the hike

On paper, it didn't seem that far. Lee Kin Tong and I studied the map for a while and agreed that we could definitely walk from Mui Wo to Discovery Bay. We were tired of paying for ferry rides over to Discovery Bay, and figured if we could save some money, we'd probably go there more than we typically did.

We talked to a few other guys who had lived in Mui Wo and found that no one had ever tried walking there before. According to the map we had, there were trails over the nearby hills that would take us there, so it was just a matter of finding the right one and making our way there.

We started our hike late in the morning the following day. The scenery was interesting enough. Mui Wo was a small village next to the ocean, and we could see the ocean most of the time as we made our way up the hill. We also saw several old ancestor worship enclaves, which the Chinese frequently build into the sides of hills and mountains for the purpose of paying their respects to departed ancestors. Neither of us was used to hiking, so we stopped every once in a while to rest, have some water and enjoy the breeze.

Lee, like me, was close to the end of his mission. He had served in many different areas, including the mission home, and had grown bitter over the months of hard work, heat and bad conditions--nothing uncommon in any part of the world, I'm sure. I had many native Chinese companions, more than anyone else I knew of, and of all of them, Lee was my favorite. His English was pretty good, but we always spoke Cantonese to each other, and he would occasionally throw in some English slang that he had learned from his various American companions. This was always entertaining, because he had a slight lisp and the phrases he knew would come out of nowhere.

The hike was taking a lot longer than it should have. It became clear after a while that either the map was wrong, or we had read it wrong, or we had taken the wrong trail. Soon enough, however, we were at the top of the hill and could see Hong Kong Island, Peng Chau, Cheung Chau and Lamma Island in the distance. It was quite a view.

We saw some trees in the distance, and walked toward them. When we got to them, we realized where we were--the Discovery Bay Country Club. Yes, we had definitely taken the wrong trail, and had ended up on the local ritzy golf course. We looked to see if we could walk around it, but it looked useless. So, we hopped the barbed wire fence and walked across the course, looking for the exit or the clubhouse. As you can imagine, we got a lot of stares from people on the course, and felt really strange about the whole thing.

Discovery Bay, as its name implies, is a bay. This means that it's not at the top of a hill or mountain. When we got to the clubhouse and exited the golf course, we realized it would take a long time to get back down to Discovery Bay. Lee looked at me and sourly remarked "this sucks" in that lispy voice of his. I couldn't help but laugh.

We finally made it to Discovery Bay after another 45 minutes or so of walking. Total trip time? 3-4 hours. We wouldn't be walking to Discovery Bay again. Being thirsty and exhausted, we hit the local "gwai lo" (this is what we called grocery stores that carried a lot of American and British foods) Park 'n' Shop, bought some soda and American foods, and then caught the next ferry back to Mui Wo. So much for working that day.