* from roughing it to glamming up *
it's been a weekend of fun fun fun!
it started with friday, then end of my busiest week since school started. i had my first exam in 11 years (i only wrote papers from second year on in my undergrad) and a presentation to give. but the weekend was just starting and there was much more awaiting me. derek, derek cheng, gordon and i set out with all the tents and food to sai kung. en route, we encountered the mtr disco train... doo doo do-do doo do-do doo doooo.
2 mtr trains, a minibus, a taxi, and 2 hours of strenuous hiking in the dark later (including getting lost in a marsh), we arrived at our destination: dai long wan. but it wasn't over. we had to set up the tents in the dark, find firewood in the dark, and then get the fire going. but the s'mores and shooting stars made it all worth it.
this is where we set up. not bad huh? the sand on the beach was the finest i've ever seen in hk. in fact, it reminded me of bali or hawai'i. now that's a rarity in hk. gordon and gabe slept on the tarp outside, and woke up at 5am to find more firewood. they managed to rekindle last night's ambers and the rest of us woke up to a nice breakfast fire :) we had sausages, granola bars, fruit, and more s'mores.
some of the boys decided to play baywatch, while some of the girls took an early morning nap ;)
i can see why it's called 'big wave bay' and how dave nearly drowned the last time they came camping here. hehe. seriously, i was slightly surprised by how many people there were on saturday. we found out there was another group camping at the other end of the beach, and there was a group of about 10 people learning to surf, and another 8 or so different people hiking past us. by the time we decided it was time to go (we had eaten most of the food, gotten sunburnt, and exhausted all possible ways of frolicking on the beach), we had seen at least 20 other people on the beach.
we packed it all up and hiked a short distance to the neighboring beach and village, the one that everyone goes to. there was an organized beach clean up and lots of gweilos with garbage bags. after some investigating and negotiating, we managed to get two large speedboats to take us back to civilization.
if we didn't have enough excitement on the hike going in, we certainly did going out! it was the speedboat ride of death, let me tell you! imagine riding 'magic mountain' on water with no seatbelt, and that's only a fraction of what our 40 minute boat ride was like.
they may look innocent when they're sitting in the shallows of the beach, but once they got going, we were all screaming for our lives. another bus, another minibus, and we finally got back to causeway bay, 25 hours after we left central the night before.
so what else was happening? ben & suki's wedding, that's what! i had class at 2pm, so i missed half the ceremony, but the reception was the piece de resistence. next time i host a banquet, it's gonna be at the western market!
it was so beautiful and old world, and of course ben & suki looked amazing! even john snelgrove and ben wong singing mandarin love songs doesn't beat that. for more of the photos, go to my flickr.
and to top it all off? a day off! yippeeeee.
it's been a weekend of fun fun fun!
it started with friday, then end of my busiest week since school started. i had my first exam in 11 years (i only wrote papers from second year on in my undergrad) and a presentation to give. but the weekend was just starting and there was much more awaiting me. derek, derek cheng, gordon and i set out with all the tents and food to sai kung. en route, we encountered the mtr disco train... doo doo do-do doo do-do doo doooo.
2 mtr trains, a minibus, a taxi, and 2 hours of strenuous hiking in the dark later (including getting lost in a marsh), we arrived at our destination: dai long wan. but it wasn't over. we had to set up the tents in the dark, find firewood in the dark, and then get the fire going. but the s'mores and shooting stars made it all worth it.
this is where we set up. not bad huh? the sand on the beach was the finest i've ever seen in hk. in fact, it reminded me of bali or hawai'i. now that's a rarity in hk. gordon and gabe slept on the tarp outside, and woke up at 5am to find more firewood. they managed to rekindle last night's ambers and the rest of us woke up to a nice breakfast fire :) we had sausages, granola bars, fruit, and more s'mores.
some of the boys decided to play baywatch, while some of the girls took an early morning nap ;)
i can see why it's called 'big wave bay' and how dave nearly drowned the last time they came camping here. hehe. seriously, i was slightly surprised by how many people there were on saturday. we found out there was another group camping at the other end of the beach, and there was a group of about 10 people learning to surf, and another 8 or so different people hiking past us. by the time we decided it was time to go (we had eaten most of the food, gotten sunburnt, and exhausted all possible ways of frolicking on the beach), we had seen at least 20 other people on the beach.we packed it all up and hiked a short distance to the neighboring beach and village, the one that everyone goes to. there was an organized beach clean up and lots of gweilos with garbage bags. after some investigating and negotiating, we managed to get two large speedboats to take us back to civilization.
if we didn't have enough excitement on the hike going in, we certainly did going out! it was the speedboat ride of death, let me tell you! imagine riding 'magic mountain' on water with no seatbelt, and that's only a fraction of what our 40 minute boat ride was like.
they may look innocent when they're sitting in the shallows of the beach, but once they got going, we were all screaming for our lives. another bus, another minibus, and we finally got back to causeway bay, 25 hours after we left central the night before.
so what else was happening? ben & suki's wedding, that's what! i had class at 2pm, so i missed half the ceremony, but the reception was the piece de resistence. next time i host a banquet, it's gonna be at the western market!
it was so beautiful and old world, and of course ben & suki looked amazing! even john snelgrove and ben wong singing mandarin love songs doesn't beat that. for more of the photos, go to my flickr.
and to top it all off? a day off! yippeeeee.
posted by jana* at 2:00 PM
