Two Hikes in One Week

Today Carly and I Hiked yet another trail, this one was called Dragon's Back.  It was about 4.5 kilometers, and hugged the mountain ridge that overlooked Shek-O Beach, Stanley Bay, and Big Wave Beach.  It was great, hot lots of walking, but really great views.

After we were done with the hike we had a choice to go to Shek-O Beach, or down this little stairway trial to Tei Wan Village, and I s'pose you could call it a beach. So of course, why wouldn't we hike down about a million stairs to a little beach that we had no idea if it had drinks or food at the destination.  So we finally got down to the bottom of the stairs and there was actually a nice little beach with tons of sailing boats on it that were waiting to be taken out.

We also found a "hut" that was called a restaurant which we indulged in coca colas and some noodles.  I don't really understand where the food came from, or how they made it, but I ate it happily since I had just hiked my butt off.  After this we found ourselves some nice beach chairs and took a little nap.  Not to bad of a day if I do say so myself.
And the finish the day up we had Steaks at Tequila Jack's, delicious!

Oh and on a side note, I was working out in the gym the other day, and a little bald headed Asian kid introduces himself to me as Tiger.  He is the captain of the rugby team and asked me if I had ever played rugby before, I answered with "no, but I played American Football so sign me up!"  So this past Friday was my first Rugby practice, and our first game is this coming Saturday, one week.  It should be some real fun!

till Later,

clint

I'm Back on Board with Bloggin!

Whats Up!
Today i got my cardio in!  I went to Ng Tung Chai village and hiked up a mountain to see four different waterfalls.  It was amazing!  It was in the New Territories, which is north of Kowloon up the Blue Line, meaning that there are no sky scrapers, no traffic, and Carly and I were the only white people to be found for miles! Hahaha, needless to say we got a few stares, especially due to my tank top with an Asian dragon and my bandanna to really make me look intimidating. but it was needed.  i had no idea that getting into this it was going to be a workout that had my quads shaking by the end of the trip.  Oh well, the work was definitely worth the amazing views and the nice serene environment that surrounded them.
We took the MTR (subway) to the stop at Tai Po market, then from there took a cab, which i had to show a map to because he did not understand any English.  We finally arrived at the village center, and after walking in a circle and looking like total idiots, the local family pointed to us, then said "wattah fahhh" and pointed to a tiny little concrete path.  So up we headed.  We came to the first waterfall, and I saw a rock that i had to climb, so i did, and the locals said to Cary "I'm afwaid fow him."  but it was great!  everyone there took my picture cause they were too chicken to the climbing part. :-)

Then we continued on to the next three waterfalls, each one getting progressively higher and higher up this mountain.  Finally after the fourth one we head back to the village.  This is where we found a "shop" or to everyone else in the world a little home with cold drinks and food if you fancied. We re-hydrated and caught a bus back to the MTR.
So we got off the bus, and at this point we were starving, into the Tai Wo Plaza we headed in search of some food to mow.  We ended up being drawn into a Chinese Restaurant, believe it or not, and there were no English menus, and none of the waiters spoke English.  So whats the logical thing to do?  Ask EVERYONE in the restaurant if they know English. hahaha. Lucky for us a man sitting alone, introduced himself as Jimmy, this guy was born and raised in Hong Kong btw.  So we had Jimmy order our dinner for us! hahaha it was the coolest/weirdest thing ever.  So we dined on Chicken, Grupper with broccoli (which Jimmy called cauliflower), and Grupper Stomach with Bitter cucumber.  it was all delicious!  Jimmy was also two tall boys of Blue Girl and a Guinness foreign stout deep into his dinner, just to make it more interesting.  So needless to say after all this we headed home.
Day=Success!

