Hallow, lunch is ready.

(Photo Taken – Our Halloween Lunch – Thanks to Chef Bobo, we were served “Spidergetti” and “Red Devil Pepper”.)

A Day @ Po Toi Island

The cool season is here. Blue sky, warm sun and cool breeze. This is the perfect time to go trekking and island-hopping. We decided to explore Po Toi Island today.

Po Toi Island (located south of Stanley) is a pretty quiet place – ideal for those who love wilderness and nature. We took a 20-minute ferry (HKD40 Return) from Blake’s Pier (at Stanley Market). The island houses a very small population so do not expect a lot of shops and restaurants like the Tai-O or Cheung Chau Island. There is a seafood restaurant near the pier but it closes at 5:30pm. It is advisable to bring your own snacks and drinks for I didn’t see any drink stalls on the island. There is no road signs inland to guide you where to go. We have to explore our way to find the hiking tracks.

According to the websites, Po Toi is more well known for its 2000-year old wall cravings, rock formations and haunted house. Like other ancient wall cravings in Hong Kong, these monuments are usually very small and faint. No one knows exactly who made these cravings and why. The hiking tracks are narrow, rugged and “wild”. It seems like very few visitors come here to hike. Tall grasses overgrown on both sides of the tracks. I have to use a bamboo stick to “open” the path ahead. We didn’t have time to explore the entire island as the last ferry leaves at 6pm. Elkan was disappointed that he didn’t do much “rock-climbing”. Well, at least the sunset view was breathtakingly beautiful.

8:05pm on Star Ferry

(Photo Taken:  8:05pm, On board of the Star Ferry, in between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island – This is the best time to board the Star Ferry. You get to see the laser light-show on both sides of Hong Kong.)

Halloween @ Disneyland

For some “boo-boo” reason, this is our 2nd trip to Disneyland in three days. Our first visit (on Wednesday night) was definitely more shocking and frightening – compared with what we went through tonight. You see, Halloween Nights only operate on Thursdays – Sundays. We were here on Wednesday night at 7pm (we rushed all the way on a HKD270-cab-fare only to find out that park was closing in 30 minutes). You can imagine the shock on our face when the ticket counter broke the news to us. The journey home was unbelievable painful and demoralising.

Finally, we returned tonight to redeem ourselves and the promise we made to Elkan – that we will bring him back to Disneyland before he flies back to Singapore.  At 17-degree, it was pretty chilly but comfortable. Felicia and Elkan were here from 4pm to 12am! It was quite a different experience to roam the park at night without the big crowd. We were one of the last few wandering beings in the park… (Thankfully, we managed to take the last cab out of this remote place.)  Disneyland is certainly more “Halloween-kid-friendly” than Ocean Park. At least, the English-speaking “ghosts” here are more polite and less rowdy. Really, who’s afraid of a cartoon ghost like Mickey and Snow White?

Illegal Immigrants Swimmers?

Felicia shook me up from my lazy Sunday morning sleep with her unusual exclamatory expression. “I thought it was a big fish but it looks like someone swimming out there in the sea! No, there are 3 of them!” Swimmers in these waters? No one in the right mind will do that. First, it is a busy shipping line, it is like jogging in the middle of an expressway (you will be extremely lucky if none of these boats hit you). Second, it is extremely risky to swim in these toxic waters. It is filled with raw sewage and chemical effluent. Lastly, if the first 2 reasons didn’t kill you – the strong unstable water current will drag you under. And even if you survive all the 3 risks, it is still illegal to swim in these waters. (Strange enough, the Police boat that went past 100m away didn’t spot them!)

I took out my “paparazzi lens” and zoomed in to the spot where Felicia pointed. There were really 3 swimmers out there. One of them seemed having trouble swimming and he was threading water for about 5 minutes. After a good 10-minute sighting, we lost sight of them as they swam behind the blocks of apartments.