Ocean Park Aquarium

On Wednesday, my wife and I went to Ocean Park.  We have not been there for many years, even though we can go there for free now  To me, there are only two things there that are really interesting: the big aquarium and the cable car ride.  The cable car takes one across Brick Hill 南朗山, to reach the southern part of the park.  We called the hill 雞公峰 when I was at Aberdeen Technical School.  We would climb straight up to the top of the hill, over where the Seahorse Logo is, and watch the horizon to the south.  The hill was really quite steep.  We often have to sit on our bottom and essentially slid down the slope.  We were too young to realise the risk we were taking.  There is no way I can do that now. 

This day we only have time for the aquarium.  The present one seem smaller than the original.  Which I remember as a multi-storey giant glass tank which you can walk around in a spiral, where you can see it at different levels and angles. I also miss some of the big fish such as giant groupers.   Today there is a big tank, and many small ones.  

There is still many interesting fish to look at.  Such as big and small puffer fish, of different kinds. 

They are some of most curious, often coming up to the class to look at the people looking at them.  I wonder what they think of us.

The porcupine puffer does have sharp spines.  Other than that it looks a bit like a box fish. 

Box fish does look like a box.  I understand fish would flex its body to move around.  The box fish looks so rigid. Does it rely only on its small fins?

The Humpnose Unicornfish has a prominent protruding forehead.  What it is for?

The Napoleon wrasse is beautiful, with very fine, blue green wriggling stripes all over, particularly on the head.  The bump on its forehead gets bigger with age.  So it takes a long time to look like Napoleon’s hat, and we should respect that survival skill, or luck.  I used to watch people chop up giant ones in Sai Kung.  Their scales were like 2-inches across.  Now you don’t see them anymore.  

The pinecone fish has an intricate pattern that looks like a fish net. 

The butterflyfish is beautiful.  Sometimes one can find them in the wet market, usually the yellow ones.  They are supposed to be fatty and tasty.  

The lionfish seem to know that people find them good looking, and deadly.  It moves around slowly, seemingly very proud and without fear. 

The surgeon fish has sharp scalpels near and on both sides of its tail.  They are beautiful, and can defend themselves. 

The stingray is either smiling at, or mocking the people who watch them.  They like to flash their bellies. 

The milkfish seem to find safety in a crowd.  Do they really enjoy swimming in a circle, compelled by the circulating water in the vertical column?  

I could have stayed longer.  But we had to go to lunch.  We will be back some other time.

Tram Run

Originally, I had planned to run along the northern waterfront on Hong Kong Island, along the Victoria Harbour.  It offers good views.  But I have done that many times already, so the prospect wasn’t too exciting.  

When I got off the MTR at Kennedy Town, on a whim, I decided to run along the tram line, from the western end in Kennedy Town, and see how far I could go.  Perhaps all the way to Shau Ki Wan? I wasn’t really confident I could do that anymore. 

I remember living in three different places in Kennedy Town, when I was small, before finishing primary school.  Two of them brick houses and one an apartment block.  All demolished now.  But Sai Wan Estate has been there as long as I can remember, where some of my friends lived, through which I passed many many times, is still there.  There used to be a library at the periphery of the estate, where I started developing my reading habit.  I am still grateful, to the people who used to run the library.

The tram used to run along the water front between Kennedy Town and Central.  On one side of the tracks were storehouses, for rice and other food stuff.  Coolies would carry sacks of rice from the boats into the storehouses, balancing precariously on very narrow planks between the boats and the shore.  Then they have to cross the tracks to get into the warehouse.  

Near Sai Ying Pun MTR station, artists have painted very attractive murals on the walls of old buildings.  The place has been cleaned up and is now much more pleasant than I remember.  

On and around Charter Street in Central, busy street parties.  This being Sunday, the usual day off for migrant workers.  Perhaps the Rugby event also contributed to it. 

