So, Dax inspired me to share a story of my own…
The other Sunday the Lady and I decided to try hiking. We picked a section of the Hong Kong Trail near the Peak that was recommended by a friend. After running a bunch of errands during the day, we finally got to the start of the trail around 5pm. The weather was sunny and nice, the perfect day for a hike.
After hiking for about an hour, we had only reached the midway point. The hilly trail was mostly covered by dense forests, so we lost track of how dark it was getting. Apparently, it gets dark really fast in Hong Kong, because 30 minutes later it was pitch black. The trail was completely empty and we were reduced to using our cell phones to light the way. To make things more interesting, the last hiker we passed on the trail about 30 minutes prior was a shirtless, homeless guy. I used to laugh at the urban legend about HK night hikers getting robbed and tied to a tree. Somehow, I didn’t find the story so funny now.
Since I really did not feel like spending my night tied to a tree, we decided to walk faster. However, we had no idea where we were or how far we still had to go, or if it was closer to backtrack the way we came (which would still require over an hour). We did remember a 3-way intersection 10 minutes back that had one arrow pointing to "The Reservoir".
After a brief debate in the dark, we decided to take our chances with The Reservoir. So we trekked back to the intersection and proceeded down a narrow, completely dark trail that led to a long, dark, descending staircase with no end in sight. Just as we were about to accept looking like fools in the local news by calling the police to come find us, we heard the sound of a bus driving by. Excited, we proceeded further down the stairs and finally found ourselves in the backyard of a horse stable. Relieved that we were back in civilization, we walked around to the front and found ourselves next to a major street on the West side of HK Island.
Since then, we've decided to only start hikes before 2pm.
