Sun setting over Lantau Island
Now that was a quick 7 months and a bit in Hong Kong. Whenever I go over Stone Cutter island bridge, I can never help staring at the hill with colonial houses on it overlooking Hong Kong Island. For me at least, that would be the best location with a view of Hong Kong Island. I’ve always wanted to go there in the evening and set up my tripod to take a panorama at location (22.31530, 114.14248). On my last weekend there, I found that that place is a Naval base, hence off limits to casual passerbys. Its amazing what a little check on Googlemaps and streetview can tell you. So its time to search for an alternative. I’ve shot quite a number of pictures of Hong Kong, and I have not had a good panorama of the place yet, so this is an obvious last project before leaving.
The new ICC tower in Kowloon, next to the waterfront
Finally settled on West Kowloon Waterfront as the second best alternative just above Western Harbour tunnel. Again, best time for me to shoot was between 6:30pm to about 8:00pm. At this time of the year, the sun will start to set at 7pm and there will be two light show. One when the orange glow of the setting sun showers the subject with soft warm light and the second (which I think I like better) when the sun has set below the horizon and the skies in the background are in a dark shade of blue and foreground lighted by orange neon lights. I’m pretty happy with the resulting panorama made up of up to 15 frames of 12 megapix pictures stitched in Photoshop. Heres a sample:
Hong Kong Island at sunset: glowing in the evening sunlight
Hong Kong Island at early night: Moon on the left, remains of daylight on the right.
Good way to end my short stay in Hong Kong. Now signing off, soon I will report back in a new location.
Now this is the starting part of 100km MacLehose trail. I did not intend to finish all of it this time and I did not take too much notes on the day of the trek itself. In short, total distance covered is around 25-30km over two weekends in searing heat and full of uphill and downhill. Bonus would be the hidden beaches, at least in the morning until the yachts from Hong Kong drop their anchor and noisy daytrippers hang around for a bit of sunburning. Recommended, but bring more water. I love it… Here goes…
Water, mountains, trekking & nice views. Nothing better than this.
I believe this is Sharp's peak. One day I will try to go up that thing... easily the highest point in Sai Kung.
Long Harbour close to Chek Keng ferry pier. Original picture was pretty bland, this is a boosted up picture just for creative expression...
Pretty obvious: Sunken boat (tried my best to shoot sans reflection since I did not pack a polarizer)
Old houses along the waterfront
More harbours along the way, I dont think I ever found the name of this one
Continue reading 'Hong Kong: Sai Kung East Country Park'»
Hong Kong, Travels
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bay, beach, chek kang, hiking, Hong Kong, long ke, maclehose, mountain, sai kung, sharp, tai long wan, trail, yacht
Downtown Seoul from Inwangsan
I have been having free weekends in Seoul lately and this weekend I was quite determined to go somewhere outdoors after a few disappointing sights around Insadong. Saturday was not that great, it rained. Pretty heavily too. Sunday started off good, not a sunny day, but with low clouds and chance of rain. I did a quick check of the weather, clouds are moving relatively fast, but the texture seems consistent and there doens’t seem to be too much risk of heavy rain, so umbrellas were not required. So picked up my small utility bag with a D300 SLR and a Nikkor 12-24mm lens and a GPS and I was out without a clue of the route to take, but as long as I’m going uphill I’m on the right path.
Target today is Inwangsan, a mountain just to the northern border of Seoul. Close enough to be able to reach it by Metro line 3, Dongnimmun Station. Not the mountain top, of course. The station straddles below a main road that leads out of the city to the north. This destination took up only a small portion of Lonely Planet guide book which I did not bother to bring along with me. So I started looking around for a way to get up the mountain. (By the way, realised after this climb that the proper and easy way up is on the east of the mountain, so you will need to walk anticlockwise around it from the Metro station. I went clockwise.)
This road looks easy enough, but it was so steep, it too me a few minutes to climb.
Came across this signboard after the village. I guess I'm on the right path. There is absolutely no bending over for foreigners here...
Going up north, I came across a bunch of apartments and a pedestrian foot bridge after going slightly uphill, still along the main road with mountains on both sides. Figuring that as long as I go uphill, I’d get to a trail, I decided to go up a very steep concrete road, which leads to a small village on the foot of Inwangsan. Its a tough slog up this slope that runs about 200m. There were a few old hikers loitering around so I followed one. Look for the playground behind the village, where you will find the start of the trail identified by a map board which is unfortunately in Korean. It looks like the old city wall goes up this mountain along the spine so this should be fun.
Easy enough...
Gets more slippery and difficult as we go along, remember this is not the "easy" route!
Continue reading 'Seoul, South Korea: Inwangsan'»
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