Whispers of the Mountains (Tai O Series #3)

(Listen, my heart, to the whispers of the mountains with which it makes love to you)

Tai O is famous for its tilted houses over the waters. These age-old structures are typical of shanty fishing villages in Hong Kong, which proliferated over the territory of "a barren rock" (the then HK through a British colonial high official's eyes) more than a century ago.

Just as most part of Hong Kong, Tai O is surrounded by a mountainous terrain, which sends visitors a tremendous feeling of seclusion about the place. I, riding on a boat, went close to the tilted houses. Instead of their outlook that meets the eye, the houses are furnished with as many more modern home appliances as every urbanite does to his place. But the predominate coarse quality to them makes for a, rightly or wrongly, believable pristine state of the whole place.

When the boatman halted the boat and its movement finally subsided, I took the picture and, holding down the camera with my eyes close, took in the tender whispers of the mountain in the background. (Photo taken with Minolta Dynax 7)

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GX GARNERINGS

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