Hong Kong Island North - Broad walk Run

The broad walk underneath the elevated highway on the waterfront in North Point had been publicised with a lot of fanfare.  It does look rather interesting.  So I decided to give it a try last Sunday morning.  

Started out from the Causeway Bay entrance to Victoria Park, kind of early in the morning.  Some migrant workers were already staking out a place to spend their day off. But the place was still relatively peaceful and quiet yet. 

Lots of people were running along the the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter.  They look young and fit.  Perhaps even more so than the usual crowd along the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade on the opposite, northern shore of the Victoria Harbour.  

A huge metallic egg is jutting into the middle of the Victoria Harbour, linked to HK Island through a popular walkway.  At one point this was a popular “secret” place for checking-in.  This is actually a vent shaft for the Central-Wanchai Bypass - a tunnel under the harbour linking Central to North Point.  

Soon I am on the Broad walk.  Most of it is directly under the Easter Corridor - an elevated highway skirting the waterfront of North Point.  

The highway itself is an efficient route to transport vehicles from one place to the other.  But it is a real eyesore.  It also cuts people off from the waterfront, one of the greatest assets of Hong Kong.  Now, the broadway compensates somewhat for that.  It is popular.  Right now, it is rather short, but construction seems to be on-going to extend that.  

The broad walk, right now, ends at the North Point Pier, where one can still buy seafood at a number of vendors.  The place has acquired a certain reputation.  This is also one of the sites where Buddhists like to “set free” fish into the harbour.  Most of the fish are believed to be caught from far away places - not native to these waters.  Will they survive?  Will they eat up the local fish?  It has been rather controversial.  The Buddhists insist they are doing a good deed.  

Soon I arrived at another typhoon shelter, this one at Shaukiwan.  There are now much fewer fishing boats, and a lot more leisure yachts.   It is fun trying to pick out the landmarks on the opposite shore: Flying Goose Mountain, etc.  

We are also quite near the eastern exit to the harbour.  But the narrow channel is not visible.  Looking east, it is actually not easy to distinguish between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island.  

I turned south at the Tam Temple. 

Soon I ran past the big tree in the middle of East Main Street. 

And arrived at the terminus of the tram.  The tracks have not changed much for many decades.  But the scenery definitely has. 

It is roughly 9 kilometres from Victoria Park in Causeway Bay to the Tram Terminus in Shaukiwan.  Quite an interesting and pleasant experience.   I think I will do that again. 

Free Will - Or Not

I was having a cup of coffee on a morning cool enough to sit outside, under a bunch of trees on campus.  When, suddenly, I felt something soft dropped on my pants.  I instinctively knew it was a bird’s droppings.  So it was.  My instinctive reaction was to get mad at the bird.  Why did it have to do that?  Wait till I get my hands on that wretched thing …!

Within seconds, however, I was having second thoughts.  Who am I kidding?  There is really no way I could get my hands on that bird.  I cannot even see it.  Most likely it is already gone.  What if I actually do catch it?  Am I really going to punish that poor bird?  It most likely did not mean to dirty my pants.  It was just doing what it has been doing all its life - what comes naturally.  So what did I actually do after thinking this through?  I went to fetch some water to clean up the little mess, and returned to work.

I happened to be reading Robert Sapolsky’s book “Determined - The Science of Life Without Free Will”, when the bird decided to poo on me.  His premise, based mainly on physics, biology and neuroscience, is essentially that there is no free will.  Everything that we do, and even think, are determined.  By what happened a split second before, a minute before, to days, months, years, thousands and even millions of years before.  By our genes, biology, experiences.  Everything is determined - what we think, and act. 

So, what happened with the incident with the bird’s poo?  My first reaction was certainly reaction - without thinking, without an explicit “will”.  What about the subsequent “change of mind”, after “thinking through” - relatively cool reasoning?  Was I excising my will freely?  Or was that determined by my genes, biology, and life experiences?  

Looking back, it certainly feels like I was excising my will, relatively freely.  My thinking and decision were, no doubt, affected by what I know, and experienced earlier.  But it also feels like I did have a choice.  To remain upset, or to calm down and deal with it pragmatically.  So what is the answer?  Is there free will or not?  

Surabaya Sights, Sounds and Smells

I only had 2 full days in Surabaya. Whenever I can, I tried to walk the streets to experience Surabaya.  To get a feeling of what it is like, how it looks, sounds, and smells.

One morning, when I took my first walk in the neighbourhood, before attending the meeting at the university, I was pleasantly surprised to hear birds, song birds.  They were kept in cages, just like the way people do it in Hong Kong and mainland China.  

Later, on a long walk through the city, I smelt salted fish. I remember smelling the same in Yogyakarta.  At first I wasn’t sure what the source of the smell was.  Was it really salted fish?  Or was it actually something else.  This time, I could confirm, in Chinatown, that indeed it was salted fish.  Lots of them.

In the market in ChinaTown, there was so much spice, of so many different kinds: garlic, ginger, chilli pepper, lemon grass, cinnamon, …  Most of them I could not name.  

On the street, one can buy snacks that look like meatballs, fried tofu, siu mai, etc.  

Not too far from ChinaTown, there was a mosque that looks like a traditional Chinese temple. It is dedicated to Cheng Hoo, the Ming  Dynasty admiral, who commanded great fleets to visit South East Asia: Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Malacca, Bengal, Sri Lanka, Hormuz, Aden, and East Africa.  

This mosque is quite new.  But dedicated to someone who lived hundreds of years ago.  It reminds us of the historical connection between China and Java/Indonesia.  

Later on, I found Masjid Al Falah, a mosque in a very different style.  The walls are not walls in the traditional sense.  

I also walked past a statue of Karapan Sapi - racing bulls.  Very powerful bulls.  

People play chess on the sidewalk.  

Kinds play soccer, also on the sidewalk.  

When trains are passing through, everyone had to stop and wait. 

Surabaya is green.  So many tall, big trees everywhere.  One gets the feeling life is leisurely, slow-paced, traditional, in Surabaya.  

The Crocodile and Shark of Surabaya

Once upon a time, a Great Crocodile fought a Great Shark, to drive the Shark away from the land.  And the land is Surabaya.  

Some say it was a prophecy, fulfilled when the Mongolians invaded in 1293 and was driven away.

In any case, the story is now celebrated as the foundation legend for Surabaya.  The motif can be found in many forms. As a great sculpture in front of the zoo, and elsewhere. 

On tour buses. 

On the many storm drain covers, in many variations all around the city. 

They are an important element of the culture of the city. 

A Potential Service-Learning Partner

I am here in Surabaya in Indonesia to explore possible opportunities for new service-learning projects in Indonesia. We have been collaborating with Duta Wacana Christian University in Yogyakarta for many years.  Now we have a need to expand our international program. Hence the search for new partners and/or new sites. We are aware of a university in Surabaya which has been running a successful international SL program for many years.  Hence we are here to see whether we can work together.  

Our two universities share a similar vision for service-learning, and are looking for international partners.  Even then, there are still numerous huddles to overcome before a successful partnership can be set up.  That is what we have learned over the years.  We need to find an actual team from each university that have the capacity to take on a new project - that are willing to work together.  They have to agree on a common project: the service and the intended client. They have to agree on the important parameters: the timing, the duration, etc., despite the constraints that each is operating under. Funding  and management support have to be available - for both teams.  There are so many challenges to overcome that it is a minor miracle that any such project can be put together.  

We are just at the beginning of this particular endeavour.