Biking - Saikung to Tiu Keng Leng

Picking up where I left off in the last blog with my Sai Kung bike adventure...  since my bike was all the way over here and I didn't know when, if ever i'd ever over here w/ a bike again, I thought I'd try some to go to some of the scenic areas nearby before heading back to 'civilization'..  Unfortunately fate wasn't playing along...

I thought I'd try ride to the High Island Reservoir to the east side of Saikung Bay, but unfortunately the one road that connects to it is also Sai Sha road, the road to Shatin... which was closed because of a big accident.  There was a huge back up of cars...  

Doh.  No option but to head out of town on the only other route,  towards Clear Water Bay and eventually Hang Hau.   An ambitious route... especially given the treacherous hill climb -

Almost 15km, with a 150m elevation change.   as you can see in the elevation map above, quite a steep one at that! :-P

On my way out of town I passed a very strange sight:

I thought the lone cow I had seen in the park on the way here from Ma On Shan was a strange sight,  but here I saw a whole gaggle of them strolling down the middle of a street (and this wasn't even very far from the water front w/ all the buses and taxis...)

Anyway, the first part of the ride as very uneventful... the problem was about halfway through, just before hitting the hilly part,  my gear shift cable came loose, and for some stupid reason I forgot to bring my multi-tool with me (actually didn't forget,  just foolishly decided not to put it in my bag).  so I was stuck.  With no stores selling wrenches or pliers in sight, I was screwed and had to leave my bike and come back a few days later..... double bad luck! :-P

Cut to the part after I fixed the cable.... good to go for the resumption of the ride. :-P

I was too busy sweating up that hill to take many pics til I got to the top...

When I got to HKUST, the HK University of Science and Technology.  A really nice place albeit a bit far from everything... the campus buildings have a great view of Clearwater Bay on the opposite side though. 

On the way out of the campus there's still one gate to what used to be the Shaw Studios' front gate.  A bit of history for all of you film buffs out there.  I think a new university comlpex has replaced the original location, but they left the sign up?  :-P

After this it was a sharp decent downwards into the Hang Hau / Po Lam area.  This is another one of the 'New Town' developments that the Government has done in the last 30 years to relocate people out of the crowded areas of HK Island and Kowloon. 

Quite nice actually -

Actually this is on the way to Tiu Keng Leng (調景嶺), which has a colorful history... originally named after the Colonial era businessman who opened a mill here, went out of business and then killed himself. :-P

The original name was '吊頸嶺' (Hanging Neck Ridge),  they changed it to '調景嶺' which sounds the same but has a nicer meaning.  :-P

Then turned into a refugee camp for KMT families who were fleeing from the Red Army during the Chinese civil war.  The HK Government put them here waiting for the KMT in Taiwan to come and repatriate them... which never happened. :-P

Read all about it here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TiuKengLeng

Now its got its own MTR station and a lot of fancy apartment developments. It also has this biulding, which is frickin' cool... its the new HK Design Institute... I want to come back and take better pictures another time. 

Anyway, a good spot to park my bike.  Next stop,  take it over another set of hills into East Kowloon! Stay tuned.