My favourite part was the ‘Dual of the Dragons’ – I was expecting a fight, however, these two beasts looked more in harmony with each other than at war. The flexibility and strength of the dancers kept my full attention on them – it also helped that they were dressed in a dragon suit that looked cute and cuddley!

The grand finale was demonstrations of various martial art moves by individuals ranging from 5 years old to over 60 years old. The highlight was a gentlemen in his late 60s that gave a demonstration in flexibility, strength, balance and spatial awareness – leaping, jumping, doing the splits – that none of the youngsters came close to matching.

We did get to the museum…. eventually!

I was expecting a street selling birds, I wasn’t expecting a charming Chinese style garden which doubles as a market and a place for humans and their pet birds to socialise.

With over 70 stalls, this is the place to come to buy anything that your pet bird needs to stay healthy and lively, from cages, to toys to yummy live grasshoppers, ants and over treats.

The sheer number of birds in tiny cages was overwhelming. I wanted to buy every single one of them and set them free or at least release them into a big aviary where they could fly around and have a ‘normal’ bird life.

I know that this is my own emotional response to what I saw and it isn’t really any different (except in scale and number of birds) to the pets shops I have bought my own birds from.

More Pictures

A wet market in general sells live fresh creatures from fish to turtles, from sea urchins to prawns. In some wet markets you can even choose which live caged poultry will be suitable for dinner tonight. However,  it is not limited to live creatures – often there will stalls show casing freshly cut up meat from ‘normal’ cuts of meat to intestines, lungs and other unidentifiable ‘enticing’ meat…, vegetables and frozen fish. All of which are sold in different areas or floors to avoid cross contamination.

The wet market gets its name from the constant water being sprayed and splashed onto the floor, occasionally flooding the floor, during cleaning or refilling of tanks. The traditional rationale behind having wet markets in Hong Kong’s hot climate was to ensure food didn’t spoil or causing food poisioning, before refrigeration was invented. Because of higher standards brought in by supermarkets, wet markets now only operate within buildings and often supermarkets have a dedicated space for a fish ‘wet market’.

10 am in the morning on the MTR (Mass Transit Railway) and already the train is packed like sardines. We thought leaving mid-morning we could saunter down to the station, find a comfortable seat on the train and enjoy the half hour ride to town. Well, we did enjoy the ride – just not sitting down but standing the whole way.

When we took this photo we thought no one else could fit on the train. How wrong we were! At the next stop even more people crammed in. I have only once been in a train that crowded and that was on the London tube, late at night on Christmas Eve.

Out on the Hong Kong Streets

Stepping out the station our senses were overwhelmed by the sights. Choas as throngs of people crossed each others paths all heading purposefully to some secret destination. Side by side next to each other were modern shops, bustling markets, recognisable brand names and dried Chinese ‘medicine’. Huge billboards and adverts shouting for attention blocking out the sky.

We saw, experienced and flet the delights and wonders of this strange city. Our senses were overwhelmed with the sights and the smell. I was energised and exhausted by the constantly bustling crowds. And it was with a bit of relief that we returned to our ‘village’ on Lantau Island.

Sometimes on a cold, wet and windy winter’s day it is good to be reminded of summer’s warmth and colour. Every spring, to celebrate the warming weather, the Wellington Botanical garden plants tulips of every shape, size and colour. The garden’s beauty causes the rushed to slow down, the stressed to take a deep breath and those feeling low to have their spirits lifted. The aroma and colours flood the senses, requiring the spectator to yield to its charm.

For some reason the blooming tulips bring out a playful side to people. While I was there I watched adults and children alike, lying on the ground next to the tulips, sitting in the middle of flower beds, twirl around and skip. There was one couple (in their late 50′s)  that “oo’ed and ah’ed ” and then fell on the grass laughing. Those of us watching their pure delight couldn’t stop the belly laughter from rumbling out of us. It is in moments like those where there is total abandonment and pure enjoyment that healing, freshness and energy fills the body. It makes life seem special, exciting and an adventure worth having.

