6th November, 2018

For a single city, Hong Kong has a huge variety of neighbourhoods and locales. On Sunday, we headed into the town of  Sai Kung, once a small fishing village, now a local tourist spot. Everyone with a dog in the city seemed to be there. We even saw a St. Bernard. Of course it was crowded, but in a nice way - no one was rushing about.

The Lonely Planet guide book, a couple hundred pages thick, is far from comprehensive, and after a few days seems downright superficial. I guess it serves to point you in the right direction, but you really get a feeling for the place by walking around for hours. In every non-touristy corner of the city, where people live and work - the real Hong Kong, in other words - there are interesting things to check out. For example, after hiking Stage 3 of the Wilson Trail yesterday, we ended up at a vast market near the Choi Hung MTR station. This is strictly for locals, with no tourists around. The food is really good and cheap. We ended up getting a whole bunch of roasted duck for about $3, and didn't really need to eat for the rest of the day. We ended up the day by paying a visit to our late friend Clive Burns's grave, in the Jewish Cemetery in Happy Valley. He'd passed away in 2013, at 47 - not sure how. He was a great friend at California International School.
Nice dogs up for adoption in Sai Kung
A Chinese banyan tree. The hanging aerial roots eventually dig into the ground, and establish a new trunk. A single tree can thus take over acres of land. 

Our friend Veronica is not alone in pushing her dog in a stroller. 

Can't resist these great street names. 

Great views from Wilson Trail Section 3

The vast Chinese Protestant Cemetery 
Ngau Chi Wan Market

Our friend's grave marker. Clive's family is back in England, so we cleaned it up a bit and left a couple stones on it as tokens of our visit. Clive gave his heart and soul to his students and staff at the English Language institute he founded, do it was fitting that he be buried here. But it's a little out of the way for his family to visit, so I'm glad we did. 

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