Beaching in HK

Had a great day at the beach here in HK today with a bunch of old and new ex-pat friends. The HK island is so much more than meets the eye for most travelers here, I think. The beach we went to was on the east coast at Big Wave Bay and it was packed with chinese of all shapes and sizes celebrating the national holiday for Buddha's birthday. I'm lucky to have some friends to guide me here since I get the impression the city is short on activities for tourists and it was nice to be brought into the fold with the inside scene. The ride to the beach brought me through some incredible cliff edge narrow roads through the mountains and reminded me a little bit of a tropical riviera-esque ride through the trees.

After 2 weeks in big cities fighting the masses on the pavement surrounded by tall buildings it was such a relief to be out of the hustle and able to relax (and speak with people from home and have real conversations for the first time since I left home).

Afterwards we went to the American Club of Hong Kong, a private ex-pat club with an outpost on the cliffs of the south shore of the island overlooking the bay and surrounding islands. Again, so nice to have a menu of western food to choose from with great views, a good crew of people. Such a relief for me. It was like HK's version of the NYAC for Americans here that offered a touch of home in a place where you need it from time to time.

The more I explore HK the more I get to like it here, as it feels very livable and accommodating to westerners. It will be very interesting to see how things go here as the scope of communist influence widens. One would hope they are able to fend off the type of destruction I've seen elsewhere since this really is such a unique city, unlike any I've ever been to. To have such terrain, beaches, booming big city, etc. all in such a small area is amazing. From the sound of things, all they lack is culture, which is surprising but I guess when most of the population that would enjoy it is transient, its probably tough to gather organized support for these things. Whereas in NY you have all types of charitable groups to supports the arts, etc. here people know there time is limited and thus are less apt to invest the time and effort to arrange these things knowing they won't be here long enough to enjoy the benefits, I suppose.