Tons and tons of ice moving, creaking, melting, changing. Franz Joseph glacier facinated me. The ice that I could see was old, stretching like a cats paw into the temperate forest. The information board showed how men in top hats and women in long dresses were rowed around the ice bergs to see the glacier. I was now standing in T-shirt and shorts in the same spot that photo was taken.  A women who visited the glacier in 1972 said the glacier had receded so far back that it could only be seen from the air. Yet I could look straight into its mouth and watch it spitting out old melted ice.

How things change! And how disconterting that change can be. What was, isn’t anymore; and what is, will change again.

Taking my camera for a walk while staying in Castle Point, New Zealand (on what turned out to be a great photography weekend) I came across this campsite. At first I didn’t think anything of it and was just about to skirt around when the ‘No Camping’ sign caught my eye. I wonder if the camper could have got any closer to the sign? Did the person not see it – or did they just not care? This raised an interesting question for me – what are our responsiblities towards our enviroment, especially as travellers in a host country? This campsite wasa innocent enough – they were two travellers following the surf and having a great time without annoying anybody.

But just a little way away, there was a sign ‘Do not fish from this rock’. In the name of fun and the hope of not going hungry we (four guys and three ladies) climbed onto the rock to fish. The ladies sat in a cozy group enjoying the sun and chatting. Mean while the guys were getting into the ‘fishing zone’. A wave came up, suddenly and aggressively. Grabbing on for life, we watched the wave wash the fishing box and tackle into the sea. Thankfully, no one was hurt but it was close.  It was a scary lesson!

by Ellen M.H. Gates

If you cannot on the ocean
Sail among the swiftest fleet,
Rocking on the highest billows,
Laughing at the storms you meet;
You can stand among the sailors,
Anchored yet within the bay,
You can lend a hand to help them
As they launch their boats away.

If you are too weak to journey
Up the mountain, steep and high,
You can stand within the valley
While the multitudes go by;
You can chant in happy measure
As they slowly pass along–
Though they may forget the singer,
They will not forget the song.

If you cannot in the harvest
Garner up the richest sheaves,
Many a grain, both ripe and golden,
Oft the careless reaper leaves;
Go and glean among the briars
Growing rank against the wall,
For it may be that their shadow
Hides the heaviest grain of all.

If you cannot in the conflict
Prove yourself a soldier true;
If, where fire and smoke are thickest,
There’s no work for you to do;
When the battle field is silent,
You can go with careful tread;
You can bear away the wounded,
You can cover up the dead.

Do not then stand idly waiting
For some greater work to do;
Fortune is a lazy goddess,
She will never come to you;
Go and toil in any vineyard,
Do not fear to do and dare.
If you want a field of labor
You can find it anywhere.

There were always two things that were guaranteed when we went on family holidays -

1. We would have a lot of fun and laughter.

2. We would get stuck.

A holiday without getting stuck just wasn’t a holiday! As per usual we had goaded my dad into taking sand roads to explore off the beaten tracks, to get away from from the other holidayers and find a place filled just with animals and no people. This time we were well and truely stuck in mud in a private game park with the nearest help 3 hours walk away – and no the combi does not have 4×4 mode! Notice it is only the guys trying to figure out a plan! The girls, we were all laid out on the grass in the shade of the car, unpacking our well prepared picnic basket.

There is something intently awesome about being stuck out in the middle of nowhere, having to figure out how do become ‘unstuck’, having to work together and knowing that it is going to get really messy. It becomes a story of  ‘that sinking feeling it has happened again’, of everyone having to chip in and do their bit, of laughter and giggles and the victory of succeeding and safely arriving back at camp.

Nine locks! Nine locks on a run down door that comes directly off the main pedestrian area in Lima, Peru. What is so valuable that the doors need to be locked, padlocked and then locked again for good measure?

I wonder what tales these doors could tell us – the tourists stopped and inspected them, the Peruvians used the step as a place to rest and the kids kicked their balls against it.

We never did discover the secret of what was behind those doors…