It has been nine weeks of constant eating and I feel I am starting to pay the price. With this in mind what better to do than some exercise and to tick something off the HK bucket list. This Saturday I did Dragons Back hike. This hike is popular to local and visiting guests as you get 360 views of the ocean and seaside towns, whilst trekking through Hong Kong bush. Georgia and I set off early in the morning to beat the heat plus apparent rain on the way. Instead of taking a mini bus to the start of the hike, we decided to walk an extra 30-40 minutes. Within this time we passed through a graveyard that littered the side of the hills. Tombstone after tombstone, this place was packed. According to Georgia when you buy your spot at the graveyard, you only have it for 50 years before you are dug up and replaced with a new body. This makes complete sense as just by going on the MTR every morning, the amount of people in such a small space is ridiculous. Hong Kong's population is 7.8 million with the land mass of 1,106 km². If we compare this to New Zealand, we have a smaller population of 4.7 million yet with the land mass of 268,021 km². That is over 200x bigger!! Goes to show this is probably their only option of dealing with this amount of people in such a small space. Anyways once we got through the graveyard the hike began. People of all ages were scattered along the path soaking up the incredible views and burning off last nights dinner. The trek took us around 2 hours to complete. We wandered around the hillsides getting lost in Hong Kong's natural beauty. Before coming here I would not have picked that Hong Kong had so much greenery and wild life. Beg to differ. We finally made it to the end which popped out on the side of the road. We caught a mini bus to the local town of Shek O. This sleepy seaside village was littered with beach stores, local eating places and many visitors. We explored the town until we could go no further and decided to eat at a Thai restaurant. The original plan was to spend the rest of the day lounging at the local beach, yet with a threatening sky and high chance of rain we didn't take any chances and headed home. The remainder of the weekend was spent relaxing and planning/booking upcoming travel. This internship opportunity lined up perfectly with our 6 week break so I have decided to make the most of my time off. I have decided to explore Asia for 5 extra weeks after we finish in Hong Kong, where I will be visiting Vietnam, Macau, Japan and Thailand! I am super excited to explore and immerse myself in these different cultures and tick off places on the bucket list. This internship opportunity isn't just working as designer in a firm but has allowed me to develop as a global citizen.
Dragons Back Hike