5 years ago today, may 30

May 30, 2004 saw:

Phil, Carmen and I decided to hike "the dragon's back ridge" which we had an extremely hard time finding and making sense of. It ended up being a 30 mile long hike that went directly over the peaks of the mountains and down into the valleys...We ended up doing a modified version of it, which was still extremely hard on a boiling hot day we were mostly unprepared for, but it was absolutely gorgeous & worth it in my mind. The stairs above were the first bit leading up to join the trail.

This was us wondering if were were mildly lost or totally screwed. There was a bench. And nothing else for miles. We were so confused.

Taken from the top of the ridge. I used to remember details about that little village at the bottom, which was actually rather fascinating, but it's lost with the labels now.

Phil at the top of the ridge.

There were lots of these cool huge boulders. We were each standing on our own for most of these pics.

You can't really tell in the picture, but I'm wearing lime green, quilted, Pespi brand moccasins, which I picked up in a subway station under people's square in shanghai and wore as my normal shoes until the soles completely worse out a few years later.

You can walk straight under the HSBC headquarters building in hong kong.

I have a bazillion and a half pictures of this building because Ian, the future architect in our social group, thought it was awesome and told me to make sure to get a good shot of it for him. I was never satisfied that my pictures were doing it justice, so I kept taking more.

They still use bamboo scaffolding, even in the big city. cheap, light, efficient, strong. Why not? (see the guys up in it? that's a skyscraper, this was on mega-zoom.)

a wedding in the park in central hong kong! we thought it was so cool that we'd seen that...

then we saw another...

and another...

and a turtle...

and some fish...

and a turtle and some fish...

and another wedding...and this is the point at which I stopped photographing them. we saw about a dozen more.

On the tram on the way up to Victoria peak. Notice how they're straining to lean forward, and the angle of the window behind them...that's how steep it is.

The view from the top of Victoria peak.

Me and Carmen at the top

great fog/cloud cover on top of Victoria peak

Gotta love the pun.

By the time we headed home, it was dark

one of my earliest attempts at using a nightshot setting on a digital camera.

all the buildings were lit up as we made our way home.

HSBC headquarters at night!

And with friends!

The ferries light up, too.

I can't remember what that tall building was called, or what it was the tallest of, but it had a title of tallest building ...in some region or something?

Phil, on the Ferry home.

Phil's camera:

taa-a-a-a-all building.

You feel like you're indoors even when you're outside here. the buildings & mountains are like giant walls surrounding the streets of the city.

This is the area where our hostel was located. I think this was taken just outside the door.

The village I've forgotten about.
Carmen and I on the dragon's back. My shirt kinda looks like it's trying to blend into the background.

I have a shot of this building somewhere, too.

more bamboo scaffolding, gives you more of an idea of height.

Hong Kong as seen from Victoria's Peak

Carmen and I atop Victoria's Peak

Phil atop Victoria's Peak

A panoramic shot phil composed from a bunch of his shots taken atop the dragon's back.