From Desk to Deck (Part 2)

My view of the streets of Hong Kong Island

My journey home from my office in Mong Kok, takes me from the Kowloon side of Hong Kong under the Harbour to the Hong Kong Island side.

By bus, I have a night view of the lights, traffic, and street front retail shops during their peak hours.

As my bus makes its way from Admiralty MTR Station to the Aberdeen tunnel, I share the view with passengers riding in the double decker coaches of the Hong Kong Tram Lines.

Just before the approach to the tunnel leading to Aberdeen, I pass the Happy Valley Race Course, with its statues of colorful horses prancing in a circle.

For more about this journey see  Kowloon Kommutin' Sampan Blues

(continued from Part 1)

From Desk to Deck (Part 1)

My view from my desk

I began writing about and photographing my neighborhood in and around the Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter as a way to share what I feel is a unique part of Hong Kong.  Along the way, I've discovered that other parts of Hong Kong have their own character that also call out to be noticed.

My office is in Mong Kong, Kowloon.   I work in an ultra modern towering office building, 50 floors above the streets.  What struck me early as I began my Hong Kong experience is the difference in my view of my surroundings between working the day almost above the clouds, and the daily journey of traveling home to a village-like floating community across the Hong Kong Harbour  and on the far side of Hong Kong Island.

I've written about my feelings making this journey in  The Kowloon Kommutin' Sampan Blues

My view from the streets of Mong Kok

The Streets of Mong Kok, the most densely populated place on earth, are a Blade Runner's world away from the view seen from the splendid isolation of the Tower.  Here the colors and the details, the variety and the exoticness (to me, at least), draw you in for a closer look, a what-will-happen-next anticipation.

(continued in Part 2)

My Home in the Typhoon Shelter

Winter Morning in the Typhoon Shelter

First Dawn of 2012 Comes to the Typhoon Shelter

Typhoon Shelter Marine Machine Shops

There are small workshops that support the shipyards of the Typhoon Shelter.  Some of the ones that I pass daily are busy at marine engine repair, sewing of customized sail canvas and boat covers, and the welding and fabrication of the stainless steel "bright work", the railings, ladders, and other fittings that need to be hand crafted to fit the particular needs of the vessel under repair.

Coming Home from the Boat Yard

The Aberdeen Channel and the Ap Lei Chau Bridge are the backdrop on a beautiful Saturday afternoon as "Watermark" makes her way to her moorings in the Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter.  

Boat Yard

The Aberdeen Southern Typhoon Shelter is surrounded by dozens of boat yards, building, maintaining and servicing boats of all sizes and descriptions.  Many of these work shops are classified by Hong Kong authorities as "temporary light industrial sites", but have been a fixture on the shores of the Typhoon Shelter for twenty years or more.

With the development of luxury high rise condominium towers with prime waterfront views in demand, the future of these boat yards, machine shops, and marine workshops is in question.  They are seen by the authorities as environmentally incompatable with the residential development taking place, but provide vital services for the sampans, junks, trawlers, and yachts that make their home moorings in the Typhoon Shelter.  They also are the employers of what may be one of the last generations of true master craftsmen building and renovating wooden vessels in Hong Kong.

For now, "Watermark" has her teak woodwork cleaned and varnished, her deck sanded and oiled, and fresh paint, ready for another year afloat in her home in the Typhoon Shelter.

Typhoon Shelter Dawn

This week our junk, "Watermark" is in dry dock for the routine maintance that a wooden boat requires.  Joanna and I are staying onboard, which is in itself a very unusual experience of living on the boat while it is out of the water, with workmen scraping, sanding, caulking, sawing, varnishing, and generally bringing "Watermark" to condition to carry her through another year.

The temporary change in location to one of the boat yards on the Aberdeen shore gives a spectacular early morning view from "Watermark's" deck of boat traffic in the busy channel between Hong Kong Island and the adjacent island of Ap Lei Chau.

More Pets Aboard

You can see the original post about pets on board boats in the Typhoon Shelter here

Typhoon Shelter Neighbors include Boat Living Pets