Till Later,
clint  

P.S Check out all the pictures at my Picasa Albums.  Click the thumbnails at the top of the homepage of my blog. :-)

Alright its about time I Updated This

Hello everyone,
I have been MIA for quite some time now, and to be honest it is probably because I have gotten comfortable with Hong Kong and everyday things like bargaining at the markets, getting pictures taken of me, and not being able to understand anyone are all normal occurrences now.
Well since I last checked in I have been exploring Hong Kong and I also made a trip to Beijing with Carly and her family.  Beijing was interesting to say the least, the city itself was drab, and the smog was unbearable.  But on the other hand the Great Wall, the forbidden city, and the tourist spots we saw were really amazing.  Check out my Picasa account and Facebook to check out some really amazing pictures.
I have also been working out at the gym a lot, and trying to get into a good shape before coming home, which I find is quite difficult due to the massive amounts of rice and low intake of protein over here.  So needless to say I am looking forward to coming home to good ole America and having a nice big steak. :-)
This past weekend I actually attended the Rugby Sevens on Friday, which was really awesome.  It was the first rugby match I have ever seen and i actually throughly enjoyed the sport.  America was well represented by me and Pat, sporting an American flag as a cape.  
Really the best way to get an idea of what I have been doing is to check out my pictures, because they do a much better job at describing what I have been up to better then I.   

Till Later,
clint

Chinese New Year...

So I forgot to tell everyone about this, so technically this is out of chronological order in relation to blog posts, but I have to tell you.  Chinese New Year is not fun.  Thats right, you heard me!  So Thursday night they do a parade, but there are so many people that there is no possible way to see any of what is in the parade, even being six feet tall I cant compete with the wall of ten deep with little kids on their shoulders and the array of flash bulbs.  So thats fine right, a parade,k whatever, so I was looking forward to the fireworks show on Friday night, I got there an hour early!  We took the MTR there to TST and were directed by police and swarms of people and orange tape on were to go.  So we did, and we picked out a good spot, and held our ground.  So it turns eight o'clock and we hear the fireworks start, and we look in the direction and bam, SKYSCRAPER and a BRIDGE blocking our view entirely.  and by now there are only about five billion people crowded around so there was no relocating.  Why would they direct us to a spot that they knew we wouldn't be able to see the show?  Riddle me that!  So thats why me and pat went to the beach today, to relax and celebrate the new years America style, with our toes in the water ass in the sand and PBR in hand.
till later,
Clint

Shek O Beach, No not Shrek

Soooooo, its been awhile.
But thats good, cuz that means Ive been busy here.  So today me and Pat went to this beach called Shek-O Island.  No its not called shrek, it is called Shek-O Beach.  It is on the southeast side of Hong Kong Island and we had to take about half an hour of trains, and a fifteen minute bus ride through mountains and stuff in order to get there.  But once we got there it was amazing!  See below...

So as you can see it was backdropped by lush green mountains and surrounded by rock formations and cliffs on either side.  To get a real good feel check out my picasa web album.  It was a perfect day to get outside, it was about 70 degrees, sunny, slight breeze, and very few people.  Overall I would call it a success, so much so that we are thinking about going back tomorrow.  I will update you on how that goes, we are thinking bout going to Stanley, it is a little more south.

till later, 

Clint

    

Plans for the Week

So after going to Lantau Island and exploring it me and Pat got the idea to hike up to the top instead of taking the cable car.  I think we are going to get an early start tomorrow am and trek our way down there on the MTR, and then proceed to hike our way along the bottom of the cable car route.  or something like that.  The cable car was pretty spectacular, but hiking up it and then maybe a few trails once we get there would be pretty awesome.  So as of right now we are planning on doing that, but hell, we could change our minds and go see something else tomorrow!  As far as the rest of th week I have no idea what is gong to happen.  Thursday Carly is coming back, so I'm sure her and the Syracuse group will want to go out maybe Friday night or Saturday.  And then the next week is Chinese New Year. Which should be awesome!  I think that we might get a group together and make a day or two trip up to Macau, do some gambling, maybe buy sum good ole stogies while I'm there too.  Ill keep you updated, no worries.  And wish us luck if we end up hiking tomorrow.
Till Later,
Clint