from marker 15 to marker 7 where Harlech Road starts. Harlech Road marks your final climb to the Peak circular walk. I wasnt in much of a mood to take picture of the HK from the Peak but here are a couple that I caught.

Section 1 - Looking down over central HK

Section 1 - looking across to the docks

Finishing it

Eventually as the Peak Circuit end you will come to market 1 and then zero and you will know you have done it.

So how long did it take me ?

Marker 100 at 9.35am
Marker 75 at 12.15pm
Marker 52 at 3.55pm (30 min break)
At Wanchai Gap 1 hours break (get my headlamp)
Marker 25 at 20.22
Market 0 at 23.20

It took me roughly 14 hours in duration. If you take the breaks out about 12 hours. I did it in October on a sunny day and I carried all my own water and food which is a bit of a pain. If you do this as part of the green power hike you can get support. If you plan to do this seriously get a camelbak pack so you can carry water and sip it at intervals. No point gulping down water because you are thirsty the body doesn't seem to absorb it.

Watch your nipples

A strangle comment to finish on but given you are going to be walking long period of the day your clothes will be wet. This plays havoc on area of friction like nipple (rubbing against shirts) and underwear against your thighs and lastly socks. Apparently you are meant to use vaseline to prevent this. If you don't you will wake up with sore nipples and nether regions the next day only to realise you walk all 50km of the HK Trail.


Disclaimer - I walked with a crappy Shenzhen phone hence night photo's arent up to scratch

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