Hong Kong Fall

Fall weather has arrived in HK - the oppressive humidity and heat of the summer has melted away, the typhoons and thunderstorms have gone into hiding, and the weather is constantly warm and breezy. October and November are my favorite months in HK - perfect weather for al fresco dinners, hiking, walking around. These are the months when I think I could live in HK...maybe not forever, but for a long while. 

This morning I went hiking with L to the "Twins" (which is a misnomer), aka the "Thousand Steps"(also a misnomer). The Twins take you from the area just above Wanchai across THREE (not two) mountains to get to the complete other side of the island. The thousand steps only refer to the steps up on the second mountain - they don't include any of the steps from the first mountain (which probably comes to about 1800 including the ascent/descent), or the steps down the second mountain, or the steps up/down the final mountain. All in all, the name is very misleading. It should be called the "Triplets" or the "6000 steps." I suppose that would scare people away though, which I think is maybe the intention. By the end of the descent from the second mountain, you are so beat, but then you realize that wait, there's a THIRD mountain! LIARS!! And at that point you're stuck in a valley between two mountains with no way out but to either go back or go forward. By the end of it, your knees are shaking, you can finally feel your glutes again, your quads are tight and the salt from your sweat is crusting all over your body. In other words, it's awesome.

It's also a great excuse to then spend the rest of the afternoon sitting outside, eating and drinking in Stanley, the "beach town" of Hong Kong - as close as you're going to get to Manhattan Beach or Malibu. So L and I first went to a bakery cafe to have brunch, which was pitifully bad. Then, since neither our palates nor stomachs were satisfied from the awful food, we went to an al fresco Italian/Thai/Indian bar/restaurant that overlooks the water. Although in general I think that no self-respecting food establishment should try to sell you a mix of Italian/Thai/Indian food, the food and drink here was surprisingly good. And even better - a carafe of very decent cabernet sauvignon (Poppy Hills, Australia) was only about US$8 - crazy cheap no matter how you cut it. So we sat and ate our second brunch within 45 minutes. 80 degrees, a cool breeze in the air, an outdoor table overlooking the Stanley pier and the glistening ocean, and a carafe of wine...life could be worse.