Not having a plan at all was the plan for March 4th. I, having finished a midterm, was ready to leave the campus and set out to explore! We met up with Chris, and left for our adventure readily.
Me: I don't think we should get ahead of ourselves, I think 2 is ambitious enough!
Our goal for our 4 months here in Hong Kong is to visit every MTR station. There are 84 MTR stations in total; we have completed 25. Our progress isn't too bad so far, but we have to take in mind that we will become busy as finals are progressing nearer...but anyway, we still are trying our best!
Mountain!
We transit to Choi Hung MTR station, transfer 2 times and soon enough, we were at our destination - Wu Kai Sha (烏溪沙), situated in the Northeastern area of the New Territories. The station is the East-most station along the Ma On Shan (馬鞍山) line, and from our little research we did the night before, we were aware that it was by the water. We also found out that there is a mountain nearby to be hiked - the Ma On Shan mountain, which one of the top 10 highest peaks in Hong Kong!
The first thing I noticed after exiting the station, was indeed a mountain. I wondered if it was the Ma On Shan Mountain; the mountain has been nicknamed the Saddle Mountain, due to it's resemblance to a saddle. This one did quite look like a saddle, although part of it was covered in a huge swirl of clouds.
The mountain, however, wasn't the only large and prominent body there. Directly beside the MTR station was a residential apartment - definitely the biggest one I have seen yet. It actually looks like it is perched on top of the MTR station. The name of the residence is Lake Silver, and consists of over 2100 residential units! We later found out, to our amazement, that there is an actual entrance to the residence inside the MTR station. If you lived there, you literally would be living across from the MTR...how interestingly convenient!
Ginormous Housing Complex
We began our quest to search for the ocean - or more specifically, the Tolo Harbour (吐露港), the body of water beside Ma On Shan. As we were walking down the winding road leading to the water, the sidewalk suddenly ended - instead of walking on a sidewalk, we were now treading on tiny rocks on the side of the road. Along with that abrupt end of the sidewalk, and the environment around us - vast areas of trees and grass, birds chirping in the distant with the noise of construction in the background - I was suddenly reminded of home in Vancouver. Somehow, everything felt sort of familiar - it definitely wouldn't be as warm and humid in Vancouver, but the serenity, the nature surrounding us and the spacious layout of the roads and little forests felt much more like home than any part of Hong Kong we have visited.
Jordan: This looks like a good path to the beach!
Indeed, there was a well tread path to the water, and the sandy beach beside it. We walked over a few rocks and reached our ultimate destination at Wu Kai Sha - the water!
Beach!
Waterfront view
Melody by the water
Jordan and Chris
The beach provided us with a grand view of the mountains across of us, and a couple of fisherman perched nearby, watching for a catch. The smell of saltwater floated up to my nose - although that smell is prevalent anywhere by the sea, it still reminded me of home specifically. Seaweed was floating around in the water and moving in rhythm to the tide; some were unlucky and became stuck on the shore amongst the yellow, grainy sand. I kneeled down to enjoy the view while Chris and Jordan snapped more pictures with their cameras.
After spending a bit more time on the beach, we decided to head back. It turns out, we are able to visit another station! So in a short amount of time, we were at Ma On Shan - the station next to Wu Kai Sha.
Ma On Shan was very different from Wu Kai Sha - it was much more developed and urbanized. I suppose I should have expected it, since the MTR line was named after Ma On Shan. There was a shopping mall connected to the MTR station, as well as residences we almost mistook as gardens due to them being called, well, garden (花園). We found an actual public park - Ma On Shan Park (馬鞍山公園) - and set that as our destination.
The park was a good size - there were about 8 different sections, including a children's playground, elderly exercise area, a marine plaza and a maze. Like Wu Kai Sha, this place was also very peaceful and serene; there were birds perch atop the luscious green trees, singing and communicating to each other. There were many, many birds - definitely the most I have heard at one time in Hong Kong. I also noticed how much more relaxed people were here, compared to the city. Or perhaps it may have been just that family, but a couple with their 2 children seemed to be having a lot of fun in the maze; the mom even smiled at me a couple times when we made eye contact!
The maze took a bit longer than I expected to get through, but eventually, I made it in and out safely. Jordan parkoured. We headed to the Waterfront Promenade; there were many joggers, cyclists and leisure strollers there. Although there were quite a few dark, angry clouds in the sky, the view of the water of Sha Tin Hoi (沙田海) was still quite nice. We spent a few moments trying to figure out what was the piece of land across the water, west from us. (I later found out that it was Chinese University of Hong Kong, near University 大學 station.)
