Skip to main content

"Resawar"

R0012265 (Medium)^Highland Reservoir, the biggest of its kind in Hong Kong 

What is the difference between a restaurant and a reservoir?  To most Hongkongers, the difference may not be a conscious one but definitely an obvious one.  It is in the pronunciation.  Cantonese, the mother tongue of Hongkongers and the Southern Chinese, doesn't have  the "r" or "v" consonant sounds.  Worse still, Chinese (including Cantonese) is monosyllabic with, interestingly, one exception*.   Saying aloud the multisyllabic English words doesn't come naturally to a Cantonese speaker.

R0012222 (Medium)^There are two hiking trails snaking to the east and north along the reservoir.   Taking the one to the north leads you to at least a four-hour trekking over the mountains and on the beautiful beaches (DON'T swim there cos the undercurrent has killed a dozen of swimmers including the uncle of my friend).  This is almost the splitting point.

* The exception is the trisyllabic "圕", pronounced as Tushuguan in Putonghua.

R0012227 (Medium)^I took the east route which is 8 km long.  This route is a good balance of a leisurely 3-hour walk and great scenery.

So speaking English without making an effort to pronounce and differentiate  the two sounds, a misunderstanding can take place:

After a big lunch, a young man drove his native-English speaking Israeli friend to the countryside.  Hoping to give the lady a bit of a surprise, he hadn't told her about the destination until the lady could not conceal her uneasiness of not knowing what they were going on, much like an itch at the very middle of the back which she could not tickle it herself however long her arms stretch, and asked about it.

R0012240 (Medium)^Along the route, you will probably meet some people practising for the yearly marathon of the city to take place in February every year. 

"Now that you've asked, we're going to a big resawar," the man, looking straight ahead of the car onto the road as it was moving along a narrow countryside single carriage, replied in sort of a mute way with some reluctance.

R0012226 (Medium)

R0012229 (Medium)^This vast expense of water looks like a lake but actually is the Highland  Reservoir.

The best guess the Israeli lady could make was apparently, as Hong Kong is renowned for its gastronomic delights, that they were going to yet another restaurant.  That made her sick.  After much ado about straightening out the pronunciation, she understood that the destination was a reservoir.

I was sitting at the back seat when the conversation went on.

R0012234 (Medium)

R0012294 (Medium)

R0012242 (Medium)^On the other side of the track are the densely vegetated mountains, which  conjured up my fancy to touch them.

Since Hong Kong has no natural lakes, river or substantial underground water sources, it is not self-contained for water supply even though it has seventeen reservoirs, most of which are scenic enough to warrant a special visit.  Almost 70% to 80% of the daily water consumption is met by supply from the Guangdong Province of southern China.  The arrangement was made between the British Hong Kong Government and the Chinese Government back in the colonial days of Hong Kong.

R0012260 (Medium)^The route is not a dirt road but paved.  The Chinese characters say SLOW.  The best part of taking this route is that if you're too exhausted to walk for another three hours back once reaching the end point, you can hire the on-call taxi service.  Mind the on-call taxi service phone number written on some slope nearer to the end point.

When you come to Hong Kong, you'll be advised not to drink from the tap.  My brave, defiant OZ friend learned it the hard way by drinking from the tap.

"It tastes of swimming pool water!" she grumbled.

R0012273 (Medium)^The catch-water tower of the reservoir is the only concrete structure of its magnitude along the three hour route. 

The official explanation is that the water was chloridised (chlorides added) for the benefit of dental health.  Very heavy-handed so indeed.

R0012329 (Medium)^The track goes up to the ridge after some two hours of walking, starting to take a little bit more out of your stamina.

R0012332 (Medium)^Luckily, you'll be arriving at the end point in another hour.  Beyond the dyke and the headland is the South China Sea.  I recommend you to walk down the long ramp from the end point to the dyke to feel the blowing of the sea winds and listen to the splashing of the oceanic waves.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Real Hero

(Grip On Reality: This photo was taken on my way to work.  I was walking past trucks parking on a cul-de-sac when the ropes caught my attention.  The light was right, the colour was right and the criss-crossing pattern was perfect and I held up my GX200.  People passing by checked me out and wondered what could be made out of such a boring scene.  To me, the fun in photography is that the photographer makes something interesting out of what is not obvious to most at the scene.  The ropes tied in knots somehow reminded people I know who are in the grip of the recession) You must have also known a friend or two, or even yourself, being baffled by the spiral downturn of the economy.   Bank went bankrupt and the rich was faced with a shrinking wealth.  A friend of mine has just had his salary cut by over 10% and some of his colleagues started to be shed. But, wait. Was this done really for the sake of continuing the business? Or is there a factor or greed in it?  I wonder whether the

New Low Prices

The window shopping some hours ago has almost provoked my AgIDS illness.  Just in case you’re in Hong Kong or are coming here, and have the money to burn (All in HK$/ body only): GX200 = $3,280 GRD2 = $3,380 LX3 = $3,180 G10 = $3,280 Prices are available form a gear shop on the 1st floor of the Mongkok Computer Centre.   Besides these new low prices, I found that Wing Shing Photo (55-57Sai Yeung Choi St., MK Tel: 2396 6886/ 91-95 Fa Yuen St., MK  Tel: 2396 6885) is offering a Sony A700 + Carl Zeiss Lens package for HK$9,980 (hopefully, a bargain will make it some hundreds cheaper).

Eye Contact

(Leica D-lux 5) The digital era may make it easier to end up with fave shots. Even lousy photos may be turned likable after a few clicks in the post-processing workflow. But if digital advancement or amendments have any bearing on the cultivation of personal style, no photographers will need to discover his or her own photographer’s eye. Undoutedly, this is out of the question. Only with a trained photographer’s eye can we give a thinking gaze and capture an eternal moment, in our unique style. Style is the soul of a great photo. A few posts have been written in GXG to touch on the topic of photographer’s eye. Instead of finding an answer, which would require academic discussions, the posts are intended to give my general reflections and spark interests in moving towards further exploration of the topic.  The posts can be viewed after the links: 1) Photographer's Eye: Storytelling 2) Photographer's Eye: Little Show of Observing 3) Photographer's Eye: Sight-Worthy 4