Belated Biking Catchup 1 - Over the Hump...

I've fallen behind in my blogging about my biking trips.  Despite being busy the last month or two, I have still managed to find time to go a few times,  just no time to actually blog about it. :-P

Last time I blogged about my biking in February, I had left my bike in Taipo.  So the following week I went back to go riding again.  I decided I needed to break out of my 'Fanling-Taipo-Shatin' regional corridor and head WEST... over the mountains and to the wide open spaces of Yuen Long ( 元朗,the Western part of the New Territories).

I tried a new route over the hill too.  Here's the route map I ended up doing:

You can see the routemap here:   http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2703455

Not too bad,  total is 8.4 miles (13.5 km!).  What you can't see from the pic is the tough hill involved. Of course I took some pics.  The road, Lam Kam Rd,  goes along the Lam Tsuen River for the most part.  On the way up, before the hill got steep, there was a small village w/ a temple:

Nothing too exciting,  this place is called 'Fong Ma Po'... how do I remember that?  because they have these nice signs to identify everything:

There's nothing i find more satisfying than knowing the name of the public toilet facilities I'm using when I have to go...

I couldn't figure out what this was next to the temple.  Any ideas? Obviously something related to good fortune or lucky predictions...  some kind of Chinese analog to the fortune telling stuff they do at Japanese Shrines I suppose?

Anyway, back to the ride:

You can't tell, but thats a pretty steep hill...  its also relatively straight and even grade...  I don't mind uphill parts,  but when its a good 10 or 15 minutes of unending uphill with no place to stop and catch your breath,  that's another story.  

I will admit,  I actually stopped at one point,  but it was along a railing, so I just stopped and grabbed on and didn't actually put my feet down on the ground (so technically I didn't REALLY stop).  :-P

Eventually I made it to the crest of the hill.  You can see the Yuen Long plain down there in the distance...   the hill down was pretty steep so obviously no chance to take pictures.  I am starting to wear out my brake pads from all these hill decents,  I need to get my bike tuned!

There was a good 20 minutes of coasting downhill to Kam Sheung Road (錦上路).  Things slowly got more populate and I had to start worrying about traffic again.

Even though I've never taken this route, I've been over to this side before, so it was relatively familiar.  I was going to follow this road to the Kam Sheung West Rail MTR station (錦上路站), but these signs caught my eye:

OK...  so "The Scenic Woods" has an interesting name in Chinese,  its '六本木',  aka 'Six trees',  but better known to you and me as " Roppongi" in Japanese.   

Its not a shortcut to Tokyo's nightclub district,  its a sign board giving directions to a local nursery selling plants.

What makes it somewhat ironic is  the fact that its next to the white sign...  which advertises '日本千葉園',  which translates to "Chiba, Japan Garden".  Of course Chiba is not TOO far from Roppongi.  

Ok wait,  thats not the Chiba I remember visiting.  :-P

After a healthy 8.4 miles,  I parked my bike under an overpass at the station.. where it would remain for at least two weeks,  since I was going to Japan the weekend after this (not including my trip to Roppongi and Chiba just now).

ooh,  nice brand new 'retro bike'  imported from the mainland.. thats photo worthy... (if you don't know what I'm talking about,  just check out the brake lever!)

More biking blogs coming up in the next few days.