woke up to a beautiful day, sun shining, a slight breeze and the air filled with a mild aroma of incense.
incense??
yup, today was the chung yeung festival (重陽節).
which means another year has gone by since i blogged about this ghost money event on our calendar.
instead i spent the day cleaning my apartment windows.
not an easy feat when you live on the 25th floor...
kinda surprised nobody called the police on seeing a guy in his boxer shorts half-hanging out of the window!
after my so-could-have-ended-in-tragedy house work k-chan and i thought we would go for a stroll in one of hong kong's new areas of development; lohas park (日出康城).
the tv commercials for lohas park depicts children and adults running though huge fields of green grass. sounds like a nice way to spend the afternoon.
they couldn't be more misleading if they tried.
i did see a field from the subway station, but it was all fenced off...
LOHAS which stands for "lifestyle of health and sustainability" is more a mass housing development than a park, only this time it's said to be more "environmentally" friendly.
ok, so the fifty (yes, 50!) residential towers are spaced well enough apart to stop the so called "wall effect" (it's then the wind is blocked by the towers increasing the air temperature; a huge problem in hong kong) but apart from this, the whole complex didn't feel too environmental...
it felt more like an expansion of disneyland, at least the park side of it did.
shadowed by the towering apartments of the completed first phase of this development; called "the capitol", and the mammoth bamboo jungle of the currently under construction second phase; this one called "le prestige" lies "the park".
at the entrance to the park was the all too common sign pointing out what we couldn't do whilst in the park.
no picking flowers
no feeding the fish
no smoking
no littering
no skateboarding
no kite flying
no cycling
no walking on the grass
no touching the fish
no feeding the birds
...
wtf can we do??
just when i thought fun wasn't allowed in this park we stumbled over this cool water feature for kids.
recycled water was spraying out in all directions drenching the kids big time.
not far from this play area was an empty amphitheater, complete with classical music blaring out of hidden speakers... weird!
this completely unnatural park was starting to freak me out a bit so we decided to head back to the subway station and check out the other side of the station; hopefully with access to the ocean.
as expected the ocean was fenced off...
but thank god someone had cut a hole in the government fence. before we knew it we were at the sea.
now this is more like it.
fishing at sunset.
beats a too-many-restrictions-musical-park any day!
oh, i think lohas park station is the only subway station you will find in hong kong without people.
incense??
yup, today was the chung yeung festival (重陽節).
which means another year has gone by since i blogged about this ghost money event on our calendar.
instead i spent the day cleaning my apartment windows.
not an easy feat when you live on the 25th floor...
kinda surprised nobody called the police on seeing a guy in his boxer shorts half-hanging out of the window!
after my so-could-have-ended-in-tragedy house work k-chan and i thought we would go for a stroll in one of hong kong's new areas of development; lohas park (日出康城).
the tv commercials for lohas park depicts children and adults running though huge fields of green grass. sounds like a nice way to spend the afternoon.
they couldn't be more misleading if they tried.
i did see a field from the subway station, but it was all fenced off...
LOHAS which stands for "lifestyle of health and sustainability" is more a mass housing development than a park, only this time it's said to be more "environmentally" friendly.
ok, so the fifty (yes, 50!) residential towers are spaced well enough apart to stop the so called "wall effect" (it's then the wind is blocked by the towers increasing the air temperature; a huge problem in hong kong) but apart from this, the whole complex didn't feel too environmental...
it felt more like an expansion of disneyland, at least the park side of it did.
shadowed by the towering apartments of the completed first phase of this development; called "the capitol", and the mammoth bamboo jungle of the currently under construction second phase; this one called "le prestige" lies "the park".
at the entrance to the park was the all too common sign pointing out what we couldn't do whilst in the park.
no picking flowers
no feeding the fish
no smoking
no littering
no skateboarding
no kite flying
no cycling
no walking on the grass
no touching the fish
no feeding the birds
...
wtf can we do??
just when i thought fun wasn't allowed in this park we stumbled over this cool water feature for kids.
recycled water was spraying out in all directions drenching the kids big time.
not far from this play area was an empty amphitheater, complete with classical music blaring out of hidden speakers... weird!
this completely unnatural park was starting to freak me out a bit so we decided to head back to the subway station and check out the other side of the station; hopefully with access to the ocean.
as expected the ocean was fenced off...
but thank god someone had cut a hole in the government fence. before we knew it we were at the sea.
now this is more like it.
fishing at sunset.
beats a too-many-restrictions-musical-park any day!
oh, i think lohas park station is the only subway station you will find in hong kong without people.
5 comments:
That's news to me. Now I kow one more new trend (?) in Hong Kong.
Sounds like a very un-natural park but in some ways I guess that's the best they could do in a city like HK. hehe
* pascale
well yes, an interesting concept but i feel the application for it was not so fitting.
oh well, at least it makes some kids happy running around and getting soaked (to their parents horror from what i saw).
cleaning the windows on the 25th floor sounds a bit scary. you are a brave man! fifty residential towers? omg. the dimensions are mind blowing over there. not in a million years would that happen in oslo. but then again there are under five million people in the whole of norway....
the empty subway station looks very peaceful! i just got back from london, and yes, i love subways, but it was a bit too crowded there during the rush hour.
* Luuworld
i risked my life, but you should see my beau--tiful sparkling windows!!
living in hong kong i've become a bit numb to these huge constructions that pop-up all over the place. but when you think about it, yes, 50 towers for 58,000 people... shi*t
oh yes, just saw your photos from london, looks like you had a blast; yet again!
Been here 4 months and i now changed the acronym to "Lack Of Healthy Activity Space." Never mind the landfill smell, what about the incredible dust from the constant parade of construction debris carrying trucks thundering down Wan Po Road? I went jogging outdoors once and came back with asbestos poisoning ! and once you've been around that park once, you realize there's nothing to do there but walk your dog. Fences everywhere. I was hoping to hike in those hills....er, nope, sorry, fenced off. Biking? Yes we are bike friendly, we have 100 bike parking spots to accomodate 2000 flats !! Join the lottery if you want one but you can only keep it a year ! What about all that green land next door? Sorry, fenced off landfill. The government wanted to develop it but MTR Corporation keeps objecting to any construction there that would bother residents at Lohas Park....WHAT????? How about the constant stream of construction workers ogling you wherever you go on the property? My wife won't leave the flat ! Anyway, it's hard to go anywhere once you're here. Wan Po Road has to be the only major road in HK without a minibus route ! and KMB only comes by every 20 min. during the day. MTR must be lobbying agains public transport now too. Your only choice is the purple line, which only departs every 12 minutes...and by the way, you must change trains after two stations and wait again !! But no choice, there is no grocery shop or restaurant within 3 kilometers of here, so it's either fight for a taxi, take the MTR or Starve to death !!
LOHAS MY ASSS.
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