Moo

I like the hike from Mui Wo to Pui O.  It's a good length, with some challenging parts and most importantly of all, the lovely payoff at the end of stunning views and some beach opportunities.

It had been a few years since I had first done this hike with Ed.  It was a strange feeling to be doing this hike now.  Ed was gone, back to France, but I was still here and now quite a different person to what I was back then.  I remembered that halfway through that first hike with Ed, I had to tap out as I was so unfit.  I was much better now and powered through the whole walk with only a few brief stops to rehydrate.

When we got to Pui O, everything was quiet.  It was too hot for there to be much outside activity, but we were lucky enough to see some of the Lantau water buffalo wandering around happily eating the grass.  I showed the pictures to one of my friends and she immediately thought they looked like some amalgamation between cow and rhino.

The walk from Mui Wo to Pui O had been long enough for me.  Given the heat, I didn't want to go any further on foot.  We grabbed the first cab we saw and went straight for the beachside restaurants at Cheung Sha.  These restaurants on the beach are some of my favourite in Hong Kong.  Sitting along side the water, people move in and out of the water, to and from the tables, as they enjoy their days with food and drink.  It is a lovely lifestyle that is so close to the business of Hong Kong.

With all of the coronavirus restrictions in Hong Kong, the beach was "closed", but all this seemed to mean was some ineffective tape which had been stretched across a small section of the beach which would have otherwise been supervised by the lifeguards.

Instead, people just swam to the side.  The water was warm, almost bath like, when I jumped in to wash off the sweat and dirt of the hike.

Oink oink oink

I'm working from home a couple of days a week these days.  I find it to be a good balance between the social interaction of going into work and the additional freedom of being able to have a bit more time to myself.

Others were now in full work from home and going a little bit stir crazy.

On those days when I was working from home,  took advantage of the extra time afforded to me and work up early to join some friends on a short hike.

We went up into the hills behind Quarry Bay.  I'm constantly amazed by how accessible the city of Hong Kong is to nature.  It is something I have tried to embrace more the longer I live here.

It's the middle of summer in Hong Kong, so during the day it is almost unbearably hot, but early in the morning it's far more comfortable.  It still feels humid, but the sun isn't up yet and the temperatures are a bit lower.  It's a nice walk through the hills and we normally end at a mountain stream.  We cool off a bit in the waters, as further upstream we see other morning hikers collecting fresh water for their daily tea.  There is something incredibly peaceful about the whole scene and the collection of different people enjoying it.

As we started walking back down the mountain, we came across the hilarious sight of three sleeping wild pigs.  Living in Hong Kong has made these animals so tame that they no longer seemed to care at all about hiding or protecting themselves.  Instead, they happily slept in the open, snoring and farting for the whole world.

Back in Quarry Bay, we completed our excursion with a quick breakfast at a local cha chaan teng.  The congee, noodles and fried dough sticks were oily and satisfying.

I've been in Hong Kong for a few years now and I'm feeling more and more local.  I feel like I'm moving past the mere expat phase of my time here and becoming increasingly immersed into what life is like here for most others.