We continued to walk down the Promenade; the sky was getting darker, but we were lucky that it didn't rain. There were still many people enjoying the outdoors like us, and Jordan commented on how this was similar to where his family lives in Toronto - by the water, with a nice, public park area for people to enjoy and engage in sports. I took over the camera for a while, took some sneaky, creeper shots of the two gentlemen (Chris and Jordan) walking in front of me. After a while of walking, talking and enjoying the fresh air, we reached another MTR station - Heng On.
But hang on, didn't we originate from Ma On Shan station? Yes, we did, but the MTR stations weren't too far away from each other, and we wanted to take the nice walk over along the Promenade. We passed by a eerie, abandoned oceanside lots on the way to Heng On station. Instead of heading home, we decided to take the transit to Mong Kok East to look for some street food! It was quite an adventure to find a food stand - even though there were quite a few here and there, we had to make sure we found the 'good' ones. How did we determine that? I'm not quite sure, but we ended up eating pretty yummy friend squid and Japanese style octopus balls. Yum yum!
Our stomachs were not satisfied yet, so we went to a restaurant (with AC on full blast, thank goodness) and ordered a couple dishes to share between the two of us. After that, we felt like we had explore enough for today, and headed home.
Today, we explored not 2, not 3, but 4 stations! So I was clearly wrong to say that we were too ambitious. Although our target is to go to all of the stations on the MTR, the important thing is to make sure we still take the time and explore around the stations. These few stations along the East of the Ma On Shan line were definitely gems - if you would like a quiet and serene place to relax, stare out into the ocean or take a leisurely stroll, then it is the place to go!
Fancy Flower
After spending a bit more time on the beach, we decided to head back. It turns out, we are able to visit another station! So in a short amount of time, we were at Ma On Shan - the station next to Wu Kai Sha.
Ma On Shan was very different from Wu Kai Sha - it was much more developed and urbanized. I suppose I should have expected it, since the MTR line was named after Ma On Shan. There was a shopping mall connected to the MTR station, as well as residences we almost mistook as gardens due to them being called, well, garden (花園). We found an actual public park - Ma On Shan Park (馬鞍山公園) - and set that as our destination.
The park was a good size - there were about 8 different sections, including a children's playground, elderly exercise area, a marine plaza and a maze. Like Wu Kai Sha, this place was also very peaceful and serene; there were birds perch atop the luscious green trees, singing and communicating to each other. There were many, many birds - definitely the most I have heard at one time in Hong Kong. I also noticed how much more relaxed people were here, compared to the city. Or perhaps it may have been just that family, but a couple with their 2 children seemed to be having a lot of fun in the maze; the mom even smiled at me a couple times when we made eye contact!
The park
Melody snapping photos
Water view
Jordan and Chris
Planking!
We continued to walk down the Promenade; the sky was getting darker, but we were lucky that it didn't rain. There were still many people enjoying the outdoors like us, and Jordan commented on how this was similar to where his family lives in Toronto - by the water, with a nice, public park area for people to enjoy and engage in sports. I took over the camera for a while, took some sneaky, creeper shots of the two gentlemen (Chris and Jordan) walking in front of me. After a while of walking, talking and enjoying the fresh air, we reached another MTR station - Heng On.
Evening approaches
Jordan and Chris
Night time
But hang on, didn't we originate from Ma On Shan station? Yes, we did, but the MTR stations weren't too far away from each other, and we wanted to take the nice walk over along the Promenade. We passed by a eerie, abandoned oceanside lots on the way to Heng On station. Instead of heading home, we decided to take the transit to Mong Kok East to look for some street food! It was quite an adventure to find a food stand - even though there were quite a few here and there, we had to make sure we found the 'good' ones. How did we determine that? I'm not quite sure, but we ended up eating pretty yummy friend squid and Japanese style octopus balls. Yum yum!
Our stomachs were not satisfied yet, so we went to a restaurant (with AC on full blast, thank goodness) and ordered a couple dishes to share between the two of us. After that, we felt like we had explore enough for today, and headed home.
Melody munching squid
Octopus balls!
Chris and Melody with their Dai Pai Dong food
Majong shop
Majong tile sale!
Siu yuk
Today, we explored not 2, not 3, but 4 stations! So I was clearly wrong to say that we were too ambitious. Although our target is to go to all of the stations on the MTR, the important thing is to make sure we still take the time and explore around the stations. These few stations along the East of the Ma On Shan line were definitely gems - if you would like a quiet and serene place to relax, stare out into the ocean or take a leisurely stroll, then it is the place to go!
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