Went To Smell The Flowers

Thumbing through the schedule, I realized I wouldn't be able to get out to the coast or the islands. I'd have loved to see the places dimsumdolly swears by. Still, I was determined to shuffle stuff, swop certain activities to do some walking. It'd be a total waste if I didn't get out to at least one trail in this awesome weather. Dumped the camera (too heavy), suited up, grabbed a bottle of water and the windbreaker and it was off to an easy stroll along the Dragon's Back at Shek O. It's an urban trail. No way to get lost. It was refreshing walking without a backpack. Essentials went into the pockets.

Before getting onto the trail proper, we passed by many cemeteries that I oohed and ahhed over because of the grandeur of the tombs and how they've been cut into the hillside. Then we rounded to the back of the Sai Wan War Memorial and Cemetery that's the resting place of many British soldiers who gave their lives for the cause in World War II. I'm not completely fascinated because their headstones are not the intricate Chinese types. The view of the sea is always breathtaking. The air was crisp. There's something soothing about looking to the horizon from a height, into and across the sea, the miniscule buildings nestled amidst greenery. Today, there were paragliders, and I was insanely jealous that I didn't have the guts to do that. Bah.

This is precisely what I like about Hong Kong. It's an urban sprawl of 7.06 million on 1076km² of land area, and it's blessed with natural scenic trails (typhoons are a minor inconvenience) for jaded humans to get away from whenever needed. It's such a competitive city, yet out in the islands and the coastal regions, there's a palpable slowing down of the pace of life. There're pockets of places that have been locked in time. There's the inclination to stop and smell the flowers.