Messages posted by: stevew

Hk's bikers might like to join this . . .

Tomorrow is the (fifth) Ride of Silence. You know that I’m on a cycling ‘mission’ and this is a great time to come and be part of it. We’re remembering 10 cyclists killed in Hong Kong last year, and sending a message that cyclists have the same rights as other road users - something that is often forgotten.

Meet:
7.30pm, Wednesday, 19 May
Tsim Sha Tsui promenade clock tower
Duration: approx two hours

If you’ve got a bike, come along and enjoy riding on the streets of Kowloon with hundreds of others.
Do you want to hire a bike? Call me soonish.
And if not, can you send this to someone who, like me, thinks that bicycles are the transportation of the future.

“Let the silence roar”

Cheers

Martin Turner

The Hong Kong Ride of Silence is coordinated by Hong Kong Cycling Alliance (??????)

Most people who go enjoy exploring the Mekong Delta from there, taking trips out to see some of the islands, markets etc etc. Adventure activities lie a little further out.

Rainbow Divers are the name to try in finding diving options.

For surfing, kiting etc, go a little up the coast to Mui Ne, though it depends how much time you have as the travelling there and back takes up a few hours itself.

Most resorts in Korea get pretty busy on weekends - weekdays are much better if you can make it then.

And about that ski roadshow in HK - it is this weekend Nov 15/16 in Tseung Kwan O.

Port Moresby can be dangerous for sure, which is why many divers going there try only to change planes there or minimise their stay at least.

Ask your operator for up-to-the-minute advice on where to stay and how best to move on to the area where you will dive.

Diving wise, this is one of the great frontier areas in the world. If you are an avid diver, this place belongs on your life-list.

Strangely enough, there's a popular spot for wakeboarding between the airport and the mainland. It stays pretty flat but not sure about the debris situation.

Pedro has some good tips, but just to add that Anilao/Puerto Galera is a very accessible area and pretty good. Not spectacular it's true but lots of smaller critters to enjoy and the travelling is a cinch. When you just want to get wet quickly, this is worth a shout.

JAM has the right idea here if you are a more active sort.

Halong Bay gets enormous numbers of mainland Chinese tourists who go out on the water for only a half-day at most. Your own experience will be better the further out you go. If you don't want a larger luxurious cruise feel as with the Emeraude, then a camping/kayaking trip is a great way to go.

Try Buffalo Tours in Hanoi. Well known operator with pedigree in this area.

Many Westerners in HK obviously prefer to go with companies where English is spoken as the first language.

Mandarin Divers is one company that offers this.

As to general safety issues, HK companies have certainly lost people before. The chance of something like this happening is far higher though when you are diving with lots of people around and insufficient divemasters to handle that number.

This tends to happen more with the cheaper operators. Try not to penny pinch too much when booking a trip and ask for assurances that the ratio of divers to divemasters if not too high.

This is problem is by no means confined to HK it should be said. Whenever you get quoted a notably low price for a dive, you should take care that the operator is not cutting corners on safety.

Roger,

AA will be covering S Korea in the Jan/Feb 08 issue.

Before that, in Nov, Korean tourism is bringing a ski roadshow to HK to educate people here about the choices of resorts.

Off the top of my head, there are around 13 or so. Muju and Yongpyong are among the best and biggest, and there's a bunch of others close to Seoul.

There's also High One, former Kangwonland, a resort/casino development that is making a splash.

None of them have snow the equal of that in Japan of course.

SW

Don't know them James. sorry.

Wild China are the biggest and most respected homegrown adventure travel operation in China. They may have a trip but it'll cost you considerably more I imagine than doing it more locally.

I'd advise you to just go. Yunnan is not so intimidating - not the more obvious spots anyway. If you need a guide, hire locally and put a few bucks in their pockets. I am assuming you speak Mandarin though. if not, then a guide is harder to find and more expensive of course.

The last thing on skiing in China was a few years back. The scene has changed a lot since then and this year's thrust on the sporting stage has provided further impetus.

Yabuli is one of the bigger names and has announced plans for an upscale resort with timbered, heated gondolas and the like. Style over substance as usual - the slopes themselves are still nothing to get too excited about. Still, the experience of having skied in China is worth a boast or two I reckon.

Depending on your experience level you might want to think about a trekking pole or two. If you are not used to longer walks when loaded up, it can help with balance on ascents and descents.