On Canal Street in Wanchai, old ladies “beating villains” for a fee.  Some of the clients seem to be Mainlanders.  A sign of the times, perhaps?

Near Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, interesting manhole covers.  

In Victoria Park, dancers were practicing.  Amazing skills.

In North Point, what looked like the skeleton of a pre-historic dinosaur was actually the skeleton of an old theatre.  I did watch some movies there, but cannot remember what those were.  What is going to happen to the building now?

Around North Point Terminus, the tram has to fight its way among taxies, cars, delivery carts, and of course, people.  It does not always win. 

In Quarry Bay, I could not resist the urge to visit the “Monster Building”.  As far as I can tell, it acquired the name not because the building looked like a monster, or was somehow monstrous.  But because some photographs of it became the inspiration for the setting of some science fiction movie, in which gigantic humanoid machines appeared. Or something of that sort. 

Finally, arrived at the terminus in Shau Ki Wan.  I remember the loop at which the tram turns around.  

During Chinese New Year, we used to come here to visit an old relative, many many decades ago.  Nothing remains now, except for the loop.  Even the trams look quite different. 

 

Mongolian Ger

The Mongolian ger (tent) is quite distinctive, and ubiquitous in and around Ulaanbaatar.  

They all have the same shape.  I was told there are two common sizes: big and small.  The structure is essentially the same.  

I decided to make my own, a miniature one.  Using coffee stirrers and toothpicks. It is structurally similar but not exactly the same.  But hopefully, close enough in shape.  

Salesians in Mongolia

The Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB) is a Catholic order founded by Don Bosco in Turin, in 1859.  They have a clear, specific purpose - to help the poor youths during the Industrial Revolution.  They have since grown into a global organization with a strong presence in many many countries, including Mongolia.  

Initially I wasn’t sure whether there are Salesians in Mongolia.  My good friend, Father George, a Salesian priest from India who is now based in Rome, confirmed that there are, and provided me with some leads, even though he does not know them.  Starting with those leads, I did some digging through the Internet of my own, and cold called them.  They turned out to be very friendly.  That is partly because I graduated from Aberdeen Technical School （ATS）n Hong Kong, a Salesian school.  And there is a priest in Ulaanbaatar from Hong Kong!

The Salesians run Don Bosco Technical School in the east of Ulaanbaatar, right next to the cathedral.  Don Bosco in UB is run with the same philosophy as ATS in Hong Kong. It offers practical skills alongside a regular secondary school curriculum.  At ATS,  in the 1970s, we were taught woodworking, hand tools, basic machines such as lathes ad drilling machines, technical drawing, and a choice between mechanical engineering or electrical engineering. Don Bosco at UB offers secretarial training, welding, electrical engineering, automobile engineering, etc.  

Just like my old school, they have a library, sports training, and other extra-curricular activities.  I felt so much at home at Don Bosco.  Next to the school, the Salesians also run an orphanage and a community center, offering many types of services as appropriate.  

My team was in Mongolia looking for potential sites and partners for service-learning.  We are so impressed by the Salesians.  They are truly dedicated to education, formal and otherwise, for the youths.  What they offer are very practical and effective.  The students who do well in academics can proceed to further studies at universities.  Otherwise they will have the skills that will help them find a job, and develop a career.  

We are also deeply impressed by the Salesians themselves.  They came from Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, Vietnam, Croatia, East Timor, Guatemala, Africa, …  Some have been in Mongolia for decades and have no plans to go back to where they came from.  For them, Mongolia is home. The priests and brothers have given up marriage and private property.  

They remind me of Brother K, who taught me at ATS in the 1970s.  He came originally from Holland.  He is now 100 years old, and continues to live in Hong Kong.  One of his former students is living with him, to take care of him, in an apartment the student rents for the purpose.  

Such dedication! Such impact! How can one not admire them?  Naturally, we are trying to find a way to work with them.  Do not be surprise when we appear in Mongolia again.