John and I went to Hong Kong because I suddenly had this brilliant idea while looking at a Lonely Planet map in Yangshuo.
Me: Eh shit! HK is damn near here sia! Anybody want to go HK? I heard got bouldering.
That's how we ended up on an unplanned side trip to go bouldering and to pick up some gear. 5.10 shoes damn cheap in HK. The anasazi verde is something 110sgd. Suckers.
So we booked a bus overnight to Shenzhen. It was quite cheap. Less than taking a bus from here to KL. Unfortunately the night we left, we had a big (huge!) feast at the best restaurant in Yangshuo. Can't remember what its called. JS might remember. Anyway I was so damn bloated I couldn't sleep for the entire 9hr trip there. From Shenzhen to TST in HK takes 3hrs including immigration. We stayed at this run down place in Chunking Mansions in TST. Something like 20sgd a night.
Anyway to the bouldering. We went to this place called Allway gardens. Its on the last stop of the MTR (their MRT). Then you take a bus and hike up the hill, which is damn tall. I would say higher than Moon Hill in Yangshou. The boulders are up the hill. Its really pretty from up there. I imagine it would be really nice in spring when the temps are down.
View of Hk from the trail.
The trail is very steep
This is the beautiful side of HK
John is somewhere in the pic
And that's me
We didn't have any guidebook or crashpad and all that so it was all playing by ear. We just climbed whatever line looked good. Btw can you imagine humping a crashpad up that hill. You must be pretty dedicated. I have no idea what kind of rock these boulders are made of, but I can tell you its not limestone or granite. From my discription dr christer guesses its sandstone. But he doesn't know crap about rocks. Anyway it was all good fun and we didn't break any bones.
The funniest story is from our trip back to Guangzhou. On the MTR to Shenzhen immigration we got separated. I was in the train and John was outside. The stupid train door closed. Even funnier. My hp was flat. Lucky we were smart enough to find each other on the other side of Shenzhen. So that's all for HK. If you want more stories like shopping stories and all that, better ask me. I think we spent 600sgd or something in a one of the climbing shops buying 5.10s for all these people in sg. They must have thought we were damn hard up for shoes or something.
Alvin's right. My favorite thing about climbing is just the pure pleasures of movement. Kinesthetic pleasure. There's this mental zone that you go into when you're pulling on the hardest moves. Its fantastic.
