The Peak to Aberdeen Hike

A sunny. blue sky Saturday. One of those days that you have in late spring at home, but here you get them in mid-winter. Cool, but clear and lovely. So the plan was to a walk from the Police Museum which is up about half way up the peak and go down to Aberdeen. We rode the bus up and found it easily.

Group starting hike - left to right Benches, Newels, Gibbons, Woolseys and Us

We all checkout the Police Museum. If we had been five minutes quicker we wouldn’t have had to fight our way through a mob of school kids. But quick we weren’t, so we had a big group inside a small museum. The police history goes back to early Hong Kong and had a lot of the Brit influence showing in all the old photo’s. It was interesting.

Crossing one of the many bridges

Then we started down hill. It was another of the old roads that has been closed to everything but foot traffic and it was so beautiful. It wound down to the Upper Aberdeen Reservoir, and then dropped down into Aberdeen. Along the way we shed our coats and just enjoyed walking in the bright sunshine.

Aberdeen Reservoir

Once at the bottom it was lunch time and a group decision took us to...McDonalds! And we are getting so good at elbowing our way into tables. Fighting for a place to sit is one of the things I will NOT miss about Hong Kong.

Shirl in her new red coat

Then we decided to take a Sampan ride to see the Jumbo Restaurant. Well it was a group effort to get a good rate, and one lady just shook her head in disgust when we wouldn’t pay her price for 10 of us. We finally found one man who agreed on $120 per couple, all except Elder Bench who kept insisting on $100. Finally the guy told Elder Bench, "you can’t go", and to Dew "you go". Well he got his $120, and he was worth every red cent of the price. He talked a mile a minute and was laughing all the way. He got us on the boat and headed straight for the take out place. He told Elder Bench he could get out...then had his wife jump on board with his lunch.

Group on sampan ride

We went out around the Jumbo Restaurant and he took pictures of the whole group, with hats and without. And then he gave us a great ride around the harbor explaining things to us as we went. We only understood about half of what he said, but it wasn’t so much what he said, it was the fun way he said it. Well he ended up with tips all around, and probably made much more than the money grubbing lady wanted. In fact at the end he gave his cards to all of us, and told to tell our friends, and we definitely will.

Then the group split, with the Bench’s and Jackson’s heading for Stanley for a bit of birthday shopping, and the rest heading back home. You can tell we are OD on Stanley shopping, because we hustled in, bought what we wanted, and headed home. No wandering or checking out all the shops, just in and out!
Then back home and it was 5 o’clock. Good day.

View from Aberdeen Harbor