Walk to the Park

Blaine found a park a few blocks away, that he goes for his walk in on the weekends.  He finds that the walk back and forth to school each day plus the stairs are enough of a workout during the week, so come along for a walk to the park.

He starts here in our building on the ground floor parking lot.  Go to the far end, turn left past two more towers and you're outside.

This is how they build here.  The long bamboo poles are tied together with leather strips and a green material is put over top.  The high rises are done the same way.  Imagine being that high up with bamboo scaffolding!

Once you cross the street out of our place you can take this alley way short cut.  Not the prettiest but safe even at night and faster.  The building they are working on is the Park n Shop we go to for groceries.

Down the street past the flower shop.  Cut flowers don't last too long here but they have some pretty ones, and are very cheap.

You see motorcycles everywhere.  They are allowed to go in and out of traffic, between cars and buses whenever they like.  Don't know why you don't see them splattered all over the place. Hope the boys never get one here.

Bridge crossing the highway.

Looking from the bridge into the Kai Tac Tunnel . Sky Tower is the big one at the back.

Looking from the bridge into the park.

Entrance to the park.  We live in the To Kwa Wan area in the district of Kowloon. There are three district in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and New Territories.

Walking path around the basketball courts.

Blaine says there are some intense basketball games always going on.

Not many sitting in the bleachers!  Sky Tower is in the background.  We live in the one farthest to the right.   As you can see it is an L shape and the courtyard and swimming pool is in the center.  Even though we are in tower 7 there are really only 6 as the number four is unlucky.

Other side of the walking path.

There are a lot of sport centers here because no one has their own yard or grass like at home.  Essentially you sleep in your home and do most things out, like recreation, eating out, visiting at restaurants, because you just don't have the space in your house.

This is a bunch of  people doing Tai Chi, which is very popular with the older set.  It was a video but it won't play on this blog.  They play Chinese music to move to.  Kind of neat.  There are some who do it in our courtyard every morning.  Might have to join them!! Wouldn't that be some sight!

Other side of the track.

This was another video of some ladies playing badminton.  Mostly just hitting back an forth.  Quit often we see kids playing in the courtyard and there is an actual badminton court in the amenities building.

You see these cleaning people every where.  If you are on welfare here you work every day doing street clean up and live in awful looking buildings (at least from the outside) can't imagine that the inside would be too great.  Buildings here tend to look weathered and worn relatively fast.  I don't know if its because of the pollution or weather, but the old ones really look sad.

 Heading home across the bridge.

Start of our outdoor market.

Across the corner from the previous pic is the meat market. Pork chop anyone?

The rest of the market where they are just setting up for the day.  There are little shops behind these stalls.

The smaller building is a hotel which was finished last year.  Sky Tower is behind it.  They are supposed to have a good western type restaurant in it.  Might have to go sometime.

Turn left at the hotel and you have a street of car and glass shops.  John K could set up shop here!!  Not open at this time of day.  Everything but the markets open late and stay late.

Home sweet Home.  One of the other teachers was over for supper the other night, and he was standing on the balcony and commented about us almost being on the ground floor.  His place is on the 55th floor!  Seeing that we have a super typhoon coming straight for us right now, l think l'm happy to be a bit lower to the ground!!  The winds have been picking up since Tuesday.  Since l wrote this the typhoon has turned north and so far we have only gotten to a T3 stage which is mostly wind and probably rain today.  Dr. Wong my chiropractor was hoping for a T8 when everything is shut down.  He says in HK a typhoon is a time for a party and only the restaurants stay open and people  visit or go out to eat at local places, as there is no transportation running.  Most of the typhoons here are not the devastating kinds the outer islands get so l guess Kylie was not the only one hoping for a T8 and wanting a day off!  Hope you have a good week of nice fall weather.