Update 10 - from Discovery Bay to Mui Wo

It’s been a good second week back, starting with a splash of redundancy money spent on a new 42” Philips LCD screen (Dutch redundancy money, spent on Dutch technology – seemed fair – eh Meint?), double sofa bed for the spare room ready for the impending visit of Carlo and Vee for 17 days from 2nd Feb and finally a wardrobe for ourselves – the work suits, shirts and ties are making me feel uneasy – so I need to shut them away…

We’ve seen a couple of good films this week, the Guy Richie directed Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr as Holmes and Jude Law as Watson – they engage in a battle of wits and brawn with a nemesis whose plot is a threat to all of England, it’s a brilliant dark alternative Holmes film. Secondly we saw Avatar in 3D on an Imax screen – WOW, for the 1st 5-10 minutes I felt sick watching it given that you feel like you’re almost in the film yourself which has a gigantic scale, as far as your periphery vision can see and also that for the opening sequences you are floating in space. Anyway that subsided after a short while and it was a big rollercoaster from there on in. Local papers in HK have reported that people felt suicidal coming out of the film as their expectations of life after this could never be the same or realised. We wouldn’t go that far, but thought it was an outstanding film and a great idea and were buzzing as we left the cinema for Ikea in Causeway Bay (HMV first ;o)) – oh what a life we lead!

We last visited Discovery Bay in 2005 and it's changed for the better

Scrubbed up nicely, but a lot more flats have been built

Clear instructions for our walk back home

On the exercise front we took the boat from Mui Wo to Discovery Bay and walked back along the coast, up the hills and past the Trappist monastery being careful not to make any noise. From the top of the hills you have a great view over Disco Bay, Peng Chau, Disneyland (HK$4.4B losses over last 3 years – as reported this week), Hong Kong Island and a bunch of other islands we don’t have names for yet on one side. On the other side glorious views of Mui Wo prison, Silvermine Bay, Mui Wo, Luk Tei Tong and Tai Tei Tong. The walk took 2 hours as stated in my ‘The Leisurely Hiker’s Guide to Hong Kong’ book. There is a ‘The Serious Hiker’s Guide to Hong Kong’ book also from the same author, but as we walk in shorts and trainers as opposed to plus fours and hiking boots and only carry a small rucksack with a bottle of water and a newspaper in it as opposed to a full back pack life support system – we don’t have the right to full ‘serious’ status – thank God for that!

Is Stef suitably dressed for 'serious' hiking?

This awning is built over the path of the walk - so you walk through it!

You can't park there mate!

The Trappist Monsastary - the only one left in China sshhh...

Bridge to the church built in the year of my birth - yes 1987

The church at the monastary - no pictures please.. 

Bamboo forest - we love 'em! 

           Corr i'm kn@ackered Stef..view of Peng Chau island

The islands currently unknown to us..lets say A and B

    Thinks..pity they're not covered in snow and we have our ski gear on..

Centre Silver river leading towards Luk tei Tong and Silvermine Bay

Mui Wo ferry pier (boats to HK Central 30mins) with prison on hill above

Bad news today, my brother texted me from the Mui Wo ferry pier, he read in this morning’s South China Morning Post that The Killers have cancelled their Friday gig at the Asia Arena due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’ – big shame, we’ll get our redundancy money back, but that’s not the point, it’s there to be frittered on live bands, entertainment and travel – big set-back! On the 3^rd Feb we start our next excursion, 9 days in China with Carlo and Vee. We’ve booked the flights, from here to Beijing (5 days in the capital), flight down to Xian (2 days with the Terracotta Army – we won’t count them, we’ll take their word for it that there are 9,500+), flight from Xian to Guilin (Li River and Yulong river cruises and the Yangshou countryside) and finally flights back to Honkers on 12^th Feb. The 13^th Feb is Chinese New Year’s Eve and the 14^th marks our wedding anniversary, oh and the beginning of the year of the Tiger!  Next week we'll do some more walks and shimmy around Hong Kong..   

 *Island A is Chau Kung To (Sunshine Island) and Island B is Hei Ling Chau