Shit is happening

The weather on Sunday is as friendly as on Saturday, and I go for another outdoor excursion. Combining a metro and bus ride, I end up, together with lots of Hong Kongers, at the beginning of a walking trail which is as busy as a shopping mall at the rush hour. Yes, Hong Kong has lots of unspoilt and beautiful nature, but when millions of locals are getting out of their homes in the weekend, even those places get a distinctively urban flair.
Speeding up my pace, I manage to escape the main crowd and soon, I am on the top of Dragon's Back, in the Southeastern corner of Hong Kong Island, close to Shek O. The views over the coast and the sea are amazing. If it were not for the skyrocketing apartment buildings here and there, I would believe myself at a pristine, peaceful island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

Also, you will now understand why this post has such a strange title. You may have to zoom in.

I continue my walk via an easy track on the hills and make it soon back to the bus and the city. I plan to travel back with the tram instead of the metro, but it gets stuck in the abominable traffic. When I notice, after one hour on the tram, that I have not yet made significant progress versus the center, I leave it and change to the MTR. Ten minutes later, I am within walking distance of my hotel.

Foodwise, I stick to the sea and enjoy some Taiwanese street food in the suburbs (fried dumplings, delicious) before I meet some fellow philosophers for drinks dinner. Mariangela, a PhD student at HKU whom I have met in Groningen in summer, is in charge. We meet down in Central and take the famous Central--Mid-Levels escalators to an expat bar with happy hour. This quirky form of transport---an 800m long sequence of escalators between the CBD and the nightlife area---avoids zigzagging roads and shortens travel time considerably. You may describe it as Hong Kong's response to the elevator system that links hills and valleys in Lisbon. 

While Aberdeen and Ap Lai Chau yesterday felt like mainland China, the streets and bars in our destination neighborhood are mainly populated with tourists and Westerners who live in Hong Kong. Also, there are no traditional Chinese places, but lots of hip bars and cafés.

Later on, we have a dim sum dinner at a Michelin-star decorated restaurant in Causeway Bay, a bit east of the center. The food is excellent---the refined version of the popular food that I had on the first day, with diligent and balanced use of spices.  Moreover, the bill is not as huge as I feared. Probably it helps that we stick to tradition and drink tea instead of alcoholic drinks. 

This night, I don't make it late. 1. FC Köln have their three points and do not play. Also, the next day, I have to give a talk and to conduct an experiment at Lingnan University. The time of leisurely explorations is over, the real work begins.