Consider your water sources too. Will you be near villages all the time? That will help but you'll still want to filter/treat their water I suspect. Will habitation around you'll want to be cautious about using natural streams too for fear of them being fouled by humans or livestock.

It depends of course on what sort of things you like to see.

Sipadan would feature on most people's list though.

Other general recommendations are the stellar sites off Palau, the Raja Empat area of Indonesia and as many of the scattered diving areas around Papua New Guinea as your budget allows.

If it's wrecks that float yr boat (sorry) then AA had a feature on best wreck dives a few issues back.

For pelagics, there's the whale sharks of Donsol and the mantas of Yap, plus molas off Nusa Penida, Bali. Mergui would get some peoples' votes here too.

For muck & macro stuff, Lembeh Strait is a cheaper option than Raja Empat.

For different experiences, try coldwater diving among the kelp beds of Tasmania, diving in the crater lake of Rinjani volcano on Lombok and plumbing a little of the depths of Lake Hovsgol in Mongolia.

One further note: it is best to not encourage the shark diving outfits that 'chum' the water. The jury is officially out on the effects of this but consider what happens with macaque monkeys in both HK and Singapore - feed them and they lose their fear of us. Any aggressive types among them are then likely to start expecting a handout. From there you are just a short leap - or flick of the fin perhaps - from disaster.

Wear something sensible on your feet and don't stray from the route and it is something that anyone from 8 to 80 can do safely.

LWC,

You obviously have never seen the east coast of Taiwan. True there's lots of concrete in areas close to Taipei, but further south there are high sea cliffs and entire beaches that can be yours alone for the day.

Be careful at Kenting. There's often jetskis tearing around with little care for safety. I've seen divers go into the bay while jetskis were overhead and I've been told that deaths are not so rare.

LWC,

You seem a pretty active guy and I am presuming you read Chinese (excuse the assumption) - perhaps you can help steer some info our way.

One blind spot we have is the sort of info that goes into the growing Chinese-language adventure magazine scene - events in China, news of new areas developing adventure potential etc.

Help us to help others!

You are looking at brands such as Suunto at the more affordable end while more expensive are those made by Citizen, Omega and the like. The skies the limit here - if style is more important to you then you can pay crazy money.

One thing to look out for is the ISO std which is used to certify watches with a true diving pedigree.

As the editor of AA I'd love to know also.

There are a few good companies doing trips out there but aside from them there seems to be little info in the public domain - a problem with much of China.

Look for a piece to come in AA - once I find the sources.

SW

In HK, WWF runs a list of companies that have pledged that their employees will not consume shark's fin. http://www.wwf.org.hk/eng/conservation/seafood/sharkfin/company.php

If you are reading this and live in HK, could you get your company to add their name to this list?

By kayaking you mean flat water I guess. A bunch of sea kayaking spots occur immediately. Freshwater spots will take some research as few people seem to talk about it - one to look into, thanks.

IMHO the shark's fin issue is far worse than what the Japanese are doing to a few score dolphins or whales.

We're talking around 100 million sharks a year.

Yao Ming may have come out against it but that's just the beginning. There's enormous money involved and much of it and the fins themselves come through HK and, to a lesser extent, Sing.

Short answer for Sing itself is . . . you don't.

A couple of years ago there was a cool event that took place right downtown and hundreds of people did tandem jumps. We had it on the cover.

Today though that landing site is a building site. If you want to skydive you are best advised to head for Indonesia - or Australia if you have the bucks and prefer the extra safety factor that jumping there might give you.

LWC, good idea to think of other peaks.

In Sabah, there is Trusmadi. Quite a bit smaller than Kinabalu but tough as the trail is steep and narrow. This might feature in the mag before too long.

Across the border in Sarawak you also have peaks with Gunung Mulu being the obvious one. Great area for trekking inland of Miri with major cave systems to explore too. Close by Gunung Mulu are The Pinnacles, weird knife-edge rock formations that are cool to see.

Guess Kalimantan province of Indo must have some big peaks judging by Malaysia's part of Borneo, but I frankly don't know too much about it. An opening there for you to contribute more than a few forum posts perhaps? . . . .

Steve W
Ed-in-chief

Guess LWC is referring to Action Asia Challenge as the magazine has something on Indonesia in almost every issue!

I attended a couple of those Challenge events in Sing for the magazine and I agree the place has lots of adv types raring to go - great support for the race scene down there, puts Hong Kongers to shame!

Steve W
Ed-in-chief


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