Monkey Business

I was up at 6am on Saturday morning. Very Kind-Hearted Friend once again dragged herself out of bed to accompany and encourage me on this crazy quest of mine. On the trail by 7:45 and seeing some of the most varied and distinct parts of Hong Kong. We started in Yau Tong village, which is a fishing village just off of Hong Kong harbour on Kowloon side. Tiny lean-tos and shacks hide some of HK's great seafood spots. As VKHF said, "This is where I thought I was moving when I signed up for China."

Then up the stairs. I am convinced that Wilson is a bad British word for step. Stairs stairs and more stairs. 18kms of stairs with 7kgs on my back. BLECK. But I made some discoveries which include- Pocari Sweat and the proper functioning of my water bladder. Apparently if you use your teeth it is much easier to get the water out. Who knew...

We wandered past hillside farms in the valley that could have easily been in Laos or Cambodia. Animal statues on the side of the trail. Old ladies doing Tai Chi on mountain perches. Pretty peaceful.

After the hills, I decided to press on solo for an additional 8kms of easy rambling- read water catchments. This part of the hike went above Shatin in the hills. Halfway through the trail I came across a family of monkeys sitting in the middle of the trail. They were adorable, picking the flies out of each others' hair and eating berries. As I came upon the trail they scampered off into the woods. I walked a little further on and then looked up into the trees and realized that they were full of monkeys. Literally there were hundreds of them. The trail was scattered with monkey poop and berry remnants.

As I came around a corner, a baby monkey popped on the trail not more than three feet in front of me. Mama charged right out of the woods after me. I ran shrieking and fortunately managed to escape being bitten or clawed (without having to jump into the water catchment). I spent that last 2kms of the hike avoiding monkey poop and trying to convince the monkeys to get out of my way...

There's no place like Hong Kong Island...