LIFE UNLEASHED

After coming from a 3^rdWorld Island (Chuuk) there was nothing more shocking and comfortable then to slip into super civilized Hong Kong life.  We would actually slip into it a little further than we thought because a political demonstration shut down Bangkok airport , which was our intended destination.  Well, if you are going to get stuck someplace it might as well be Hong Kong!  HK has managed to stave off impending Chinese assimilation and remain a bright star of fine dining, entertainment, shopping  and…hiking!  All made even better by having our good friend Pam’s cousin Navin put us up in his incredible condominium overlooking the city. 

Food wise Kong Kong is a diner’s delight - from the lowliest street vendor to Michelin rated restaurants the food is incredible.  We gorged ourselves on steaming prawn dumplings, pork buns, assorted Dim Sums, spicy Sichuan stir fries and seafood laced with chilli.  We also did something that no person should culinarily (Is that a word?) ever do. We went out for a delicious Peking duck.  (That’s not it - everyone should do that!)  If you have never tried Peking duck you should stop reading this and go out and have one.  They are artery cloggingly good.  What you shouldn’t do (and we did) is follow it up the next night with a heart stopping meal of goose!!! 

Luckly, we had a plan in mind to whittle (wattle) down the fatty layer we had so gluttonously wrapped around our hearts - we were going to hike the Dragon’s Back!  A vigorous hike of ups and downs along Hong Kong’s craggy mountainous spine.  It turned out to be beautiful hike with awesome views but an absolute cakewalk(no-pun intended) on the cardio system.  They cut a path flat along the side carefully avoiding any of the ups and downs that might make our heart rates even register through their new waterfowl coated exteriors.  That’s when Navin (our kind host) mentioned that for a work out we should really be doing the Twin Peaks/ !000 Steps (of death) hike. It was a tough hike.  There was more like 1500 steps all totalled but again this hike had incredible views of beaches, rolling hills and small suburbs to make it all worthwhile.  Who new that Hong Kong’s best kept secret was hiking!!!

Authors note - Navin was mentally deleted from our Facebook friends list at about step 823 of the Twin Peaks / 1000 Steps.