Walking Toward Mount Davis

     If you set off to the east from where we live on Hong Kong Island and follow the harbor you'll come to the Central district,  where the buzz of business is everywhere.  Last Monday afternoon I set off in the opposite direction, walking toward Mount Davis and the westernmost part of Hong Kong Island, a much more serene place than Central.
     Before serenity, though, there first was some noisy pageantry a block away from our apartment.  As I neared the first street crossing I heard a fast ratta-tat-tat drumbeat and some clanging cymbals. A few steps further on I saw a slightly chaotic procession of mostly young men and boys in red and gold silk costumes, led by an energetic fellow prancing and weaving about in a huge elaborate dragon costume.  In the photo the dragon is toward the front of the procession, partly obscured by the guy pulling the drum.  At the time I thought this was some kind of Chinese New Year procession.

     A few days later Terry mentioned this very same procession.  He had come home shortly after I left to go on my walk and saw the spectacle a few minutes after I'd already moved on.  He said that he'd seen a couple processions like this before.  His understanding is that this was some sort of neighborhood association that came to serenade a new business that's just opened up.
     Moving on from the parade, it took about a half-hour to walk out of the retail areas around us and past apartment buildings, a couple schools, a day care center for elderly people, a couple warehouses, and the Ka Wai Man Road Garden.  I walked up lots of steps to get  into this pleasant park with abundant shade, lots of singing birds and a whiff of some floral fragrance.  Several groups of elderly men were at tables under an arcade playing mahjong and others were reading.  I checked out the Fitness Corner for Elderly in this park, which featured two bright green mushroom shapes the size of steering wheels with posted directions for placing your hands on them and rotating them to get a shoulder workout.  One more feature for the elderly:  there was a long zig zagging wheelchair ramp to get up the hill into the park.

     Soon buildings gave way to trees on both sides of the road.  After a few more minutes of climbing up Victoria Road there was a fantastic view of the water from the west side of Hong Kong Island.  This is  only a half-hour's walk from our apartment.
     Hong Kong is comprised of over 250 islands plus the peninsula that connects it to mainland China (Kowloon and the New Territories are on the peninsula).  Lantau is the largest island in terms of area, and it's where the airport is located.  Hong Kong Island where we live is the second largest island.  Here in the photo you can see 3 more islands, all quite small.  You can take ferries or hire boats for outings to some of the larger outlying islands.