Print

Mail

wiki links

So not Hong Kong

By Max Woodworth
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Aug 12, 2004, Page 16

PHOTO: MAX WOODWORTH, TAIPEI TIMES

How does one explain being completely isolated when only a half-hour boat ride from bustling Hong Kong, on a spectacular Sunday afternoon? Is it a collective, crippling case of agoraphobia suffered by the territory's population? Or is it, as my guide put it, "Hong Kongers don't like to go where other people aren't"?

Whichever explanation is more on target, huge parts of the territory are mostly empty and waiting to be discovered by anyone willing to make a small effort.

Discovery may, in fact, be a slight exaggeration to describe my leisurely trip taken to the miniscule hamlet of Park-A in the northeast of the territory from the popular weekend getaway harbor Sai Kong.

For one, Park-A is a former fishing village, but by Hong Kong standards -- keeping in mind Kowloon has a population density of about 45,000km2 -- it feels like a deserted island, as few people venture as far as this concealed cove.

It's a pleasant illusion that soothes after shopping in the city's dazzling upscale malls, which are currently jammed with tourists for the 2004 Hong Kong Shopping Festival, which was named without the slightest irony.

PHOTO: MAX WOODWORTH, TAIPEI TIMES

Park-A doesn't have a shopping festival. It doesn't even have any shops. Instead it has the Sand-Bar, a cafe run by a group of divers and water-sports enthusiasts who appear to not own a single shirt among them and who offer full-service fishing, boating and camping outings.

The gang of friends who opened the Sand-Bar lucked into their site through an acquaintance who helped smooth over relations with the other, initially resistant residents of Park-A.

The village of Park-A is an ideal getaway from the hubub of the city. PHOTO: MAX WOODWORTH, TAIPEI TIMES

"It's quiet and they wanted to keep it that way," said the bar's manager, who goes only by the name Leslie. Despite a handful of locals' misgivings, the bar opened and Park-A is still a sleepy jumble of traditional homes that one can hardly imagine changed much with the advent of a five-table cafe.

The village rings a calm cove of spectacular clear blue water with views onto nearby islands and a constant flow of private sailboats with their colorful jibs fully distended cruising through the maze of bays in Hong Kong's northeast.

It's a wonderful sight to behold from the cushioned rocking chairs Sand-Bar has set up in the shade of palm trees by the beach perfectly positioned to catch the mid-afternoon breeze that blows in from the east off the Pacific. And if the wind dies down and it begins to get hot, there's always the water to dip into.

For more active types, Sand-Bar has a small fleet of boats that can take visitors out for wakeboarding or banana boating. Leslie claims to know the best snorkelling spots in Hong Kong in a protected cove where the government has sunk objects that are intended to attract marine life.

It may seem impossible to anyone who's looked upon the heaving, narrow strip of garbage-strewn water that separates Hong Kong island from Kowloon, but the waters upcurrent in the northeast of Hong Kong are remarkably clean.

The Sand-Bar also does fully catered camping trips, so that all one needs to bring is a bathing suit and an extra layer of clothing, because it gets cold by the ocean, even at the height of summer. If the urge to squeeze every minute of activity out of a night, there are even guided squid fishing trips, this being the squid season.

Whatever one does in Park-A, it will have nothing to do with the buzz that consumes the rest of Hong Kong. People in Park-A walk slowly, talk slowly, eat slowly, and, unlike their urbanite cousins, don't look bored when nothing's happening -- which is most of the time.

Hanging out by the beach and watching hawks circle above the hill behind Park-A it's hard to believe that one's actually in Hong Kong, the city famed for its shiny skyscrapers like the almost completed International Finance Centre that dominates Hong Kong island's skyline.

It's even harder to believe that those same skyscrapers are only just over the ridge of hills visible in the distance from Park-A. It's the Hong Kong experience that either no one has, or that everyone has agreed to not talk about.
This story has been viewed 2679 times.